The Meanings of our Songs

Click on a song title to be instantly transported to the motivation behind it.
Most interpretations are by Martin and reflect his personal view, which may or may not coincide with the other band members' personal views. More than likely, they will not.
Click here to go back to lyrics.


1985
Ananya
Car/Breakup
Come-On To Me
Device
Don't Go
The Five Alive Song
Flying With Jackson
It's All Good
Katie
Loungin'
Mr. Astronaut Comes Home
O Aberdeen
Pollution
Rocket-Powered Phaser Boy
She'll Never Come Around
Shoe Girl
Silence Me
Stay With It
You Ain't The One



1985
The nostalgia rings sweet and true 'round these here parts, and though our lemonade stands have turned into rock and roll bands, we can't quickly forget the childhoods that now seem so right. This finishes off what was started in "Loungin'", but with more sincerity and personal importance. I will fully admit to being obsessed with those days, those golden afternoons that seemed to go on forever. Real hep cats will catch the pop culture references in this one, but the rest will just sit back and sigh into the sunset.



Ananya
A simple, old-fashioned love ditty - ironically about an unquestionably modern Body Shop fragrance. This was the first Svelte song ever written, so don't expect too much lyric-wise.



Car/Breakup
Sitting in the bus on the long trip back from Mount St. Helens, somewhere in between two relationships - one sputtered, one backfired - with a single haiku in his lap and a pen in his hand, Kerry pieced together this song. We had been humourously inspired earlier in the day by an educational film that ended, "that's just the way it is with volcanoes." And by Bruce Hornsby, to a point. That haiku became this song's first lines, and "the way it is" its refrain. The music was written cross-legged on the floor over a few late nights, and we kept recording bit by bit until we had the whole darn thing.



Come-On To Me
I like the fact that Kerry can sing this song in a whisper and something inside the words still screams. Too many lonely nights and a sparkless grad party gave him the inspiration for them. Anyone who has ever felt a hopeless crush can relate.



Device
This song is far too witty for its own good, and probably would have been more successful had it remained a secret poem in the depths of Kerry's journal. Its history stems from the widespread desire to make wildly exaggerated statements, particularly my own use of "that's the funniest thing I've ever heard!" which I unrealistically exclaim about once every two days. Kerry (in his quasi-nerd fashion) often counters with "whoa, hyperbole!" and so was born the song "Device". Unfortunately, quasi-nerdiness can only be taken to certain extremes in pop music before most listeners start to dismiss it as true nerdiness.



Don't Go
A lament written on the brink of the departure of ex-drummer Mark Roberts and our friend Charla Kipp to Japan. One morning I sat down at the piano and this entire tune just came out. It was automatic. The bad rhymes came out automatically too. I didn't even have to think about them.



The Five Alive Song
This song oozes with tropical tongue-in-cheek sappiness. This is by far the worst verse I have ever set to paper. How it got so popular still eludes us. Our friend Marla was its inspiration, and I decided to write a fictional tale of juice - in the guise of a love song. I do enjoy its simplicity, innocence, and high-school talk, but the words "Five Alive" got tired after about the second time we sang them.



Flying With Jackson
Gary is a pilot, and when he got his licence, he took Kerry and his then-girlfriend Caitlin up flying. Caitlin's parents were a little wary of Gary's flying skills and of their daughter going up in the air with him. So Caitlin made up a little fib, telling her parents that they were going to be accompanied by an older, more experienced pilot. When asked what his name was, Caitlin replied, "um... Jackson!" An avid liar, she proceeded to explain that Jackson was 23, and had "a very firm handshake." So the rest of the day was spent making jokes about the invisible pilot Jackson, and now when anything goes wrong, we know who to blame.



It's All Good
This was written, believe it or not, in all sincerity - childlike sincerity, but sincerity nonetheless. I was just having a great day, and the verses are filled with very cryptic references to that day's events. Mark gave us the idea for "chili dog" - a food that is great to think about, but in practice, one that doesn't entirely settle well.



