Artificial Daylight (Won’t Switch Off)
[Intro, Droning ostinato, Detuned piano + slide guitar; Male vocal, Close low register] [Low hum swelling under the ceiling grid] [Slide bends dragging like a siren held down] [Light flickers just shy of breaking] [Electrical flicker stuttering in uneven pulses] [Verse 1, Minor loop, Subtle meter drift; Male vocal, Dry intimate] White tubes buzzing over my skull Paper cup cooling in my hands This ain’t sunlight, it’s something thinner Like it don’t land where I stand Clock face twitching but never landing Second hand caught mid-breath Everything here looks wide awake But it’s all just dodging rest [Chorus 1, Expanding chords, Sparse kick pulse; Layered male vocal, Distant double] This artificial daylight keeps me moving Borrowed hours in a borrowed skin Edges blur where the moment should hold me Like I never quite stepped in You call it morning, I don’t feel it Just a glow that won’t confess All this light pressed hard on my eyelids And it still tastes like death [Verse 2, Rolling low drone, Metallic accents; Male vocal, Grit under control] Said I’d leave when the year turned over Now the years stack up like trays Linoleum cold as a held breath Every step repeats the same Black mud sitting heavy on my tongue Like a debt I never chose Something in it keeps me upright Something in it never lets me close [Chorus 2, Fuller band, Bass enters, Pulse thickens; Stacked vocals, Warm decay] This artificial daylight keeps me moving Borrowed hours in a borrowed skin Edges blur where the moment should hold me Like I never quite stepped in You call it morning, I don’t feel it Just a glow that won’t confess All this light pressed hard on my eyelids And it still tastes like death [Verse 3, Tension swell, Guitar scrape textures; Male vocal, Slight unravel] There’s a window somewhere behind me But it don’t belong to this place Just a rumor of something honest I ain’t turned enough to face Voices hum through the ceiling panels Like wires talking in their sleep Everybody here stays vertical Nobody here gets to keep [Bridge, Structure collapse, Arrhythmic pulses + distortion swell; Fractured male vocal, Spatial FX] Kill the lights— No, they don’t die They bleed They hum They stay I close my eyes and it’s louder there Like it followed me inside No night left I can measure No shadow left to prove Just a ceiling pressing downward Like it’s got something to lose [Instrumental fracture, Bass warping, Slide guitar detuning, Rhythm slipping off-grid] [Electrical hum intensifies, Distorted low-end swell, Flicker becomes continuous tone] [Final Chorus, Key lift, Full low-end bloom; Full vocal stack, Expansive tail] This artificial daylight keeps me moving Borrowed hours I can’t return Every second stretched thin as wire Every lesson left to burn You call it morning, I won’t name it I won’t dress it up as breath If this light is what keeps me living It’s just a slower kind of death [Final Chorus – Repeat, Slight tempo drag, Harmonic smear; Raw vocal edge, Open decay] This artificial daylight keeps me moving Borrowed hours I can’t return Every second stretched thin as wire Every lesson left to burn You call it morning, I won’t name it I won’t dress it up as breath If this light is what keeps me living It’s just a slower kind of death [Outro, Drone only, Electrical hum persists; Whisper vocal, Dissolving tail] (It ain’t morning) Just a hum in my chest (Not real light) Just something I can’t switch off (Borrowed hours) Stacked up behind my eyes (Borrowed breath) None of it mine [Final hum sustaining, Gradual frequency drop, Silence collapse]
