who knew we'd all be stars in the Hero Hour?

 I cannot believe in les than two months, this album will be 10 years old!!

I've decided that since this album is turning ten this year, that I would go back into my catalog and talk about some of the different albums in my catalog, in chronological order.  Making pop music is no longer my career focus (although I don't think I am ever going to stop making music, it's just not going to be my main thing anymore).

When I was a small child, I "hosted" a fictional "radio show" that existed only on cassette tapes I recorded called "The Hero Hour." I would interview stuffed animals. It was as adorable as that sounds.

It's honestly kind of remarkable--scratch that! It is absolutely remarkable that this album even exists. I was using my computer keyboard as the synth keyboard. It was build entirely in GarageBand on a computer that couldn't be used unless it was hooked up to an auxiliary screen. I had no fulltime job, my budget was basically $5 dollars. I had just released two EPs and a single (none of which I could even afford), which had done moderately well, but I had never made an album until this point. It was inspired by early 4AD and the the image on the cover was an homage to both Javert and Adam Ant (which only one person got the reference to).

"only the most valiant" was a re-recording from the EP version I had released the previous Fall. It made little references to my fictional radio show, to Socrates' separation of the mind and the body and now Socratic thought it really one of Western Civilization's worst adaptations.  Musically, it was inspired by the hymn "How Firm a Foundation."

"Pip and Miki" was the first song that I ever wrote top to bottom by myself. I wrote the lyrics and the vocal melody, played the synth over it, mixed it, etc. I wrote it for two of my friends who suffer from chronic illness and have been failed by the medical institutions. There are a couple of references to The Sisters of Mercy.

I remember a LOT of this album was born from horrible experiences of being bullied on Tumblr--in fact, they were even saying that my trying to leave the visual arts for music was futile because I was "too old." There are a lot of references to the bullying, grief I was trying to process whilst being maliciously bullied online.

I sent "Goodbye, Spaceboy" to the person I wrote it for. He never responded to the email, but I saw that he had downloaded it. There are some hints and references to the next album, which I had already started working on before I was even done with 'Too Posh.' I already had the concept for it and everything, I was really inspired by the Laura Jansen album 'Elba.' Most of the tracks on the new album were going to shift from one sonic flavor to another. I would go onto really use that a lot in my music, but this was the first time I had done it.

I don't look back on this album and cringe (like I think the way that people have hinted I am supposed to). I am very proud of this record. I don't listen to my albums very much after I am done with them, and this one, especially, because it's so fragile and raw. It was named after Gavroche, and there is a raw and vulnerable childlike quality to so many of them.

"To be loved, and to be free."