This song was one of those much-needed ones that writers/bands look for when they haven't written anything in a while. You are only as good as your last song, and if your last song was a while back then you aren't very good are you?! Unless you have a good excuse of course. Which I'm not sure we had actually. Who cares - in the end this tune came along and for me it was the best written song we'd done to date so was a big weight off my shoulders creatively.
This song came about from just jamming really. Tony couldn't make rehearsal one evening so it was just me and Gary. I do remember not looking forward to it, and that was a symptom of not having written anything in a while. I guess you get scared of failure if you head into whats scheduled as a "writing" rehearsal and you don't think you have many ideas kicking around.
Well, as it happens, it was a really productive night. There was a lot of dead-ends, head-scratching and general creative block, but the song gradually began to take shape over the course of that evening.
This was one of those occasions where it definately pays dividends to have another person's perspective. I could never have written Decision entirely on my own. Writing all the individual parts is not songwriting, its the putting together of those parts that is the key. I was able to come up with all the elements that made the song, but it was Gary's input that helped shape it into a proper song with good dynamics. For example, when he said "lets try go for summat broken up, like what AC/DC do". I then tried some stop-start-y chord progression thing over the drum beat. This evolved to become the verse. It actually sounds nothing like AC/DC of course, but it was that initial idea that started the ball rolling. If I had tried this approach myself, I'd probably have written an AC/DC riff! :) So, yeah, co-writing/arranging is a good thing!
Bits ended getting cut out, parts extended here, broken down there, messed about with here etc. This song was quite hard work!! But with that came the personal reward. Songs that require a bit of hard work give you a good sense of accomplishment....but it would be quicker and easier if they just wrote themselves!!!
Lyrically, I guess this is typical of most of my writing style. I generally don't do "relationships" coz that's done to death in just about every song you ever hear. My angle is that I write about the interaction of people. Maybe that's just the same thing, but I don't see it that way. I don't think I could ever write a song about how great it is to be with someone. Boring!!! Equally, I cannot be bothered with all that "broken-hearted" bollocks. My perspective is that I write from experience mostly, and even if thats not the case, I try to make it about how people manipulate each other.
As you can ascertain from the lyrics, this is another song about this aspect of manipulation. Offering a hand and getting stabbed in the back. Things that appear to be heaven are often deception (and I guess visa-versa also).
Again, its open to each person's own interpretation.
- Hammy
