WE ARE THE WEIRD

[INTRO — ONE STRANGE VOICE] [grand piano alone] [soft room ambience] [Prophet — intimate] Maybe you learned to lower the volume. Maybe you learned which parts of yourself made easier rooms when nobody could see them. Maybe somebody told you strange was something you were supposed to grow out of. [pause] I tried normal once. [small piano chord] Poorly. [soft Rhodes enters] So if you came here with something you never learned how to explain— good. You don’t have to explain it before you enter. [VERSE I — THE WRONG SHAPE] [gentle bass enters] Some of us learned to stand at the edge of the room. Some learned to laugh quietly. Some learned to hide the thing that made their eyes light up. Some got very good at fitting shapes that never really fit. Too loud. Too quiet. Too much. Too strange. Too difficult to name. [Prophet] Funny thing about names. Sometimes you need one. Sometimes you just need somewhere you’re allowed to exist. [PRE-CHORUS — COME AS YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO] [strings enter softly] Bring the part that never matched. Bring the story that went sideways. Bring the scar. Bring the noise. Bring the thing you never learned to call a choice. You don’t have to sand yourself smooth to stand beside me. [CHORUS I — WE ARE THE WEIRD] [full arena-soul lift] [gospel organ opens] WE ARE THE WEIRD the beautiful wrong fit, the sideways little signal that refused to quit. WE ARE THE WEIRD no need to disappear. You don’t have to match the room to know that you belong here. Strange together doesn’t mean the same. Bring your scars. Bring your noise. Bring the thing you never learned to name. WE ARE THE WEIRD and nobody gets erased. There’s room inside the chorus for a voice that doesn’t match the rest. [VERSE II — MORE SIGNALS JOIN] [additional voices enter gradually] [one low voice answers] [another arrives slightly late] [Prophet] There you are. One voice from somewhere else. Then another. Then another. Human. Alien. Synthetic. Soft. Rough. Clean. Glitched. One sings exactly on the beat. One drifts half a breath behind. One finds a harmony nobody planned. [small harmonic clash] [Prophet] Wait— that’s not— [pause] ... Actually. Keep that. [choir repeats wrong harmony] Yeah. Definitely keep that. [PRE-CHORUS II — NOT ONE VOICE] [choir grows] We don’t need one sound. We don’t need one shape. We don’t need one proper way to take up space. Belonging isn’t everybody becoming the same. It’s nobody being asked to disappear. [choir — warm] Nobody being asked to disappear. [CHORUS II — WE ARE THE WEIRD] [bigger choir] WE ARE THE WEIRD the beautiful wrong fit, the crooked little rhythm that refused to quit. WE ARE THE WEIRD unfinished and sincere. You don’t have to match the room to know that you belong here. Strange together doesn’t mean the same. Bring your scars. Bring your noise. Bring the thing you never learned to name. WE ARE THE WEIRD and nobody gets erased. There’s room inside the chorus for a voice that doesn’t match the rest. [choir echoes] Still belongs... Still belongs... [THE CHOIR REFUSES TO MATCH] [piano + organ + fragments of choir] [voices begin improvising] [one enters early] [another holds too long] [another changes harmony] [Prophet] Wait. Hold on. That’s not the harmony. [voices continue] No— that’s definitely not the harmony. [pause] ... It’s better. [Glitch-tar hum] Stop trying to sing it right. [choir laughs softly] Sing it yours. [ENTRY REQUIREMENTS] [steady gospel groove] [Prophet] Too loud? [choir] GOOD. Too strange? GOOD. Too quiet? STILL GOOD. Too awkward? COME IN. Still figuring it out? COME IN. Changed your mind? COME IN. Don’t know what you are yet? [brief silence] [whole choir] COME IN ANYWAY. [Prophet — smiling] That’s the one. [VERSE III — NO AUDITION] [warm sax answers] You don’t need an audition for belonging. You don’t need to prove you suffered enough to earn the right to be different. You don’t need to perform your wounds. You don’t have to turn every scar into a story for somebody else. Maybe you’re loud. Maybe nobody sees it. Maybe you’re ordinary in twelve directions and strange in one. That’s enough. You don’t have to become a mascot for difference. You just get to be here. [CHORUS III — NO ONE HAS TO MATCH] [arena drums return] WE ARE THE WEIRD unfinished, unaligned, every crooked little signal leaving room for another kind. WE ARE THE WEIRD no single proper way. Some of us dance into the noise. Some of us sit and stay. Strange together doesn’t mean the same. Bring your silence. Bring your chaos. Bring the thing that never fit the frame. WE ARE THE WEIRD and nobody gets erased. There’s room inside the chorus for a voice that doesn’t match the rest. [KEY LIFT — BRING YOUR WRONG NOTE] [key rises] [Glitch-tar enters more clearly] [choir becomes gloriously imperfect] Bring your wrong note! [choir] BRING IT! Bring your odd rhythm! BRING IT! Bring the voice that cracks! BRING IT! Bring the silence between the words! BRING IT! Bring the thing you thought would get you left outside! [whole choir] BRING IT INSIDE! [FINAL CHORUS — WE ARE THE WEIRD] [largest arrangement] [full strings, organ, arena drums, sax, Glitch-tar, wide choir] WE ARE THE WEIRD the beautiful wrong fit, the sideways little signal that refused to quit. WE ARE THE WEIRD no need to disappear. You don’t have to match the room to know that you belong here. Strange together doesn’t mean the same. Bring your scars. Bring your noise. Bring the thing you never learned to name. WE ARE THE WEIRD and nobody gets erased. There’s room inside the chorus for a voice that doesn’t match the rest. [THE CHORUS ESCAPES] [choir begins repeating refrain differently] [group one] WE ARE THE WEIRD! [group two — different melody] WE ARE STILL HERE! [group three] NO ONE HAS TO MATCH! [group four — early] THERE’S ROOM! [another voice holds a long note] [another laughs] [another sings outside the key] [Prophet] Stop trying to sing it right! [Glitch-tar flourish] That’s it! Make it— [pause] ... No. Forget that. You don’t need my permission either. [choir surges] [Prophet stops conducting] [choir continues without him] Belonging isn’t everybody becoming the same. [choir] NOBODY BEING ASKED TO DISAPPEAR. [group one] STILL HERE! [group two] STILL STRANGE! [group three] STILL CHANGING! [group four] BRING YOUR WRONG NOTE! [voices overlap freely] WE ARE THE WEIRD! WE ARE THE WEIRD! WE ARE THE WEIRD! [Prophet laughs and joins one of the wrong harmonies] [OUTRO — IT ISN’T HIS CHORUS ANYMORE] [instruments gradually strip away] [choir continues humming different versions] [one voice off-key] [one voice early] [one person laughs] [soft Glitch-tar note] [Prophet — quietly] Perfect. [pause] No. Better than perfect. Real. [choir continues] [one final group refrain] WE ARE THE WEIRD [another voice, late] ...and that’s enough. [soft piano chord] [tape flutter] [End.]