Chapter 138: 8-Bit Heart

Have you ever come across an album that completely captured the period in your life when it was released? Have you ever heard an album that you felt was created specifically for you to hear at the exact moment that you heard it, as if it’s sole purpose were to reach your ears and tell you that you’re not alone in this world? Have you ever felt like an album has completely captured the very moment you are living as you are listening to it? Have you ever heard an album that you felt was sent to you from the Universe, or whatever you believe in, to deliver some sort of message to you? I have. I have been fortunate enough to have this experience a few times in my life. The first I can really remember off the top of my head was back in 2003, with Michelle Branch’s sophomore record, “Hotel Paper.” This happened again with the debut album from The Veronicas, “The Secret Life Of The Veronicas.” It’s a pretty rare experience, honestly, to have an entire album really capture the experience of your life in the moment that you first hear it – it’s as if it was made just for you. I was fortunate enough to have had that experience again today and it only seemed appropriate to dedicate tonight’s blog to sharing that experience with you all.

The artist who has provided this magical moment for me is 24 year-old Oklahoma native, Simon Curtis. I can’t honestly say that I know a ton about him as a person except what I have picked up from following him on Twitter, which is basically that he is adorable, he is close friends with brilliant photographer Tyler Shields, Andrea Lewis, of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” fame and Josh Hutcherson, from one of my favorite movies, “Bridge To Terabithia.” I also learned from following him on Twitter that he has a very deep, genuine passion for all things POP. I initially heard of him when I saw a post about him on one of my favorite music blogs, Jon Ali’s Blog, featuring his first “single,” a brilliant, hard-hitting power-pop song called “Delusional.” I was pretty impressed with the song and his interview with Jon Ali, so I decided to follow him on Twitter and found him completely charming and fun. Then I heard the next song he released, “Diablo,” which I fell in love with instantly. “Diablo” is just as hard-hitting as “Delusional,” but much more experimental and irreverent. It’s a very tongue in cheek track, which opens with the line, “Here’s the thing, we started off friends, but this is not a Kelly Clarkson song and not where it ends.” That opening line was enough to suck me in and make me fall in love with this song. Fortunately, the song only gets better from there. Having only ever heard these two tracks from him, it was enough to make me fall in love with this kid and become very anxious for an album from him. He announced via Twitter that he was preparing an album that he intended to release for free via his official website, http://www.simon-curtis.com, as soon as he got to 8,000 followers. It took a while but as of late Sunday night, he officially reached 8,000 and announced the album, titled “8-Bit Heart” would be released today, March 23, 2010.

Before I discuss this album, though, I do want to make mention of another record that Simon Curtis did, called “Alter Boy,” which was recorded and intended for release sometime around 2006-2007 but was eventually shelved. It’s an absolute shame that this record hasn’t seen the light of day, either, because based on the 11 tracks from it that I have managed to dig up online it was an incredible record. It was very similar to the sound of “Delusional” and “Diablo,” but less experimental and slightly more poppy. It was really ahead of it’s time and, unfortunately, I can kind of understand how it wound up shelved because there was really no place for pop music, especially pop music that was so offbeat and different, on radio at the time that it was being worked on. I’m not going to lie, I really do attribute the recent onslaught of unique, original to Lady Gaga. She really paved the way for a lot of the artists that have emerged since she came onto the scene and that is just another reason why I am so grateful Gaga has made such a splash in the industry. As far as “Alter Boy” goes, though, it is pretty incredible all on it’s own, filled to the brim with experimental pop/dance music with extremely powerful lyrics taking on all kinds of issues facing the world these days. The most powerful song from the “Alter Boy” sessions that I have heard is a track called “Put Your Makeup On.” It’s a song about experiencing troubles in your life and always trying to put your best foot forward and not let the pain or stress or worries show to the outside world. The most powerful part of this song for me is a line from the bridge where he says, “As a kid I got a lot of shit for liking my music, but what is it for? ‘You should listen to this because it gives more,’ ‘Yeah, but it sounds lousy on the dance floor.’” That line really captures so much of my experience growing up, and I would imagine the experience of so many young men who were “not supposed to” listen to pop music or enjoy dancing or all of those things that so many people stereotype as being gay qualities. Not only does that capture much of my personal experience growing up but I feel like it really captures a lot of the gay experience growing up. I feel like a lot of “Alter Boy” captures that experience, honestly. I have absolutely no idea if Simon Curtis is gay himself and it really doesn’t make a lick of difference to me if he isn’t – I just know that he really captured a lot of the experience from my perspective and I am grateful for that.

