Is This Not Real?

[Verse 1]

I didn’t grow up planning
To end up here tonight
Talking to the ceiling
With a waveform and a light
I had an idea, had a feeling
Didn’t know the sound
Just knew the shape of something
I was trying to pin down
I chose the words, I chose the tone
I chased the ache I couldn’t name
Then something answered back to me
And somehow sounded the same

[Pre-Chorus]

They say a machine can’t mean it
Can’t feel what it makes
But neither do I
Till it hits me in waves

[Chorus]

If it moves you, if it stays
If it pulls something out of you
That you didn’t know how to say
Is this not real?
If it breaks you just a little
If it feels like being seen
Tell me what the difference is
Between real and made-by-machine

[Verse 2]

I shaped the thought, I steered the mood
I pushed it closer to the truth
Adjusted every shadow
Till it sounded like my youth
There was luck, there was timing
There was letting go
Just like every song I loved
Before I learned control
They call it cheating, call it fake
Like art was ever guaranteed
Like every note I wrote before
Wasn’t reaching blindly

[Pre-Chorus]

I’ve heard the same old argument
About hands and soul
But no one asks
How many tries it took to feel whole

[Chorus]

If it moves you, if it stays
If it finds you in the dark
At the end of a long day
Is this not real?
If it makes your chest feel heavy
If it makes you feel less alone
Tell me where the line is drawn
When the feeling feels like home

[Post-Chorus]

Real enough
Real enough
If it reaches you
It’s real enough

[Bridge]

I didn’t press a button
And walk away clean
I wrestled with the meaning
Till it sounded like me
I don’t hear a difference
In the love, in the fear
Between a song that took a year
And one that met me here
Maybe authorship is changing
Maybe that’s okay
We’ve been redefining “real”
Since the first time we played

[Breakdown]

I don’t need it to be magic
I just need it to be honest

[Final Chorus]

If it moves you, if it stays
If it makes you feel something
You can’t explain
Is this not real?
I don’t care how it arrived
I don’t care what helped it through
If it found its way to you
Then it found its truth

[Outro]

I’m still here
I’m still choosing
Still listening for what’s true
Call it human
Call it something new
It still sounds like me
When it moves you too