Nøcturnal - Underneath

[Intro — Female, whispered] You wanted to know what was behind the mask. You kept looking at my face like it owed you an answer. So look closer. [Verse — Female, low, intimate] I'm not the version you got used to. I'm not the silence you thought you knew. I learned to keep some things where nobody could reach. Not because they're dangerous, just because they're mine to keep. You can know my name and still get me wrong. You can stand beside me and never know where I belong. I could make this simple, give you something you can read. A little less complicated, a little more of what you need. But that's never been me. I've never fit that frame. And I'm tired of making myself smaller just to make you understand my name. [Pre-Chorus — Female, intimate] You want something you can hold, something you can name. Something that stays the same every time you look away. You want something you can keep, something you can see. But I was never made to be that easy. [Chorus — Female, melodic, wide] This is what's underneath. Not the picture in your head. Not the girl you thought you knew. Not the words I never said. It's every part I kept quiet, every part I kept for me. You can look into my eyes and still not know what you see. This is what's underneath. No perfect answer, no disguise. If you really want to know me, look into the noise tonight. [Bridge — Female, stripped] Don't fix it. Don't name it. Don't turn it into something easier to take in. You see something broken, you start looking for a way to make me into somebody you can love without the weight. Don't. I'm not asking to be saved. I'm asking to be seen. I don't need to be rewritten into something clean. I don't need an answer. I don't need a reason why. Some things stay beneath the surface without needing to survive your eyes. [Verse — Female, darker, rhythmic] I know what people do when they don't understand. They fill in every blank until the story fits their hands. Call it cold. Call it distant. Call it whatever makes sense. Everybody loves an answer when the truth gets too intense. I've done it too. I've made the same mistakes. Turned a little piece of someone into something I could name. I can leave a room with everything unsaid. I can tell you what I mean and still keep something in my head. Not every silence needs a translation. Not every fracture needs an explanation. Some things survive when you leave them undefined. Some things lose their meaning when you force them into lines. [Pre-Chorus — Female, rising] You wanted something you could hold, something you could understand. Maybe I wanted that too, maybe that's where I began. Maybe I kept so much inside I forgot what I could show. Maybe being truly seen means letting someone know. [Final Chorus — Female, melodic, wide] This is what's underneath. Not the picture in your head. Not the girl you thought you knew. Not the words I never said. It's every part I kept quiet, every part I kept for me. You can look into my eyes and still not know what you see. This is what's underneath. No perfect answer, no disguise. You don't have to understand me. Just look closer this time. [Outro — Female, distant] You wanted to know what was behind the mask. Maybe you were looking at it the whole time. You just wanted something underneath to be different from what you see. It isn't. It's me.