Practicing How to Smile

[Intro: The Freezing Haze] [Tempo: 70 BPM. Slow, warm 90s Boom-Bap] [Sound Design: Montreal STM Metro chime (Doo-doo-doo). Footsteps on wet pavement. A lighter flick, a deep inhale, and a shivering exhale] [Instrumentation: Lonely alto saxophone echoing over a warm, acoustic upright bass] (Vocal: Deep, slow, conversational, slightly shivering) The leaves are hanging by the breeze... And I’m just trying to remember how to use my face. [Verse 1: The Old Port & The Blur] [Tempo: 70 BPM Boom-Bap continues] I bought the legal haze from the glowing SQDC, To blur the heavy border between the fiction and me. Riding down the metro lines, shivering and numb, Waiting for a tragedy that’s never gonna come. Standing in the Old Port, talking to the breeze, Watching autumn leaves hanging on the frozen trees. I practice how to smile when I’m absolutely dead, Treating every trauma like a party in my head! Yeah, I treat the deep depression like a comedy show, I don’t know when to laugh, I don't know where to go. [Chorus: The What-If (The Summit)] [Instrumentation: Saxophone swells, cinematic strings enter] Looking from the summit of the silent Mount Royal, Happy in the chill, but my blood begins to boil. Would my soul be lighter in the Manhattan grid? Would Lisbon forgive me for the things I never did?! Would the sun in Malaga erase the heavy trial? I’m shivering in joy, practicing how to smile. Yeah, I’m shivering in joy, practicing how to smile! [Verse 2: Westmount & The Psychosis] [State Shift: A distant police siren wails. As it gets louder, it pitches down and violently transforms into a heavy, sliding 808 bassline] [Tempo: Snaps to 140 BPM. Aggressive Brooklyn Drill. Fast, skittering trap hi-hats] (Vocal: Fast, aggressive, manic, D12-era delivery) Walking through Westmount in the 2 AM dark, Laughing at the sirens tearing through the empty park! The psychosis is a rhythm, it’s a dagger in the chest, I treat a total breakdown like a deeply needed rest! I can't tell the difference between the terror and the glee, If drama is a prison, why does it feel so free?! Every single tear is just a twisted kind of cheer, I’m perfectly insane, and my vision is severe! [Chorus: The What-If (The Summit)] [Tempo: 140 BPM. Brooklyn Drill continues, massive and heavy] Looking from the summit of the silent Mount Royal, Happy in the chill, but my blood begins to boil. Would my soul be lighter in the Manhattan grid? Would Lisbon forgive me for the things I never did?! Would the sun in Malaga erase the heavy trial? I’m shivering in joy, practicing how to smile. [Pre-Chorus: The Bodega Paranoia] [State Shift: Beat stutters and cuts in and out aggressively. Chaotic drill hi-hats roll fast] (Vocal: Shouting, breathless, panicking but smiling) The neon light is buzzing, the bodega is a ghost! I’m making up a fiction that I’m needing the most! The leaves are falling down, but they hang up in the air! I’m looking in the mirror, but there's nobody there! [Chorus: The What-If (The Summit)] [State Shift: Violent drop back into the slow 70 BPM Boom-Bap. Instant calm.] [Instrumentation: Just the warm upright bass and the lonely saxophone] (Vocal: Back to slow, exhausted, spoken-word poetry) Looking from the summit of the silent Mount Royal, Happy in the chill, but my blood begins to boil. Would my soul be lighter in the Manhattan grid? Would Lisbon forgive me for the things I never did? Would the sun in Malaga erase the heavy trial? I’m shivering in joy... practicing how to smile. [Outro: The Disconnect] [Sound Design: Metro doors closing heavily. A gust of cold wind] [Instrumentation: The saxophone fades out into total silence] (Vocal: A quiet, shivering whisper) Fiction or reality... I’m just enjoying the fall. [End]