There are a lot of stories one can tell about John Matthias. He could be painted as a mad scientist, a contemporary composer, a violin prodigy, and so on. But Matthias is interested in talking about other people more than he is about himself. Stories from the Watercooler is a suite of twelve short stories rendered in song form. Their basic template is classic folk-rock great songwriting, acoustic and electric guitar, strings. But within this seemingly simple formula, Matthias writes about everything from the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes to fake alternative therapies, credit ratings and telephone banking; from boxing to Japanese internment camps in California and bombs painted with the face of Britney Spears.