Don’t Wake Me ‘Cause I’m Dreaming

Album: Second Cut

I see children laughing in the streets,
No need to beg, no mouths to feed.
Hands not clenched, but reaching wide,
Every stranger walks with pride.

Skies aren't black with smoke or fear,
Just open roads and voices clear.
No more borders, no more lines,
Just beating hearts and shared designs.

It's not the world I've known before,
But I can feel it in my core —
A place where love's the loudest sound,
Where no one ever gets torn down.

So don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming,
Let me stay where hope is gleaming.
Where we rise by lifting others,
Sisters, fathers, friends and brothers.
Let this vision keep me high —
A better world beneath the sky.

I see walls turn into bridges,
Crowns replaced with humble wishes.
No more hunger, no more war,
Just open hearts and open doors.

This dream's the fire in my soul,
Burning brighter, making whole.
If I wake, will it be gone?
Or will I carry it along?

What if this dream's a seed we sow,
And every soul can help it grow?
A world rebuilt with hand in hand —
Not fantasy, but a living plan.

So don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming,
We could be what I've been seeing.
We could rise by lifting others,
Heal this world as one, together.
Let this dream ignite the fire —
To build the truth from our desire.

Don’t Wake Me ‘Cause I’m Dreaming - Notes

As I kept writing Second Cut, it struck me that the whole album was getting incredibly dark—I’d covered serial killers, vampires, war, death… whew. I figured it was time for a breather; otherwise people might start thinking I needed an intervention! (I don’t—I’m actually a pretty positive guy.) So I set out, very intentionally, to write something more uplifting.

At the time, I was juggling lyric ideas alongside my “day job” as an engineer at a global design firm, where the big goal is to help build a better world. That got me imagining what such a world could look like—and what it might feel like in song.

Around then, I reconnected with a high school friend—one of the guys who once graciously let me play (badly) with them and experiment with songwriting. He’d been in a real band, had even released an album, and was super encouraging about what I was doing. I told him, “Hey, give me a riff and I’ll see what I can do with it.”

Weeks later, after chasing him down, he mentioned he was working on something in Asus2, which sounded promising. As we chatted, he kept coming back to how much of his inspiration came through dreams. That clicked with me—I took “dreaming of a better world” as the motif for this song. Eventually he sent me a snippet, which I quickly tore apart and reshaped into the opening bars of Don’t Wake Me ’Cause I’m Dreaming.