Dearest Plague Rats,

A small crisis occurred in the studio this week.

"Girls Will Be Girls" needs a harpsichord—of course it does, it's a love letter to the original Plague Rats, many of whom found me through the songs that featured the instrument in the first place. And there was only one harpsichord sample I ever loved, the same one I've used since Opheliac, the one that became the sound of...me.

So I opened up my DAW and launched the plugin with my harpsichord sample. And it no longer works.

Discontinued. Incompatible with my current software. Gone in the way that digital things go—not with a dramatic death, but with an update that forgot to bring it along.

I won't pretend I handled this gracefully. There was a moment (hour) of genuine panic at the idea that I could never play that exact sound again—the one that opened "Opheliac" on German goth radio, the entire groundwork of "The Art of Suicide," the one that made an entire demographic think, "Wtf is this? Do I like it? I might..." You don't replace something like that. You just don't.

Except, apparently, you do. After tearing through every harpsichord sample library money could buy, I landed on one called Berlin Harpsichords. It sounds almost exactly like my original—only slightly better, which I say with both relief and the faintest sense of betrayal.

And then I realized. Berlin. One of the first cities I ever performed in when Opheliac came out and that harpsichord sound met my audience for the first time.

And is this not worthy of a love letter?

Today, Feb. 12th at 3pm EST, I'll finally be recording my new harpsichord, building synths, and programming drums for this song, all live-streamed in The Asylum Inner Circle direct from Striped Stocking Studio.

The Inmates will be working alongside me—a session we call "In Solitary, Together." I work, you work, tea is shared, progress is made, distracting stories are periodically told, and no one feels alone. You can even mute me when I inevitably spend too long crafting the perfect 80s snare.

If you'd like to be in that room, I'll leave the door open a crack.

And if you're already an Inner Circle member, just log in here!

See you in the studio.