I wrote this song right around the time I found out my wife was pregnant with our son, who I named Simon. Simon Xavier Coats was born 23 Mar 2008 and I haven't been the same since (in a good way).

The song itself has little to do with my son, but much to do with who inspired the name Simon. Simon is Hebrew for "to hear, to be heard; reputation". Being the abstract absolutist I am, I interpret that sense as an essence - and the name itself carries a very spiritual importance. I am not Christian, but there are a couple apostles I believe which bear this name. The person I was referring to however, is Simon Magus - the vague and occult personage who has been attributed as everything from a saint and the father of Gnosticism to a liar and blasphemer.

I never could really give a straight answer on why this person intrigues me. Nothing you read now could ever tell you much about him and there isn't any direct writings by him. He is just one of those figures in that lurks in the shadows of history such as Apollonius of Tyana, both hidden due to the often occult and alt-religious stories surrounding them. I use the term "alt-religious" very loosely, being that I think it is a very crude and irrelevant word...almost fascist really.

Anyway, the song was at the halfway point of the album and followed up Drowning in Darkness in an almost antithesis manner. It portrays none of the qualities or direction with the rest of the album. Coin, the song following it, utilizes many of the same compositional and stylistic approaches but starts to dive even deeper into a dark and morbid atmosphere - a gateway back to the album. Why else would I name the album "The Darkness" :) . There are a number of beating and chain rolling sound effects in the opening part - meant to be symbolic...of what - I'll let you decide. :) The song then moves into a swing low-key modern jazz/cabaret piece that has a multitude of underlying melodies moving side by side.

The song as a whole indicates the hidden and the beautiful. Hidden knowledge is always appealing to my personality and I always like to dress up mystery and darkness in a beautiful cloak of deception. The song demonstrates my attitude and constant play on what each of those two extremes - Dark and Light - actually mean. People, in my opinion, tend to think they know too much. In doing so we overlook the most simple in exchange for MORE. Simple answers don't sound good, but when we cut them up and classify more - we humanize it and make it something not of what it originally was, but something that we want it to be. It's a sick game of becoming lost in our own rules and classifications. Following our mind's natural inquisitive nature to an end that goes away, not to, the point it should be heading. I think Lao Tzu summed it up perfectly in verse one of the Tao te Ching:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

Stephen Mitchell then takes this verse and simplifies it thus:

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

I think you can expect no less from me when it comes to speaking my mind musically. "His Name is Simon" was more than it appeared to be. However, it's better when you, the listener, come to some conclusion on your own on a song like this one.