At the time of writing "Stalker" we hadn't seen the film. We knew about it and we were Tarkovsky fans since "Solaris" and "The Sacrifice".
The title of our song is indeed derived from the idea of Tarkovsky's Stalker: a person who passes freely through boundaries, someone who can see things we can't see, who can navigate the forbidden Zone and use what's there, who knows the terrible secrets we carry inside. And one who knows what it means to mess with the delicate balance that keeps us sane.
The second inspiration came from applying William S. Burroughs-style cut&paste techniques to poetry. I stumbled on a couple of anthologies of Black American poetry from the 40's, 50's and 60's and they blew my mind. There was such a range of emotions. Rage, despair, hope, lust, love, hatred...
So I made notes of every line that told me something. That made me react. Feel something. Then I cut all the notes up and rearranged them randomly. Then I cheated and picked the ones that could be applied to the overall theme. After all I'm not a Black American. I was a spoilt white boy from middle-class Sweden with the luxury problem of Weltschmertz.
So it became a semi-random poem about seeing things through one eye in a muddy microscope and one eye in a wide-angle telescope, not knowing which view to trust.
And incidentally that's how I interpret the excellent film "Stalker" as well.
BTW: My Russian friend Sergey recently told me about the book upon which the film is based: "Roadside Picnic " by the Strugatsky brothers. See the wonderful Wikipedia for further knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic