A little bit of both. 'Decembrist' is the accepted English translation of the Russian 'Dekabristy.' We appropriated it by adding the extra E, which, … - Colin Meloy

Well, I think you just have to be prepared to be weirder and weirder. I follow the example of Robyn Hitchcock who, I think, has created a career out of this world he has constructed. It’s very much his world, and he continually builds upon it. I think he’s received criticism in the past along the lines of, “Oh, here’s another Robyn Hitchcock record about flesh and fish,” and things like that, but in fact if you really look at the songs, they’re just the building blocks for this very complex, very vibrant, and very real world that exists within his songwriting. So I look to him for inspiration.

Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters,
Drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave.

My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in pre-war Paris
Smuggling bombs for the underground.
And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence;
He was disguised as a Russian cadet in the employ of the Axis.