Much like “Alter Boy,” the new album “8-Bit Heart” is also extremely upbeat, completely unique and really pushes the limits of what can be done with pop music, particularly by a male artist. Unlike “Alter Boy,” though, this record has a very clearly defined theme and really takes you on a journey and tells a story that is introduced right off the bat with the spoken word intro to the record, “BoyRobot.” It introduces the concept of the record beautifully, stating, “There once was a boy who was made, not created. He wanted to learn. He wanted to indulge his senses, to understand pain, but most of all he wanted to love, for only when he found true love would he become real. He traveled far and long but love eluded him. The humans around him complicated the word, strove to drive it around altogether, and this he could not understand. For what could be simpler than to love and be loved in return? He was made with an 8-bit heart.” This is such a powerful statement and it made me cry the first time I heard it. I feel like that, in so many ways, is the story of my life. I feel like I, too, am a BoyRobot. This immediately leads into a short little song called, “Don’t Wanna Be Alone.” This song also hit extremely close to home for me, particularly the second verse which states, “I get scared sometimes, when I see all the connections happening around me, that fate will evade me, that time will betray me, that future I just don’t want to see, Don’t want to be that synapse swerve that missed the nerve and now is dead for eternity. Listen to me, I’m not gonna be alone. I’m gonna find someone. I swear the fire will never grow cold.” This is basically a description of where I am at right now in life in a lot of ways. I know I am extremely focused on my creative work right now but I am also really terrified at this point that I am going to wind up all by myself with heaps of creative work and nobody to share any of it with. I know that isn’t going to happen. I know that there is somebody out there who will be absolutely perfect for me. It is scary, though. The next track is a very catchy song called “Fell In Love w/An Android,” which is a song about falling in love with somebody cold and unfeeling and seemingly perfect in every way. Let’s just say that I have my share of experience with that, particularly in my last relationship type thing. It is exactly the type of relationship I am trying to avoid moving forward, but the type that has always been the easiest for me to fall into. Of course, Simon tells this story in a way that is completely offbeat and clever, complete with the line, “Try to play it like you think you’re something so hot, Hate to say it but I’d rather fuck a robot.” This song is followed by a track called “Super Psycho Love,” which is about the other type of relationship I have had experience with – the type with somebody who makes you feel completely unwanted causing you to go out of your way and do all kinds of crazy things to get their attention. This is definitely something I have a great deal of experience with, as well. This song makes me think a lot about my last “real” boyfriend, who I obsessed over for ages after he moved away even through another relationship. He just had this power over me and I think a lot of that had to do with making me feel like I was never really good enough. It worked, I suppose. This is another type of relationship that I am trying to avoid moving forward.

