PIPE DREAM [Intro — spoken, distant crowd] Yeah… Aotearoa. From the edge of the world… I thought I could conquer everything. Turns out the hardest place to conquer was my own head. [Verse 1] Sixteen with a notebook, dreams in a backpack, South Pacific kid with a beat on a laptop. Cold nights, cheap mic, writing bars after school, Telling all my mates, “One day I'm getting out of this room.” From the local hall to the city stage lights, NZ kid chasing dreams underneath southern skies. First show, twenty people, then a hundred, then a thousand, Kiwi crowd screaming while the whole place bouncing. Started with a freestyle, then a track on the radio, Suddenly the kid from home had somewhere he could go. Aotearoa behind me, whole world in my sights, From backyard speakers to international flights. [Pre-Chorus] I thought the higher that I climbed, The further I could run, Thought the noise would drown the silence, Thought the party never done. [Chorus] It was a pipe dream, dressed up like a gold scene, Kiwi kid turned star, living somebody else's dream. I had the whole world screaming my name, Then the whole world watched me fall from the stage. They said, “Rehab ain't that bad, you'll be fine,” But nobody said you'd have to face your own mind. Funny how the dream looked beautiful on the way— Till the dream became the thing that took everything away. [Verse 2] I flew back home once, Mum said, “Son, you're different,” I laughed it off, said, “Nah, I'm just winning.” But the kid from Aotearoa was getting harder to find, Lost somewhere between the spotlight and the powder-white lines. Big rooms overseas, but I missed that old sound, Friends around a barbecue, feet planted on the ground. Missed the smell of rain, missed the hills back home, Funny how you can travel the world and still feel alone. Then the shows got smaller, then the phone stopped ringing, Friends became ghosts, but the demons kept singing. Manager said, “You need to get yourself together,” I said, “I'm good,” while I was drowning under pressure. [Beat drops] [Bridge — spoken] They said, “Congratulations… you're going to rehab.” I laughed. Thought rehab was gonna save me. Nobody told me there'd be no applause. [Verse 3] White walls, plastic cups, fluorescent lights, Same damn hallway every morning, same damn night. No backstage pass, no VIP, Just twelve chairs and a stranger asking, “Who do you wanna be?” I wanted the old me, wanted the old crowd, Wanted that roar when they turned the speakers loud. But getting clean ain't glamorous, ain't cool, ain't fame, It's sitting with the wreckage and admitting your name. No cameras rolling, no headlines to read, Just learning how to breathe when you don't get what you need. And somewhere in that silence I remembered where I came from— A kid under southern stars who just wanted to become someone. [Chorus — darker] It was a pipe dream, dressed up like a gold scene, Kiwi kid turned star, living somebody else's dream. I had the whole world screaming my name, Then the whole world watched me fall from the stage. They said, “Rehab ain't that bad, you'll be fine,” But nobody said you'd have to face your own mind. Funny how the dream looked beautiful on the way— Till the dream became the thing that took everything away. [Final Verse] Now I'm back with a pen, but I write different lines, No diamonds in the chorus, just the truth this time. Back home in Aotearoa underneath those southern skies, Learning that surviving can be its own kind of rise. I don't need the whole world screaming my name, Don't need another headline saying I'm back in the game. Maybe I didn't lose it—maybe I finally found it, The kid underneath the noise, with the whole world around him. The dream wasn't money, the dream wasn't fame, It was that young Kiwi kid saying, “Remember my name.” And if I ever make it back to those stages again, I'll carry every scar, every loss, every friend. [Outro — quiet piano] From Aotearoa… to the world… and back home again. I chased the dream. The dream chased me back. Pipe dream.
