Bad Decisions

Album: Gameshow (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • TDCC frontman Alex Trimble explained the inspiration behind this club-friendly track: "I discovered this term weltschmertz, the German word for being at odds with the world around you," he said. "The fact that it was a fully coined term made me feel it was okay to not exist on the same level as everyone else, it was okay to be comfortable doing your own thing."

    "Is your phone the last thing you look at before you go to sleep? Is it the first thing you reach for when you wake up? Tonight, turn it off and let your imagination send you to sleep," Trimble continued. "In the morning, get up, go outside and breathe in the new day's air. Trust us - you'll feel better."
  • We hear Alex Trimble claiming on the song he's "had enough of the information generation". He explained the lyric to The Guardian:

    "Over the years, I saw how affected some of the kids were that would come to shows. On Twitter, there would be a lot of fans that were aggressively excited. They'll say some of the most outrageous things, and I would recognize them at the shows – they're like a shell of how they exist online. They've no real social skills, there's no eye contact, they can't maintain a conversation. I see a whole generation that... it's kind of damning to say that they're ruined, but something to that effect. There's almost a schizophrenic thing happening where there is a fully-formed existence online that's so far removed from the real world."
  • The song's music video channels old school arcade games and was directed by the New Zealand duo of Sean Wallace and Jordan Dodson, aka Thunderlips. We see the band in an animated video game world, in which they advance through different levels
    .
    "When we first spoke to Alex on the set of 'Are We Ready?', it was clear that he hated social media as much as we did, so we knew we needed to come up with a suitably epic metaphor to illustrate this brilliant song," Thunderlips said.

    The directorial duo added that they drew initial inspiration from Dante's Inferno and adapted it to a video game as a "fun way to make this concept relevant and also give us a platform for the animators to develop and embellish with the band battling each other to escape hell and earn redemption."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Wedding Bell Blues

Wedding Bell BluesSong Writing

When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.

Pam Tillis

Pam TillisSongwriter Interviews

The country sweetheart opines about the demands of touring and talks about writing songs with her famous father.

Queen

QueenFact or Fiction

Scaramouch, a hoople and a superhero soundtrack - see if you can spot the real Queen stories.

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")Songwriter Interviews

A top country songwriter, Barry talks about writing hits for Little Big Town, Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.