When I’m With You I Can Be Me

[Verse 1]
I talk too much
Then not at all
I pace the floor
I screen my calls
I try on faces
Like secondhand coats
Every room
Another joke
But you hold my name
Like it’s something clean
You touch my shoulder
Like I’m seventeen
[Chorus]
When I’m with you I can be me
Nothing hidden up my sleeve
Every scar
Every soft belief
You just look
And you still see
When I’m with you I can be me
[Verse 2]
I’ve lied in churches
To please the crowd
I’ve nodded kindly
Then cursed out loud
I’ve chased approval
Like a closing door
Left pieces of myself
On every floor
But you brew the coffee
Say
“Sit
Just breathe”
You laugh at the lines
I never let leave
[Chorus]
When I’m with you I can be me
Awkward hands and crooked teeth
Every fear I tried to feed
You just smile and set it free
When I’m with you I can be me
[Bridge]
You don’t ask for better
You don’t ask for less
You take the chaos
Fold it to your chest
And in that quiet
That we barely speak
I feel the bravest
I’ve ever been
[Chorus]
When I’m with you I can be me
Not the mask they think they need
Just a man who wants to lean
On a truth that doesn’t leave
When I’m with you I can be me
When I’m with you
I can be me

Intimate baritone male vocals, close-mic’d and breathy, over warm felted piano voicings and a soft, lyrical violin line. Verses stay sparse and low, with occasional piano clusters and bow swells; chorus opens slightly with fuller chords and a counter-melody in the strings. Subtle room reverb, almost ASMR closeness on the vocal; gentle dynamics that rise on the hook then fall back to a hush., warm, male vocals, violin, deep, soft