In one of Cobalt Starstrong’s songs, he sings, “The sun doesn’t take a side.”
So, Star-Shaker begins this album by countering that “The moon is on my side tonight.”
Yes, my fictional pop-stars are in conversation with each other.
“Cute for You” is a song about a lizard alien figuring out how to perform mammalian cuteness.
If you’re going to create a fictional reptilian pop-star, you’ve gotta make use of her cold-blooded nature.
When I was a kid, my dad got my sister and me all riled up about moving to the middle of nowhere and building a “dream house.”
Anyway, I recently saw pictures of how it actually turned out, and “Blueprints for Our Dream House is inspired by that feeling.
“You leave sunspots in my eyes
Every time you walk in the room
Little burns I carry home
That light up my ceiling in the dark
…
How much oxygen do you need
To keep a fire like that alive
Because I’ll give you all mine
I’ll breathe shallow, I don’t mind”
“I Can’t Apologize for You” is about the impulse to apologize when someone hurts you… because if you can make yourself believe it was your own fault, you’re still in control of what’s happening. It’s also about how that doesn’t really work.
“Screen of Death” was inspired by my laptop throwing a fit, tossing blue and black screens at me. But of course, for Star-Shaker, it needed to be set on a spaceship.
It is good to have songs sung by a fictional reptilian pop-star.
I was thinking about all the friendships I’ve lost and how tired my heart is… and I ended up with this song, “Heartbreak,” turning the term “heartbreaker” upside down, making it about breaking your own heart over other people, over and over again.
“Is there something broken in me
That I need you to be listening
Is there something missing in my wiring
That I can’t just sing alone”
“I felt it in my second heart
A tremor from a distant star
The light that’s only reaching me
Left you before we fell apart”
“Aftershock” is just a playful little piece about stars, because I felt the album needed a little something extra at the end.