Haha, this is quite a story, and it requires a little exposition. Bear with me.
I was reading before kindergarten and writing a secret daily journal by the first grade. On the other side of the coin, I'm a low grade dyscalculic and was nearly held back through grade school because of that. I remember feeling like the world was so much more than what we were taught in school and saw in daily life. I got hooked on escapism early on through reading constantly. (my parents are both book lovers, my mother is a high school English and history teacher with a masters in literature.) I was mercilessly hassled by other kids for reading on the bus, in class, everywhere. (We went to Great America in the 3rd grade and I sat on a bench and read Mossflower the whole time. Loved every second of it.) It's fair to say that YA Fantasy and Science Fiction shaped my early life. Of course, eventually videogames entered the picture. I was a full-time devotee to books, videogames and music by the time I was eight or nine. I was interested in every aspect of all three. I spent so much time on escapism that people started to actively worry about me. The moment of truth came when my mother confronted me about this behavior when I was in the 5th grade. She wanted me to pursue other more active interests. (I was a scrawny, effeminate kid, hopeless at sports, bored to tears by extracurricular activities.) I needed to live a real life. "Books, art, videogames, dungeons and dragons, all that stuff is good for your imagination, but at the end of the day, it's just imaginary". I read the journal entry for that day earlier this year. It's the kind of silly angst that only an obnoxious ten-year-old can write, so I'll spare us all the great deal of the entry. What really matters is that it ends with the line: "I don't think I would mind If I were imaginary".
That phrase hit me like a ton of bricks. It taught me a lot about who I am, and where I come from. At that point I decided to take it back, then and there. It was a defining moment in my choice to take a new direction in my life.
I assumed that there was probably already an artist (maybe even a chiptune artist) or band called Imaginary. Consider my surprise when I found that it was still up for grabs. Maybe it was fate? In the end it's only an alias, but it's something that I can really stand behind as representative of who I am.
Thanks for listening.
- Imaginary