One of the benefits of being an underground artist is that there is no pressure to stay the same. But now that I’ve recorded and Kickstarted and begun to play the first “record release” gigs, I find myself noticing two things. How much I’ve changed and how much I’ve stayed exactly the same. I’m still impulsively going for the emotional jugular all the time, like I’m afraid there’s something I might not feel if I don’t cut a little bit deeper, or reveal something just a little more humiliating. And I’m still messing around with traditional song forms to try to make some cracks where different emotions might leak through. But I’m also taking melodic risks — almost what I’d call ‘pop” risks — that I’d never have imagined before. I rehearse a new song like WHAT RATS ARE WE and suddenly remember how risky it felt letting that one certain chord resolve. But somehow it all still sounds like me. Maybe it even sounds more like me. Maybe I’m more like me. So the only question now is: does it sound like you? Are my Monsters anything like yours? If you’re reading this, probably yes. Hope I see you on the road or online so you can tell me yourself.