I realized I was a trans woman between finishing and releasing this album. That presented me with an issue: I was ready to release this album, but didn't want to go through the release process under that old identity. I ultimately couldn't go through the release process as a man- and I actually ended up coming out publicly a bit sooner than I would have otherwise. Had I not created this album, it would have taken me years longer to realize who I am. Only in making these songs to work through the years of loss I'd experienced was I able to get a look at who I am separated from the circumstances of my life: being born a man, losing my father, Covid 19, difficult breakups, etc. I have always had a fair bit of distance from my identity. I could never tell you who I am because I often just don't know. Only in making songs am I able to analyze who it is that made the song and know that the person who made the song is me. When I listened back to these songs and thought about who it was who made them I knew it wasn't a man. But our identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. The years I spent making this record were filled with loss and hardships that took up all the space in my life that I had. When I had time to look at who I was, I would ask, "who am I without the ones I lost?" not, "who am I when I'm alone?". It's funny how much some of these hardships clouded my view of who I really am. I was doing things to feminize myself throughout the recording of the album even though I believed I was a man - breathier singing, pitch warping... I would often write narratively from the perspective of a woman. Some of the earliest songs from this project dating back to 2017 were written from the perspective of a woman (ETA, Angels) Even the idea of releasing music as an animated character suddenly makes a lot more sense once I realized who I am (a feeling of distance from my physical form). It underscores to me that this is who I've been my entire life, it just took 26 years to