Dear Amelia and Sofía,

My Enneagram number is 8. I found the Enneagram to be an extraordinarily accurate personality test and my character is, indeed, a classic type 8. One of the chief traits of the type 8 is an exaggerated duty of care over people within their social group. For most 8s this usually extends to family, friends, work colleagues and so forth; as a performer, however, this concern for the wellbeing of others appears to extend to my fans. In essence, The Red Hand Files, for better or for worse, is a kind of unhinged expansion of that inclination – a weird paternal instinct toward my audience, gone berserk.

I also have another impulse, which I hope is more common, and that is to treat everyone with equal love and respect, regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, religion or anything else. I essentially see the world as a collection of individuals, each unique in their brokenness, who have at their core a common and binding sameness of spirit. So, Amelia, although I am slightly uncertain as to where I am supposed to stand on such things, or rather why I am supposed to stand anywhere, I will say this – I love my trans fans fully and wish them the best, as I love all my fans and wish them the best. I feel toward them that same duty of care that I feel toward all those who exist within my sphere. I also wish for them to receive every right inherent to them and for them to lead lives of dignity and freedom, devoid of violence and prejudice. I wish these things as I wish them for all people.

As a musician, it is a true privilege to stand on stage and watch a crowd of disparate individuals lost to the common, inclusive vitality that music offers; to observe people transcend themselves, united by that innate spiritual sameness that is buried beneath the condition of identity. It is deeply moving to witness and fully understand that each of us is uniquely strange in our individual personage, yet under the sway of some greater enfolding force we are as one. That is music’s great gift and revelation.

Love, Nick