This track comes from the late-night hours when Aaron's guard comes down and honesty replaces performance. It tackles Walking the Folly Pier at night, watching shadows move on the water, confronting what you're leaving behind and what lies ahead. The lyrics get specific — "Before the Navy gave me structure, gave me road" — because personal tracks on Majik's are personal for real, not performatively. The downtempo production matches the energy of the confession. It hits melancholy and cinematic, in that order. Every personal track in the catalogue comes from a real moment, a real feeling, a real person. This one is no exception.
[verse 1]
Footsteps on the planks, the pier groans under weight
Not just mine, but every version that I hate
Of who I used to be before I found my code
Before the Navy gave me structure, gave me road
Shadows stretch across the water, long and thin
Like the lies I used to tell about where I've been
Stransky at the edge, not jumping, just observing
How the moon turns everything to something less deserving
[chorus]
Shadows on the pier, dancing with the tide
Shadows of the man I used to try to hide
But tonight I let them dance, tonight I let them breathe
Shadows on the pier teach me how to grieve
[verse 2]
Used to think ambition was enough to fill the void
Built a company, a platform, apps deployed
But success at three AM feels like an echo, faint
OG Unicorn's the mask, but Aaron's the complaint
That nobody's listening to in the daylight hours
So I walk the pier at night and count the lunar showers
Eight four three is sleeping, but the shadows are awake
And they know the Unconventional Technologist is about to break
Through to something realer than the code
[chorus]
Shadows on the pier, dancing with the tide
Shadows of the man I used to try to hide
But tonight I let them dance, tonight I let them breathe
Shadows on the pier teach me how to grieve
[bridge]
The fisherman left hours ago
The bait shop's closed, the wind is slow
Just me and the Atlantic's edge tonight
Finding truth in the absence of light
[chorus]
Shadows on the pier, dancing with the tide
Shadows of the man I used to try to hide
But tonight I let them dance, tonight I let them breathe
Shadows on the pier teach me how to grieve
[outro]
Someday I'll walk this pier in daylight
And the shadows won't scare me anymore