About Me
I've always needed to put things into boxes. Categorise, sort, file, label — it's just how my brain works, and for a long time I thought of it as just a quirk of my OCD to manage rather than something to make use of. Somewhere along the way I realised that the two things I love most — insects and music — both reward that kind of obsessive sorting. Every insect order has a personality. Every genre has a lineage. The more I catalogued one, the more I started hearing it in the other.
This site is what happens when you let that instinct run wild in public. Building the framework that connects entomology and music has turned something I used to manage quietly into something that brings me a lot of joy — and I wanted to share it, in case it brings someone else a little joy too.
Qualifications
My invertebrate work started in 2021, and it's grown a lot since. It began with EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) sampling — using those three insect orders as bioindicators of stream health. From there it branched into food web systems work, including looking at nootropics, and most recently into building reference libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand. Conservation is the thread running through all of it — the more time I spend with invertebrates, the more convinced I am that they're chronically underrated.
I had a rock 'n' roll dad who was a drummer, so he was rightfully intense about his music — and he passed down both good taste and a steady stream of unsolicited opinions. For a few years now I've listened to an album a day, which has pushed me into genres I never would have found on my own. I feel like I've only scratched the surface and I'm excited to keep going.
I love being on stage. I love being given a microphone, a spotlight, or even just a moment of undivided attention. If recognition were a renewable resource I would be doing my part for the environment. Consider this entire website a very elaborate, very public cry for applause — wrapped in a love letter to bugs and albums, but a cry for applause nonetheless.