Need to Know

(Verse 1 – tight, staccato, low register)

You ask me how it’s going

I say “same as before”

Shake your hand like I don’t know

What you’re asking me for

Every sentence measured twice

Every breath on a wire

There’s a ledger in my head

And your name’s not required

⸻

(Pre-Chorus – rising tension, off-kilter accents)

Half-truth posture

Polite disguise

Friendly ghosts behind my eyes

Read me wrong

That’s by design

You get yours and I get mine

⸻

(Chorus – punchy, syncopated, hook with rhythmic stutter)

Loose lips—

(LOCK IT)

Sink ships—

(DROP IT)

Say less

Say less

Say less than you know

Dead calm—

(SHUT IT)

Stay gone—

(CUT IT)

Smile wide

Let it slide

Never let it show

(Need to know… you don’t)

⸻

(Verse 2 – slightly more open, still controlled, groove builds)

We talk about the weather

Like it’s all we’ve ever shared

But there’s a war behind the curtain

You were never meant to bear

You laugh, I match the cadence

Like we’re reading from a script

But I’m redacting every memory

Every truth I let you glimpse

⸻

(Pre-Chorus 2 – more urgent, layered vocals)

Friendly face

Compartmentalized

Truth in fragments, sterilized

You lean in

I lean away

Nothing slips if nothing stays

⸻

(Chorus – bigger, gang vox layered)

Loose lips—

(LOCK IT)

Sink ships—

(DROP IT)

Say less

Say less

Say less than you know

Dead calm—

(SHUT IT)

Stay gone—

(CUT IT)

Smile wide

Let it slide

Never let it show

(Need to know… you don’t)

⸻

(Bridge – atmospheric, odd time, spoken/whispered intercut with screams)

((5/4 → 7/8 shifting))

I could tell you everything

But everything’s a blade

Every word a fingerprint

Every kindness… trade

So I bury it alive

Under practiced replies

If you knew what I was holding

You’d stop looking in my eyes

⸻

(Breakdown – heavy djent, syncopated chugs, sparse vocals)

Say—less

Say—less

Cut the signal

Kill the line

Nothing here is yours or mine

Say—less

Say—less

If it lives

It stays below

Buried where it won’t be known

⸻

(Final Chorus – full force, layered harmonies + screams)

Loose lips—

(LOCK IT)

Sink ships—

(DROP IT)

Say less

Say less

Say less than you know

Dead calm—

(SHUT IT)

Stay gone—

(CUT IT)

Smile wide

Let it slide

Never let it show

(Need to know… you don’t)

⸻

(Outro – stripped, eerie clean guitar)

You ask, I smile

We both pretend

Some doors stay closed

Until the end