[soft, reflective tone. slow pacing. background ambient/drone begins]

Yes… three minutes.
Is it much to ask for? [pause]
That is the time I’m asking you to spend,
to listen to what I have to say.

Just three minutes.
Is it too much to ask for?
Can you spare… just three minutes? [pause]

I understand if you can’t.
Nobody seems able to spend just three minutes.
Everyone tells me:
“Later. I’ll listen later.” [pause]
And I keep on asking myself…
when exactly is later?
Because it never seems to come.

[slightly firmer, but still calm]
Just three minutes.
I’m not asking much.
It’s not even having to stop,
to exercise your eyes and mind —
although you can.

But no.
I’m just asking you to listen,
for three minutes.

You can continue doing what you are doing.
Continue with what you have.
You can even just let me be… in your background,
not really listening.

But I am asking…
can you listen,
for just three minutes? [pause]

[slightly softer, confiding]
I know I’m not a trend.
Nor am I what others listen to.
But I am asking you —
yes… you.
Can you give me just three minutes of your time?

It’s not a test.
It’s not a challenge.
You don’t have to give me your three minutes.
You don’t have to listen.
And with this, I know you won’t now.
You’ll tell me:
“Later, I will.”

But I am asking still.
Can I have… just your three minutes?

[slight rise in intensity]
You know…
in those three minutes,
you will learn a lot of what a lifetime is.
And maybe understand better
who you have allowed to hear.

And maybe you will realise…
you never did listen before,
if you never gave me those three minutes,
but left me for “later.”

[lower, thoughtful tone]
Luckily for you,
I am still here to ask.
But maybe… I wouldn’t have been.

Is three minutes too much? [pause]

[soft, almost fading now]
I know there are so many three minutes you are asked for,
that it’s easier to say “later” —
especially to those you know…
and who won’t ask you again.

And if they do…
it won’t feel like a demand.

[fade out. silence lingers.]

3mins

Don’t be fooled I’m no musician or singer, far from it I cannot sing since age of 12 since my voice broke and I had to leave the school choir. But I am a creative, and artist, better known for my drawings and illustrations than any other part of my art. 

However, my art is about communicating ideas, ideologies, thoughts, emotions and from drawing to installations, to sound I will delve through it and produce as I go. 

Word and sound have been two constants but never found a delivery vehicle through which I could reach a wider audience, particularly with my word art. I’m not into putting myself out and at the forefront, I am more the one at the back of the crowd. 

So delivery was always an issue. And then I found AI, not to create my art but to deliver. 
Original word art transformed into song tracks by having a voice and finding the right genres, styles, fusions of different styles and language.

Every piece is my original word art, for you that would translate to Lyrics, but it has a wider context for me. And AI assisted in creating the track.

So this is just one of my projects.

Importantly to me is bringing my word art into the public arena for once is a completion of successfully navigating past one of the biggest obstacles in my life. In school whilst I was not in the lower classes, yes tier systems suck, I was considered as someone who would fail English. If told enough times you will, so I did. It took a teacher I will never forget to pick me up and show me that others were wrong and he showed me I could do it. But the scars were always to stay. So language has always been my inferiority complex. Ironically my art took me to become a reporter although  always very much never believing my worth, and also hiding my written word art from the public, even the family. Things changed when at my later years I’m realising I have nothing to be ashamed of as I have achieved a lot and it’s time to take a plunge and let the words flow out into the public arena.

I have a voice, it speaks all day and like all my work I have stories to tell or wish to tell. Thoughts I wish to discuss, ideas I wish to have others debate, emotions I wish to describe, protests I wish to scream out, sounds I wish others to hear, whispers I want to send into the breeze, joy and play I wish to share.

As a follower of cybernetics art I believe I am just the delivery vehicle, original source, the prospect that others could use the sound and take it further is something which has not gone past me, hence this now becomes a collaborative work.

Sharing to make the art develop, grow, mature and spread wider than its original intent of putting words together to express something.

Maybe there are human singers out there who will use my words, or visualisers who will push the visuals further. All I ask is for the authorship of the original words and their composition to be respected and rewarded as deserved, respecting their origins. 

But take it on and take it forward if you wish and let me know where and how it’s gone so the connection and link is maintained.

On the simpler level I hope the words find an audience and provide something for someone, even if it’s just one person.

As I say I am not a singer or a musician just a creative doing his art. A whole lot of respect to those who have their own voices and talents in music, my words are mine and I use AI trying to find you with that talent to take my words on. Not out of disrespect. But Ai gives me a chance to reach out where I have not had a chance, and hopefully connect with others by offering my word art. 

You will find I’m one who stands behind the crowds, and I intend to stay there as that’s were I feel safe.

3mins

Stephen Ignacio