In my experience, a clear fact-fiction dichotomy, as obviously crucial as it is in most contexts, is not a creative trigger in songwriting. Maybe this is most simply explained by the central motif of creating an intriguing story or character. In my head, the characters have real-life archetypes, but their characteristics are molded, changed with time, often in a direction away from the original. At the same time, my approach is realistic in the sense that the characters are not larger-than-life personalities. Rather I’d like to see the compelling in the apparently trivial (to slightly mis-quote the famous sociologist Erving Goffman). That being said, here are some stories-behind-stories, or stories-behind-songs.