The song after “Super Psycho Love,” is probably my favorite track on the entire album, the title track “8-Bit Heart.” It is the slowest track on the record, although it is a pretty upbeat mid-tempo, and the real emotional core of the album I think. This song has a really simple, yet incredibly heartfelt set of lyrics and the chorus really captures it, echoing the sentiment of the BoyRobot intro, “Is it so, so wrong to love? Baby, is it so, so wrong to love? Is it so, so wrong to love and to be loved in return?” This song alone is reason enough to download this album immediately. I cannot say enough good things about this song. This song is followed by the aforementioned single, “Diablo,” the Spanish word for Devil, which is basically a song about being with somebody who you really think of as evil. The chorus of this song is so fun and over-the-top, saying, “You’re the devil, you’re a filthy piece of trash, Gonna brush you off my shoulder, Gonna let you kiss my ass, You’re a Diablo.” This song is just extremely catchy and clever, referencing lyrics by both Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, who is clearly a big influence on a lot of Simon’s work, (there is an entire song on “Alter Boy” referencing her song titles.) This is followed by an adorable little interlude of Simon in an elevator on the phone with the producer of both “Alter Boy” and “8-Bit Heart,” Jadion, which leads into the aforementioned first single, “Delusional.” “Delusional” is actually a lot better than I thought initially when put into the context of the record – it is basically a song about people who don’t have faith in you and your dreams, and trying to go out and prove them all wrong. Anybody who has read this blog before should know that this is a topic that I am VERY familiar with and feel very passionate about. This is followed by another favorite track on the record, “Joystick,” which is an extremely sexual song, creating innuendo out of video game talk. It is absolutely brilliant and just one big musical turn-on. It is funny, too, because it reminded me a lot of a new song I wrote at work today. I mean, it is completely different from the song that I wrote but it reminds me of it in the sense that it is full of cleverly disguised but still very over-the-top innuendo. This song is very fun, catchy, offbeat and extremely sexual. This is followed by one of the catchiest, most fun tracks on the record, “Beat Drop.” This is one of those songs essential to any pure pop record - the song about going out and dancing, partying and having a general good time. What is my favorite part of this song? The line “Tell the DJ drop the beat, don’t play some motherfucking band.” Of course, there is also a brief sample of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” that doesn’t hurt at all, either. This is followed by a song called “Brainwash,” about getting caught up in your own grandiose and “fame,” and that feeling that you want it to happen but are unsure of whether or not it is genuine. Now, I am not famous by any means, but the ideas of getting caught up in your own grandiose and wondering if those feelings you have about yourself and other people’s perceptions of you are genuine is something I am very familiar with. In fact, that is a topic that has been briefly touched upon in the blog for the past couple of days. This is followed by one last full-length song, “The Dark,” which features a brilliantly placed sampled rap from Jay-Z, and is basically a song about feeling lost in your journey to achieve your dreams. “I can’t figure out how to get in, Can’t somebody show me? I can’t see in the dark.” It is really a beautiful song and the perfect way to almost cap off the album.

Then comes the outro, “Victory,” and this is where the true message is delivered. “…and so the boy traveled on, undeterred, upon his quest. For he now knew that it was not another’s love that would make him real but the love within his own heart, and with that he knew that he would never be alone.” That is making me cry all over again just re-typing it. It is such an incredible message and one that I have dedicated so much of myself to trying to get across to others but sometimes what we preach is truly the hardest thing for us to practice. It is easy to see things, to know that they are true, than it is to really put them to use in your life. The term “easier said than done” comes to mind. However, as I mentioned before, I feel like this record was made for the purpose of delivering a message to me, and that outro is it. I cannot say enough great things about this record and I urge each and every person who reads this blog to visit http://www.simon-curtis.com where “8-Bit Heart” is available as a 100% legal free download, direct from Simon himself. I cannot even put into words how much this record means to me, and the fact that he wrote, recorded and released this all on his own is absolutely incredible and awe-inspiring. THIS is an inspiration, as well as a swift kick in the ass reminding me to step up my game. If I can create a record that will make even one person feel the way that “8-Bit Heart” has made me feel then my entire life, every hurt, every scar, every beautiful moment and every completely heartbreaking moment, will have been worthwhile. This is the other thing that I have taken from this record. Again, I urge you ALL to visit http://www.simon-curtis.com and download the record for yourself. I can nearly guarantee that you will be able to take something just as powerful from it for yourself. Thanks for listening. Good night.