About Me

who is Tris(tan)?

I'm a 26 year old autistic transfemme (she/they/em) artist born and currently residing in North Carolina. I go by the names Tristan, Tris, Moon, Moonie, T, among others :P From an early age, I've been rhythmic and musical, entranced by the magic of timbres. There are home videos of me making silly mouth noises with my grandma's karaoke machine, apparently my mom taught me how to make some of these noises. Drawing and writing have been artistic outlets for me for a long time, though earlier in life I was only really engaged with video game soundtracks as the radio country and gospel I was brought up around didn't interest me greatly. This changed around 2011-2012 as I got into Nirvana, and through that grunge, alternative rock, pop punk, nu metal, and soon post-hardcore. I became obsessed with this genre in late high school, writing down every band I found in my research on a page in my notebook. I was particularly fond of groups like At the Drive-In, Refused, and Small Brown Bike, among many many others. In my college years I was really into emo and indie rock, meanwhile I gained a strong love for industrial music which progressed throughout the rest of my early adulthood.

I was confused and lost most of my early adulthood, and had a dark, confusing existence from 21 up until my mid 20's. When I finally accepted I was autistic late into my 25th year, my life began to click. I began exploring my gender identity with more confidence, and began to finally do real work in healing for the first time in my life, rather than flying by the seat of my victim complex. I'm not perfect, and I am surely aware that not everyone will accept me for who I am, but I am in love with life and the people, stories, and world around me. My heart is broken by worldwide suffering, though I have immense hope for our species in the coming years. Without that hope, I would have much less.

I love many different presentations of art. I like art that is confrontational and direct, I like art that is subtle and cryptic, I like art that is simple and pleasant, I like art that is chaotic with complex backstories. I like art, and I'm not very picky with it. There are some things I have hangups over, but for the most part I find myself engaged with art that others have written off or deemed otherwise unworthy of connecting with. I find some of this art to be the most worthwhile to me. Though this is not to say by any means that I dispose of mainstream art, I find it to be just as poignant, and I'm by all means a poptimist. I like trashy pop tunes and club bangers, pop art and certain blockbusters, just alike to an art film or a painstaking musuem piece or an experimental album.

In 2018/2019, my music taste started shifting largely towards electronic and experimental artists. My Top 3 acts are Coil, Earl Sweatshirt, and Sophie. These artists have informed my emotional state and poured into my art for a long time now. Without Sophie's music, I would probably not have began to make my own brand of quirky deconstructed club after hearing Ponyboy. Oh, and currently my favorite album is "Watch Out!" by Alexisonfire. I try to make art that will challenge people's understandings of the medium I approach. I don't like to repeat myself, and to constantly challenge myself to evolve. Through my extensive discography, I have learned a lot about myself as a person and my creative process alike. Relistening to past works makes me reanalyze what I saw as mistakes then, now etched into history. It helps me gain more compassion for myself and confidence in my abilities, as well as inspiring my art for the future.

If I had to summarize myself, I'd say I'm about compassion, non-judgement, non-conformity, genuineness, vulnerability, curiosity, and expression. One of my greatest hopes is that people see me in public, with no care for how I'm perceived, and snap into a realization, even if just for the moment, that they are human and alive. I'm an extravert, though I can't talk in larger groups easily. Regardless, I have a robust group of friends in my life, it saddens me that not everyone can or will be my friend, and that some people are either incompatible or in different places in their lives. I don't think this is something I strive for anymore, to connect with every single person I meet (or whatever vague ideas I had around that), though I think there is great purpose in talking to people about your morals and values that don't agree with them. I have so many friends in my life, each with their own complex emotions and histories, desires and interests and dreams. A lot of them would probably not get along with each other. I find friendship with some of the oddest people's I've come across, people who have strong senses of themselves and people who are struggling to figure themselves out. I don't think any single one of my friends could be described as "boring". I love to help people to the abilities I'm able to. When I say I value compassion heavily I mean that, I see the worth in everyone. I know that we are all struggling in some way in the current world and it is one of my strongest hopes that people can change and grow from their experiences. Connection and socialization are things I think about extremely often. I love getting older, the brevity of life is somewhat daunting but I find to be a strong motivator nonetheless.

No Curfew Kids?

I came up with this name near the end of high school. The naming trend popular at the time of Cold War Kids, Code Orange Kids, I adopted for what was originially supposed to be a post-rock/dance-punk project similar to Disco Inferno. I craved freedom from the oppressive feelings I experienced in my childhood, wanting experiences out in the world, with others who thought the same. Grand and life-changing, spur of the moment experiences, without place for judgement or dismissal. With time, I have seen this moniker under a few different lights, while always being attached to the original poeticism I instilled in it. I see that our species is made up of traumatized children, to varying levels of healing, and that one day we can all be free from our collective suffering. The laws that restrict us from being who we are will fall to history one day, and we can be the kids whose childhoods were stolen from us, living free on earth as we were meant to. We can care for each other, and give each other what we need. That is No Curfew Kids.

SNZZZOV*EN?

This name was born as a combination of a meme someone showed me that has since escaped me and Wilmington, North Carolina sludge metal legends Buzzov•en. It was under this moniker that I began releasing noise experiments I made in audacity on bandcamp (while it had the nocurfewkids.bandcamp address to placehold for the band that I wished to release under). While I had made prior releases under the MC Trustan name, I didn't release them online until sometime in 2016, and this became the name I made my original solo releases under. I was inspired to create this kind of music through being exposed to my peers projects on the Music Banter forum, namely projects like Wolves in Sheepskin, Jesus the Carpenter, Cats With Hats, Machineplus, Son of Abbot, Daydream Society, Trouble Salad, among others. My music was decidedly ironic under this name, though some of the sounds and creative choices I made impress me whenever I revisit them. I retired this name in April 2018 when I released the first No Curfew Kids project.

Skull Arcade LTD?

This name I adopted as an AKA after seeing a sign advertising a "skill arcade" outside of a local bar. I simply traded skill for skull and I think it sounds pretty badass while giving a sense of the original meaning. I think it gives a full circle spotlight to my roots of haven gotten into music through video game sountracks originally. This moniker is used somewhat randomly now but at first it was used for two different experimental vaporwave releases. I added the "LTD" on the second release, String Theoreticals, which has a concept revolving around a corporate cult who deliberately progress climate change in order to reach religious awakening.

MC Trustan?