"The Audience"

Album Art.

**"The Audience"** is a song by the American rock band Coheed and Cambria. It is the ninth track on their 2015 album *The Color Before the Sun*. A demo version of the song was released on *The Color Before the Sun* (Big Beige / 4th Street Demos) album and on the *The Color Before the Sun*: Deconstructed album.

## Lyrics

**[Verse 1]**

Please allow me to introduce myself

I'm the lie you use

When surrounded by snakes and talking sharks

Be mindful the words you choose

Their eyes reflecting a purpose, calling

Welcome to the feast

Will you follow their actions, and play game?

And as they step, will you repeat

Their formalities?

**[Pre-Chorus]**

Thieves of our time

Watch as they rape your integrity

March as the beat suggests

**[Chorus A]**

Time ticks forward towards the bomb

Undoing all that I once loved

Come take your piece of me, blood or bone

No matter, I'll still be here when you're

**[Verse 2]**

Done, crossed, a story, you were always a maybe

Here there are no absolutes

Oh, used and abused, now left for show

They laugh from their perch to let you know

There's no letting go

**[Pre-Chorus]**

Thieves of our time

Watch as they rape your integrity

March as the beat suggests

**[Chorus A]**

Time ticks forward towards the bomb

Undoing all that I once loved

Come take your piece of me, blood or bone

No matter, I'll still be here when you're

Done...

Be here when you're...

Done...

Be here when you're...

**[Chorus B]**

This is my audience

Forever one, together burning stars

Cut from the same disease

Ever longing what and who we are

**[Bridge 1]**

This is the story of a boy

Who lost his way and found the fire, fire!

Awestruck, his courage lost

Damaged goods, a trust now long retired

**[Chorus B]**

This is my audience

Forever one, together burning stars

Cut from the same disease

Ever longing what and who we are

**[Bridge 2]**

Take all matters into your own hands

And I, and I, I

Let them play with the coward you can't command

And I, I, I...

Now you’re just a memory

Of humanity

*(The audience... I will show... all of myself...)*

**[Chorus B]**

This is my audience

Forever one, together burning stars

Cut from the same disease

Ever longing what and who we are

Ever longing what and who we are

## Background

Sanchez said, "The good and bad reactions to our music are all a part of The Audience. I receive all of it: the negative and the positive. It all makes me who I am. When we started making this record I kept thinking, ‘This is the first non-concept Coheed record, how will it be received?’ The reason I created The Amory Wars [an ongoing series of comic books written by Claudio Sanchez, and the focus of all Coheed and Cambria’s music up until now] so many years ago was because I was a shy guy, and I was afraid to express myself in songs. So I created a fictional world that could take the beating, and I could remain unscathed. And now here I am coming to accept that The Color Before the Sun is going to be concept-less, and that negative feedback is not going to bother me as much as I thought I would when I first started writing music back when I was 24. Now I’m 37, and I’m going to be as open to both sides of the audience as possible, because it all makes me who I am, and Coheed what it is. This song is really just addressing both sides of the positive and negative reactions to this record as a whole."

## References

1. ↑ https://genius.com/Coheed-and-cambria-the-audience-lyrics
2. ↑ http://teamrock.com/feature/2015-10-08/why-isn-t-coheed-and-cambria-s-new-album-about-space