Dearly Beloved
I took the day off of work Monday because I didn’t get much sleep. I had cooked some yummy food involving garlic cloves Sunday night, and one of our mini Aussies ended up with one of them and was pretty violently ill. She’s ok, but that was the catalyst for my last post, The Garlic Incident, and the associated track.
Wednesday I took the day off work again, but this time it was a mental health day. I don’t think I need to tell you why I needed that.
Today I was supposed to drive out to see a dear friend, but ultimately decided it was too risky. It’s the first weekend after the election, and a long weekend at that, so there will be plenty of lifted pickup truck owners tying one on and celebrating their manliness in the vicinity of my proposed destination. As a trans person who doesn’t pass in either direction, the risk of traveling too far outside my sanctuary just doesn’t seem worth it. The world got a lot smaller today.
What I did instead was stay home locked in my little bedroom studio and recorded an album’s worth of material. It’s dark and moody, but I like it a lot, and I hope you will too. The album is called When We Were Vampires, and here’s the album description:
This album is a collapsing of time and a processing of grief, despair, and anger. It's about sanctuary and fear, power and betrayal, longing and belonging, living to see tomorrow, dying alone, and laughing nervously at the absurdity of life.
The album will be on pre-order until November 12th. If you purchase it before then, you’ll get 3 tracks immediately and the rest on release day. I’m doing another virtual listening party that morning, right after the album launch, so come by and chat with me and listen to the album together.
I’ll do another post on Tuesday after the release party, so this is the last newsletter you’ll get from me before a lot of cool things happen. Keep reading and clicking buttons or you’ll miss it.
On a side note, please check on your trans, queer, and femme friends. We’re not OK.
Album Pre-Order: When We Were Vampires
Get 3 tracks for ordering early and the rest on release day!
Listening Party
Experience the full album with me and other listeners as soon as it releases. I will be talking about the album and answering your questions via text chat.
The Book of Xenomes
It’s been a long time coming, but the Book of Xenomes has finally been released, with a surprise foreword by composer and music theory guru Ian Ring. Here’s an excerpt:
Qid Love eschews random colonization of the pitch universe, and has instead developed a system of naming that encodes each scale’s structure in a meaningful form. Each musical scale is represented as a compact notation – a “xenome” – that functions like an acronym for the scale’s identity. Xenomes allow musicians to recognize and work with pitch-class sets intuitively, without needing to engage with the deeper mathematical calculations typically associated with set theory. The approach empowers musicians to bring the insights of xenomes directly into their practice, in a format that feels accessible and memorably simple. Notably, thinking of pitch-class sets as xenomes illuminates certain symmetries that will spice up your scalar vocabulary.
There is no expectation that the reader will already know set theory, hexadecimal notation, binary or modulo arithmetic. Qid explains each concept so clearly that both seasoned theorists and beginners alike will find the system intuitive and engaging.
Whether you’re hoping to deepen your grasp of musical set theory or are simply curious about an innovative approach to scale identification, this book offers a refreshing take. Qid Love bridges the gap between the highly theoretical world of pitch class set naming and the everyday reality of making music. A gift to musicians and theorists alike: a practical, accessible way to explore one of music’s more enigmatic subjects. - Ian Ring
I’m also thrilled that xenomes have been added to the scale reference pages on Mr. Ring’s “The Exciting Universe Of Music Theory” website, right above Forte numbers. This is a huge moment of validation for me, and I’m extremely grateful to Ian for taking the time to read my book, write a foreword, and integrate my system into the most comprehensive scale reference on the internet.
Un-Release Party
This is your last warning. On Monday 11/11, I will be hosting a small private ritual in Seattle for only the most willing victims. Seats are very limited.
November 11th is Getting Close
After 11/11, all of my past Bandcamp releases are going into the Vault. If you want to purchase individual releases, take advantage of the current special price on my back catalog, or just stream for free like there’s no tomorrow, now’s the time.
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