I’m happy to say that “Blasted!” is finished and ready to be released into the world. It’s been a heart-wrenching process that started at Ferron’s house in the middle-of-nowhere Michigan, took me back home to NYC and landed me in Asheville, NC to finish. I wanted to make an album completely from the inside of me. I mean, I didn’t have a choice cuz I was all flipped around while making this, so my insides were on the outside and vice versa.
 
But this is my bio, so here’s who I am:
 
I was born to English parents in a suburb of Pittsburgh. My mom is a tap dancer my dad is a scientist. I started playing the violin at age 4 because of an episode of Sesame Street. I started writing poems when we moved from Pittsburgh to a suburb of Detroit and I experienced heartbreak for the first time. Since then I never stopped writing poems and I only stopped playing violin for a couple years when I went to acting school and needed to ‘leave’ that world for a while. I picked it back up when I signed up for fiddle lessons with Andrew Bird. Then I shaved my head and went to Australia for 6 months and hitch-hiked around, playing fiddle on the streets.
 
I came back to the US and started my own theater, which was my first band, Bitch and Animal. We were babies in NYC then had a falling out with a roommate, which pushed us up to Provincetown for a summer on a whim. We tried to get a gig at ‘established’ music venues but no one would have us. The guy who owns the pizza shop gave us a gig every Sunday night which we played for tips and it soon became the ‘thing to do’ on a Sunday night. This was the first time I felt held as an artist in the world. We released a tape, which got into the hands of Ani Difranco who took us on tour, then recorded us, then released two of her records on her label, Righteous Babe Records. Nothing like hanging out with your idol to make you feel like you really have skin. Me and Animal had wild adventures. When we broke up, I made an album, “Make This Break This” which was released on Kill Rock Stars. I fell into a great rhythm with my band, The Exciting Conclusion, and we made an ep, “B+TEC” together at the same time that I was beginning the process of making an album of another one of my idols, Ferron. I spent a year doing that and started my own label, Short Story Records.
 
I also got to go back to my acting roots a couple of years ago when I played myself in John Cameron Mitchell’s movie, “Shortbus.” Another dream come true to add the list of notches in my belt.
 
Now I’ve just finished “Blasted!” I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. I feel so proud, looking back at the road that brought me here and staring down the horizon ahead.

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