Remembrance:  This song was supposed to be about a character from a Vampire campaign, but once it was finished it reminded me of someone I knew as a teenager.  To protect her sister, she reported her father for unfatherly activities.  Her family was grateful to begin with, but once he was out of the house and no longer a threat, they turned on her.  She was a symbol of something they wanted to forget.
        Muted:  This is based on one of my trunk novels (i.e. novels so bad you keep them in a trunk and never let them see the light of day.  It was about a boy whose sister did terrible things.  The neighbourhood kids followed her out of fear.  She was considered a good kid because she was outgoing...no one seemed to notice or care that she was also destructive and cruel.  The boy was mute until just before he started school.  He was harmless, but his silence was strange, so parents warned their kids away from him.
        Threads:  One of my roommate's Mage characters is a telepath who visits people in their dreams.  The character in the song is a friend of this telepath, and he's complaining about the invasion of his privacy.  My roommate resents this song, because he swears his telepath doesn't mean to do any harm.
        The Dalhousie Street Waltz:  Dalhousie Street is a social climber of an alley in downtown Toronto, beside Ryerson University.  My friends and I loved it because a) we couldn't figure out why it was designated a street, and b) there were always at least two cop cars parked on Dalhousie Street.  Not arresting anyone, not doing anything, just sitting there.  It was plain weird, so it merited a song.
        Inheritance:  It's that classic situation where your friend gets married, and you hate their spouse because you never see your friend anymore.  Only, in the story behind the song, the spouse dies, and the narrator decides that this may actually be worse.
        Fall On Me:  This is an REM cover, so you'd have to ask Michael Stipe what it's about.  He'd probably tell you it wasn't about anything.  To me it's a song about the painfully slow approach of a loss you can't prevent.
        Burn:  This is another song about a Vampire character, but it's also about a girl I knew in university.  half the time she was in hot pursuit of sex, drugs, and rock and roll... the rest of the time she was repressed, responsible, and very religious.  Depending on what side of her she was letting out, she either felt guilty or cheated.  Her two natures hated each other, and it was hard to be friends with her because you didn't know who she was.
        Obituary:  This song came out of a pile of unconfirmed rumours concerning a pair of celebrities.  A lot of people thought that one of them was dying.  As it happens, he wasn't... and I wonder if they played off those rumours in order to be left alone a while.  Before I wrote the lyrics, I read a lot of interviews.  I wanted to mimic the narrator's way of speaking.  I think I did a decent job, but no one's guessed it yet.  If you think you know who it is, e-mail Rabid Following.  I promise I'll tell you if you're right.
        Though You Court Me:  Another song about that boy and his sister.  It's about the feeling of seeing someone you love do something so bad, you can't look the other way.
        Ascension:  Named after the X-Files episode of the same name.  The show has made it clear that Scully, her sister and her mother all have (or have had) visions.  I think the reason Scully is refuses to believe in the supernatural is that, once the dam breaks, she'll have to admit she's been living cheek by jowl with the paranormal all her life.  That's what she's really afraid of.
        Locks:  Another song from that Vampire campaign, about confrontation.  I get a kick out of moments of truth.
        Son of My Right Hand:  Ever give any thought to what it would be like to grow up with Batman for your adopted dad?  I figure Dick Grayson (that's the first Robin) is a mess... and he's only been worse since Batman adopted a second Robin.  See that second one was killed, and Batman went a little crazy.  He told Dick that if he'd stayed on as Robin, the second kid would still be alive.  This song is about what Dick hears in his nightmares.
        Requiescat:  I wrote this for a friend's play about a radio talk show for ghosts.  A requiescat is a prayer for the repose of the dead.
        Brother to Dragons:  This is the ghost track.  One of my Mage characters has the ability to find the breaking point in anything.  He has trouble with language, and uses the word "dragons" for anger.

      Don't:  This is a song about a Changeling character who's being coaxed into an obsessive relationship with his liege.
        Haunt:  I'm wildly fond of The Pretender, and this song is Jarod's message to Miss Parker.  If you don't watch the show, take it as someone who has left a bad situation asking someone else to take a leap of faith and follow them.
        Act of God:  About a Changeling character who can turn into a cat, from the perspective of one of the many people he enthralled and left behind in the course of a very long life.
        Circling:  Another Changeling song (is there a theme developing here?) describing a character's recurring dream.  His home is destroyed by a poisonous cloud, and because he can circle above it as a hawk, he's the only one who survives.  He's been caught in a love triangle for years, and as he watches the town die, it occurs to him that it didn't matter who his love would have picked.
        Stigma:  To those of us who love all things weird, The Sentinel provides an interesting study in human nature.  The main characters are a grad student who wants desperately to be extraordinary and find magic in the world, and a tough ex-army guy with a magical gift who'd like nothing better than to lose it because he's ashamed to be different. (To be fair, he seems to be getting over it lately)
        Tarantella For Tish:  I won't go into detail about why I had a friend's tarantula in my kitchen.  I will say, though, that I hate spiders.  The Italians used to believe that to dance a tarantella would cure the tarantula's bite, so I wrote a tarantella to calm my nerves.  "Tish", by the way, is the name of the spider.  She's named after a Cocteau Twins song.
        Finding:  This is from the final episode of a tv show, and if you saw it, you'll probably recognize it in the song.  If you didn't see it, picture this-- two guys have been friends for years.  They have a huge fight which ends with one of them saying, "If you think you can get past this, you know where to find me."  At the end of this episode, he winds up dead.  The funny thing is, his friend finds the body because he intuitively knows where to look.  So in the end, his friend did know where to find him.  As Stephen King says, irony is good for the blood.
        1000 Year Drunk:  The character in this song is dating someone who keeps saying, "I remember you from another lifetime and you were really something them.  I really miss the way you used to be..." etc. etc.  The character doesn't remember any of it, and what's worse, they know they can't ever live up to these memories.
        Felicity:  A friend of mine plays a Vampire LARP character who's a telepath, and not quite right in the head.  There are times when she really wants a little peace and quiet.
        Hounds of Love:  This is a Kate Bush song, and I think her lyrics are pretty clear.  This is my Changeling album, and I wanted to include this because it's about deciding to believe in something.
        Comfort:  Everyone I play this for says, "I know that guy," so maybe you do too.  I won't wreck it by telling you who I wrote it about.
        Prophecy:  See the notes for Circling.  Same dream, different song.
        Speak In Tongues:  The character who wrote the ghost track on Obituary is back, but this time he's in better command of English...which bothers him.  He thinks he's lost some of his nature in other people's words, and some of his magic in trying to be sane.
        Slow Pulse:  One of my Changelings, told that he's headed for a grand heroic destiny, is starting to believe that a quiet and undistinguished life is nothing to be ashamed of.
        Snow Globe:  The Pretender has a big symbolic thing going with snow globes, which I won't get into here.  In the song, one character is telling another that destruction and pain are necessary precursors to really being alive.