Inspiration for BITE ME songs

The Skellingtons of WellingtonI think of The Skellingtons of Wellington as Game of Thrones for children.I wanted to write a song that contained the possibility of danger, nestled within something reassuring.  So while the verses are a bit scary, kids can sing along in the choruses and become one of the Skellingtons… that mysterious, boney tribe who ride the Wellington hills at night on horseback, then plunge into the sea at Red Rocks as the sun comes up. Fatty Ratty PartyFor months I waged war with a rat.Our battleground was the compost bin.I put leftover food in the bin. The rat ate the food.However sneaky I was, the rat was sneakier. Whatever obstacles I put in its path, it overcame them. At first, I was intrigued, then angry, but over time I came to admire the cunning brain of the rat.  And I wrote a song in his honour.NOTE: It could have been a family of rats or an army, but I always thought of it as a single good time rat, getting fatter and fatter. Nice & NastyMy friend up the road kindly took in some horses over the summer. Nice & Nasty were two light coloured ponies who shared the paddock closest to the house. I don’t know their real names but Nasty was a nasty piece of work. He blocked every attempt by Nice to eat, to drink and even to move, and it was horrible to see sweet natured, timid Nice getting thinner and more neurotic by the day. Eventually, the horse owner separated them. Nice is now blooming, and Nasty was moved to a paddock with bigger bullying horses. VirusI got a wart.  Actually, it was a verucca – an ingrown wart.I forgot to take my jandals to the local swimming pool, and the wart virus entered a tiny cut on my foot.  I couldn’t believe how much it hurt when I walked. When it showed no signs of leaving, I decided to find out more about my warty companion.  Viruses, I learnt, are found in virtually every ecosystem on Earth (animals, plants and even bacteria), and these microscopic life forms are thought to be the most abundant type of biological entity on the planet.I’m going viral! Dingo BingoMy niece was given a puppy. It was a mixture of ‘bad dog’ breeds like pitbull and husky. But the pup didn’t know she was supposed to be aggressive. Instead, she was shy, she was curious, she was all nose, and ears and feet. She smiled, she wagged, she was always pleased to see me.  And she looked like a dingo.