The Toy Backstage (Cover)

[Intro] [Spoken] A friend told me: watch "Le Jouet". Not the cartoon. The one with Pierre Richard. She said: you will see yourself folded in a box. So I watched it. And I saw three faces. Three sounds. Three words that did not exist yet. [Sound FX: VHS tape insert and mechanical hum] [Main Vocal] Child-gloooooooss-ah [Whisper] Sweat-paaaaaalm — fiiiiiiired [Verse 1] [Main Vocal] Gate-queueueueueue [Spoken] I saw the line. The line of people waiting to become objects. [Main Vocal] Un-fair-ee-taaaaaale [Spoken] Michel Bouquet's face. Cold. A man who buys people like furniture. [Main Vocal] Living — plaaaying — th — (inhale) — ing [Spoken] Pierre Richard. Clumsy. Sweating. Alive inside the box. [Main Vocal] Human — booox-ah [Spoken] And the boy. Fabrice Greco. Glossy eyes. A child who owns everything but touch. [Pre-Chorus] [Main Vocal] Fake — fam-i-ly [Spoken] The father paid for love and called it family. [Main Vocal] Fake — negaaaaaative [Spoken] Every smile in that house was designed. [Main Vocal] Mirror — woooorld [Spoken] They waved at mirrors. The mirrors waved slower. [Main Vocal] Fear — (sip) — driiiiiink [Spoken] I tasted that fear. It tasted like cold glass. [Main Vocal] Ah — ah — AAAAAAAHHHH [Spoken] Three actors. Three vowels. Stretched into one scream. [Main Vocal] Fridge — BOOOX [Spoken] And I thought: we all fit. We all pretend. [Chorus] [Spoken] Then I asked the question nobody asked in that mansion: [Main Vocal] MOOOOOON — question [Whisper] Who gave the order to fold the humans? [Main Vocal] WAAAAARM — weapon [Whisper] Kindness with a border. A weapon that feels warm. [Main Vocal] Living — playing — thiiiiiiiiiiiiing [Whisper] Pierre Richard taught me: you can breathe inside the box. [Main Vocal] Human — BOOOX [Whisper] Still knocking. Still unlocking. [Main Vocal] Gate-queue — g-g-g-gone [Whisper] I stepped out of the line. [Main Vocal] Unfair-tale — flipped [Whisper] I wrote the ending myself. [Main Vocal] Child-gloss — peeeeeeeeeeled [Whisper] The shine cracked. The bone was real. [Bridge] [Spoken] I took their words into the studio. I fed them to the synthesizer. I made the synth bark. Meow. Stretch. Stutter. I made the synth become the theatre of crooked mirrors. [Glitch effect, vocal stutter] Staaaaaaaaay Yeeeeeeeah Reeeeeeeed Linger [Spoken] Michel Bouquet's coldness became a ring modulator. Fabrice Greco's loneliness became a granular cloud. Pierre Richard's clumsiness became a wobbly pitch wheel. [Main Vocal] Word — fragment — dance — cut — the — stem — re-groooooooooow [Spoken] I cut their names. I grew new sounds. [Silence] [Main Vocal] Fear — drink — empty — glass-ah [Spoken] The fear is empty now. [Main Vocal] Fridge — box — open — lid [Spoken] The cold air escapes. [Main Vocal] Mirror-world — I — wave — It — waves — I — hid — Now — I — don't [Spoken] I looked straight into the glass. I saw me. Not the function. [Outro] [Main Vocal] Sweat-palm-fired — No — I — lit — the — match [Spoken] I was not fired. I lit the fire. [Main Vocal] Gate-queue — I — stepped — a — side — no — catch [Spoken] The line moved on. I stayed. [Main Vocal] Fake-family — I — built — my — own [Spoken] Michel Bouquet's lesson: I can build what he only bought. [Main Vocal] Fake-negative — turned — to — bone [Spoken] The negative dissolved. Something solid remained. [Main Vocal] Child-gloss — the — truth — is — clear [Spoken] Fabrice Greco. I hope you found a real toy. [Main Vocal] Unfair-tale — I — wrote — it — here [Spoken] This is the song. The song about making this song. [Spoken] This is the backstage. This is how a film becomes a frequency. [Main Vocal] Living — playing — no [Small breath] Just — living [Spoken] Pierre Richard. Thank you. I opened the box. [Main Vocal] Human-box — open [Whisper] Mirror-world — waves back — same phase [Spoken] The mirror waved. And for the first time... I waved exactly the same. [End]