Lisa Germano's Dark Magic

"I just felt this evilness," Germano says, "and then I thought of how that kind of consciousness grows bigger, how people in wars use people for target practice, or experiment with nuclear bombs; they don't think about people."

"Suli-Moon," with its mysterious chord shifts and shadowy electronic feel, is not about Octomom. "I used to play it on the piano as an instrumental, and I didn't have any words for it. I had this Chinese cat, his name is Suliman; he was a very snobby cat, wise, old. But Suliman died. I just wanted the song to be about feelings, I wanted it to be about something that feels good when you hear it, makes you feel better, a comfort thing." And extending the idea of musical metaphors, the song's curious chords represent Suliman's cat language.

Lisa Germano: making music for its own sake (and for hers)

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• Lisa Germano
• Neil Finn
• John Mellencamp
• David Bowie
• Simple Minds

"You don't hear any actual words," she says, "except you can kinda hear 'tuna in my bowl.' Kitties always want tuna. ... It wasn't just about a cat. Someone you loved may not be alive anymore, but you know where they are, you can feel them."

Germano seems to strive toward being direct and simple, yet she knows that's not always possible. She peppers her work with rudimentary sentiment like "It's a beautiful day" in "To the Mighty One," yet the song's instrumental grain suggests a vulnerability bordering on mild aggression. That dark/light struggle, it seeps out. You could call it a kind of irony, but she says she's not doing it on purpose. "I'm not actually smart enough to know that I'm doing that. It feels like life can be so tragic that you have to have a sense of humor about things, or see a lot of beauty.

"It's juggling the darkness and the light," she continues. "It's all about fighting with yourself, your insides. Everybody's got a demon. 'The Mighty One' is just a person who fights the demon and comes out in control, even if it's just for one day. And I'm going to have a good day today, no matter what."