I do interpret the song in a very different way - in fact, I do not think this song is referring to another person at all but rather to a 'persona' of the same person.
To me, the lyrics appear to describe a man facing a mirror, who no longer recognizes the person he's seeing in that mirror (he sees his reflection lifeless - all color washed out from his eyes) and appears to be living a textbook case of identity dissociation, where the voices in his head (his different personas or alters) are tormenting him, driving him mad, and tearing his mind apart to the point where he contemplates committing suicide (reaching for the gun to shoot himself) to end it all/free himself from this pain but, in a moment of hope, decides against it.
I think the lyrics is him reaching out to his "true" self/persona ("Talk to me / How can I stop now / Is there nothing I can do?" in a last desperate attempt to "run away" from this torment - revealing that he's been losing his way in the music world, he's been losing his true self and giving way to other personas/alters battling in his head and wreaking havoc with his mind ("I can still hear our screams competing /You're hissing your s's like a snake / Now in the mirror stands /Half a man /I thought no one could break") - these verses describe the mental torment that dissociation evokes in an individual where the different personas tend to argue with one another, thus heard as several voices.
Dissociation rules in the music industry, possibly more conspicuous nowadays than it ever was in the 80s/90s, with every artist nowadays showing increasingly alarming signs of dissociation or what they so fancily like to term as "alter egos".
In my view, this song is nothing more than a narration of a musician's disturbing journey in the industry - with dissociation, torment, and helplessness being the underlying common themes.
There's always been an eerily disturbing, melancholic, and a "there's-something-more-to-it" feeling to A-ha's songs and, in my opinion, rarely did their lyrics refer to a mere human beloved, take "Velvet" for instance. Possibly the reason why Morten oftentimes expressed his frustration that very few seemed to care what the lyrics actually meant.
I do interpret the song in a very different way - in fact, I do not think this song is referring to another person at all but rather to a 'persona' of the same person.
To me, the lyrics appear to describe a man facing a mirror, who no longer recognizes the person he's seeing in that mirror (he sees his reflection lifeless - all color washed out from his eyes) and appears to be living a textbook case of identity dissociation, where the voices in his head (his different personas or alters) are tormenting him, driving him mad, and tearing his mind apart to the point where he contemplates committing suicide (reaching for the gun to shoot himself) to end it all/free himself from this pain but, in a moment of hope, decides against it.
I think the lyrics is him reaching out to his "true" self/persona ("Talk to me / How can I stop now / Is there nothing I can do?" in a last desperate attempt to "run away" from this torment - revealing that he's been losing his way in the music world, he's been losing his true self and giving way to other personas/alters battling in his head and wreaking havoc with his mind ("I can still hear our screams competing /You're hissing your s's like a snake / Now in the mirror stands /Half a man /I thought no one could break") - these verses describe the mental torment that dissociation evokes in an individual where the different personas tend to argue with one another, thus heard as several voices.
Dissociation rules in the music industry, possibly more conspicuous nowadays than it ever was in the 80s/90s, with every artist nowadays showing increasingly alarming signs of dissociation or what they so fancily like to term as "alter egos".
In my view, this song is nothing more than a narration of a musician's disturbing journey in the industry - with dissociation, torment, and helplessness being the underlying common themes.
There's always been an eerily disturbing, melancholic, and a "there's-something-more-to-it" feeling to A-ha's songs and, in my opinion, rarely did their lyrics refer to a mere human beloved, take "Velvet" for instance. Possibly the reason why Morten oftentimes expressed his frustration that very few seemed to care what the lyrics actually meant.