Infamous

INFAMOUS is a personal response to the events of the past five years of my own life...

a story which includes being a women's studies college TA, quickly rising towards the top of the porn industry and as a sex worker in 2014, and preparing to launch an anti-capitalist worker's co-op for performers in the Industry; then suddenly falling into homelessness, and during that 2.5 year period, lot of extremely amazing and absolutely horrific things happened for me that attracted a lot of attention coming from my communities - not all of it positive. Part of the events that unfolded made me famous, at least to a few people. Briefly, far briefly than the fame I imagined realizing my dreams would last. And yet I also became infamous, probably to the same number of people as though my famous. Ultimately, the rumors and personal public attacks forced me to turn my back on those communities- the people and spaces that I had thrived on the fringe of society with and within, I no longer belonged with. 

It took a couple years to make some semblance of recovery after getting out of homelessness in January 2017. Piecing my life back together, still facing the active spreading of rumors by my haters, I decided that, moving forward, I must at all costs put all of myself into my creative talents, especially music, which I've studied, composed and performed for over 20 years, doing all sorts of musicianship for little folk open mics, legit professional jazz combos, conducting small local to Atlanta orchestras in my own works, and, for a decade now, quietly creating a library of electronic music that now encompasses some 100 tracks. 

Creating music has always been very cathartic for me, and no time in my life before did I need such catharsis so intensely

This album was made between December 2017-November of 2018. It is the first part of the best of the work completed since building an in-home music studio and the album serves as a sort of portfolio of what was learned over the year since beginning a year ago. Altogether, including the half that was lost, about 80 tracks were created in only two years, using free software and off-brand midi controllers the first year, then upgrading to my current situation,  which has allowed me to create over 40 since just a year ago. 

And during this process, I began to heal and started celebrating my successes during the hardest time in my life- the crucible of my transmutation- instead of regretting my failures. And the people targeting and spreading falsehoods about me came to be exposed for what they were. And I realized I wasn't actually infamous, but loved, and with a community. 

The album is 50 minutes and 52 seconds with 15 tracks, all produced in Bitwig Studio using both stock or 3rd synth presets and sample packs; and samples I cut myself, as well as my own presets generated on BW and VST synths. All tracks are composed and produced by Vivian Elliott in their entirety. 

Look out for the B-side, another 30 tracks, coming out in a couple months.