"Hey, I'm happy to be a distraction." Even using the word colloquially feels like a shift in a direction he can't wholly quantify. Artificial cheer or not, playing again is something he's seldom indulged. If other people think it sounds like something worth listening to, maybe it's not as stupid a hobby as he got to be convinced it was.

It's a thought.

One corner of his mouth twitches, the closest thing he comes to a smile on a semi-regular basis. "And it's not like I'm not performing a full set here."