Katie
Back when I couldn't watch "Dawson's Creek" without blushing, I thought this might solve my case of teen-idol lust. Whether or not it did, this song offers some reflections on how stars and nobodies live isolated lives - and on the senseless shame that would arise if a beautiful actress ever crossed paths with a clumsy, eyes-too-close-together college boy like me.



Loungin'
A tragic conflict between summertime and technology. This is what would become of the world if girls were obsessed with video games (rather unlikely). The fantasy is quite clearly set in the 1980s, but this is probably one of the first pop songs ever with enough shame to use the word "Internet". Just to skew the whole situation a little.



Mr. Astronaut Comes Home
A quiet ballad in the tradition of Elton John's "Rocket Man", but also directly inspired by the movie "Contact". There is some deep philosophy going on here. What does an astronaut go through when he sees our grand world from thousands of miles away, and then has to go home and kiss his wife on the porch and act like he saw nothing?



O Aberdeen
I [Gary] often wonder if anyone realizes that Martin is the narrator for most of this site. Anyway, I figure I may as well inject my own take on this song since it's the only one I've come up with myself. The possibility exists that I wrote O Aberdeen to have something to show for being in Svelte for three years (however, Svelte likes to think it doesn't matter who or how many persons participate in the songwriting process, and that it's everybody's song in the end... I'll show them). This song is based on a chord progression that I wrote trying to answer my love for the Pixies song "Velouria". Its lyrics paint a would-be relationship that I was not even in at the time. This song doesn't reflect me in any way, I just thought the words sounded cool together in an "I'm-trying-to-be-Rivers-Cuomo" sort of way. It's something I can see the cast of "Party of Five" really getting into... or something. Also, Aberdeen isn't anyone I know, it's just a hick town in Washington State.



Pollution
Back in the summer of '97, Kerry and I were essentially abandoned - both our families and all our close friends coincidentally went on holidays during the same week. Having no real responsibilities and not knowing any better, we became roommates for the week and quickly began to have breakfast at 3pm, live generally decadent lives, and go to parties until the wee hours of the morning. One night we were both feeling bitter and fed up with a certain crush, and began jotting down a few random ideas while we drove around. When we finally got home Kerry watched an early-morning TV movie, and I sat down at at the piano and pieced the whole thing together until my eyes were squinty and red. We finished the chorus the next 'morning' and the concept of the infatuation/car parallel fell into place quite nicely.



Rocket-Powered Phaser Boy
This is our most self-proclaimedly poppy song. Back in Gary's garage in '96, he and I wrote this piece of fiction with a keen awareness that we were following the Standard Formula of Pop Music: trivial, fantastic subject matter; a childlike and action-packed narrative; made-up words; and a tragic downfall at the end. This is what a comic book might sound like if it could sing. It has remained relatively unchanged since its conception - save a few new chord changes inserted by Kerry - and has pretty much retained its intended charm.



She'll Never Come Around
Though he has never told us directly, we strongly suspect this to be a largely autobiographical account of a short period in Oliver's life. The sad wanderer, Jesse, may one day find his Princess Leia. It would be wrong for us to say any more.



Shoe Girl
A merciless study on the sad world of teen-girl slutdom, scrawled into Kerry's journal after several decadent nights with relatives in England. This verse was later transformed into musical form when he brought it home to 'the band' (as yet unformed back then).



Silence Me
A cry for help from those who have lost their way. Renounce yourself completely and let others guide you through this world.



Stay With It
This song is mostly about Oliver and his indecisiveness about being in the band, but I wrote it one day in Math 12 when a lot of other crap was going on. Some of the images here are very cryptic, so a lot of this can be what you want it to. I know what I want it to be.



You Ain't The One
The truth in this piece lies in the fact that you always get the girl you don't want. She called me every week back in high-school and I never had the nerve to blow her off. Eventually she drifted away, but I had already set my frustrations down on paper. This might be called an 'anti-love' song, so naturally we set it to an 'anti-reggae' beat. Or something.