Working Title
Gentlewomen and Gentlemen of the Vox Chaotica Council! If you're just tuning in, let me situate you: my name is Cutter, and I am one of those con-founded creatives, what with his artistic in-clin-ations and *shifty eyes* Type B pers'nality. I don't know why I went all stereotypical 1850s gold prospector on you, but as a newbie here, it's ~imperative~ you understand how quickly my mind shifts gears—and how quirky the transmission of my mind is. First is somewhere over there, second got lost a few years back, third is actually fourth, and you have to travel to another country to find the manual describing why you shouldn't use the setting labeled fourth.
Reeling back in, basically I like to do a bunch of creative things. For example, I'm seriously working on four separate ventures right now, not including my band (or the other small projects I'm contemplating). Let me give you a clue to the first one: you already know about it.
Vox Chaotica
It's this blog! Since 2013, I've been writing off and on (mostly off) when I first buckled to my curiosity and started a tumblr. If you are ever inclined to read a really long vague story about the first two times I was in love, you should definitely check out the—except I just spent the last hour combing through my old posts, and that story is actually on my secret tumblr. I won't tell you what it is, but I will tell you that sometimes I lived there. Turns out Vox Chaotica was born out of my need to make a home for the expanded lore surrounding my music. Dreams I-V debuted there, and because you obviously missed the extensive global marketing campaign which put my little EP in the heads of millions of people [Editor's Note: Cutter is being facetious, but realises that sarcasm rarely translates like it should through text, so now he's explaining it to you in third person because he likes third person a bit too much. He should probably have that checked out by a professional], you can read the tiny stories I wrote for each one here while you listen to them on bandcamp.
Now it's just become a place for me to write, because I like it. *sniffs loudly while turning his face up and left, giving you mad side-eyes which are full of pleas to accept and love him for who he is even though he's being a royal snootypants right now*
Sweet Nothings
My bandcamp, if you didn't notice (or, shame on you, didn't check it out), is woefully out of date. It's been three years since I even looked at the page for anything beyond making sure Bandcamp hadn't just deleted it from inactivity. But that will change soon. I have been busy working on music, not only with my band The Darling Sounds, but have been working on a full-length LP of a sister-genre to Labyrinths, called Sweet Nothings. Like Labyrinths, Sweet Nothings is a post-rock inspired concept album, but this time it's a more personal album about love and loss.
But this album is different. The emotionality is different, partially because instead of exulting in the glory of bringing some of my favourite writings to life; rather, I am pouring my own raw emotion and experience into the whole project—which is considerably more intense and much darker than the surrealist storytelling of Borges. And when I say the whole project, I mean all of it. The individual instrument tracks have names to illuminate more of the abum's story, the liner notes are going to contain other bits of writing and lyrics to help cement the mood and hint at the truth the music doesn't tell, and, among other things, the artwork is there to set the tone form the very beginning, and my friend's art is the perfect fit for it (she also did the cover for Haunt).
This will be out soon, and maybe now I'm employed, I'll be able to actually post bits of the music here, rather than having to link you off to some other place to listen.
Mimir's Well
And now we're getting into something a bit more obscure—just the way I like it! Due to the nature of this not-quite-art-project, I can't really speak in exact specifics, but what I can tell you is I'm basically trying to put together a secret society for introverts. Think of this as a sort of modern-day Diogenes Club, except you can forget the part where everyone was forbidden to speak to each other. The idea is to create an always-open space where the quieter among us can go to escape the loud world around us. Ideally, the space would also function as a meeting-place for member collaborations (an artistic, business, intellectual, or any other project), a sounding-board for ideas, and as the least social social club the world has yet seen.
Now, you might be wondering who Mimir is, and what does his well have to do with anything like an Introvert's Social Club? Well, because I am putting this little group together, I get to name it, and because I'm me, it's based in Norse mythology. I know, I know, big surprise, right? It's not going to stop me from regaling you with the mythological context for the name though, so grab your closest drinking horn and get comfortable.
Mimir was just some guy who happened to wander outside of Midgard and find a nice little place to live freaking right next to the roots of Yggdrasil, the World-Tree. He probably chose this place because of the well that just happened to be there, tapping into the waters of the earth near the base of Yggdrasil—and wouldn't you know the waters actually make you wiser as you drink them? So Mimir keeps to himself by this well, taking drinks from it with his drinking-horn Gjallarhorn, not to be confused with Heimdallr's sounding-horn also called Gjallarhorn. [Editor's Note: sometimes I wonder about the ancient Norse, but usually not for very long]
Anyway, one day this one guy came by the well and was like, "Yeah, I'm Odin, All-Father, seeker of knowledge, and I hear you have a pretty nice well here full of secret magic. Let me drink from it." And for whatever reason, Mimir felt brave enough to tell Odin, "Actually, All-Father, I own this well, and you have to give me an appropriate sacrifice to drink from the well. How about you give me your eye?" [Spoiler alert: this is how Odin lost his eye] Literally after no consideration—Odin is stone cold when it comes to keeping his title of Most Wise—the Lord of the Æsir pulled his eye from his head and handed it to Mimir, who was feeling so incredibly courageous that he literally dropped Odin's eye to the bottom of the well.
Frownmail
This is actually an interesting project that I sort of aligned myself with earlier in the year (spoiler alert, last April the Lady and I decided to follow separate paths). Basically, it's a found art/geocaching thing—the people behind Frownmail type up short letters, put them in envelopes with wax seals, and then distribute them to people (like me) to place around for the general public to find. Whenever a letter is hidden, the person hiding it is responsible for taking a picture of the letter in its location (the letter should be at least partially visible in the picture), which they send to Frownmail HQ to be posted online so people following their social media can go find them.
tl;dr - Cutter always does a lot of stuff because he likes creating. Mostly music, like his albums, but also social projects and found art things that he found randomly on the internet one day.