I have been asked probably a dozen times now why I sign my art digitally as “C Note” and what the origin of the name “D3d,” is and so I decided to write this post explaining both. First, I’d like to explain why I don’t just use my real name, “Frederick Cook,” in all of my works, which seems to be a good starting point for this article. When I create something, I step outside of myself, almost like becoming something or someone different from myself and it has always been this way for me.
I call these various creative states different aspects of myself as if each were compartmentalized into entirely different beings who have been created to serve the specific creative need. I have been known under several names in my occult days, “Frederick Nagash,” “Frederick Ambrogio,” and one thing remained a constant then, my first name, which was the sort of glue that bound those names to me. Over the years I have developed representational chains instead of ones based on my name and that is why today I have C Note and D3d.
Now, the representations lend to their attachment to me, while remaining compartmentalized as almost separate entities to perform the creative tasks I set out for them. C Note has the task of progressing my visual art and being my proverbial eyes on this avenue of creation, while D3d is my musical variation that similarly sets out to audibly express and do the same. So, what do they mean and represent… that’s the reason for me writing this after all… so here goes;
C Note – represents three distinct things, firstly street slang for a hundred dollar bill, representing my street/urban life and my struggles to earn even $100 for my art in the part. Secondly, the C represents my last name, Cook, while the final representation is the nod to the musical, the C note namely, it is a play on words.
D3d – This is decidedly darker and I mauled over whether or not to explain this here but know that people will continue to ask about it. In my life, I have died, as in literally ceased to be for various lengths, three times, and consequently came or was brought back. I often make the joke that I still have six of my nine lives left. I see myself as the walking dead, not quite alive, not quite in the process of rotting, above ground, footloose and fancy-free!
D3d is also a representation of the old me being buried, the new being born from its ashes, and the overall theme of my music, which is dark, sometimes disturbing, and always rather transgressive. D3d is me, but different; more… macabre, warped, like a beast freed of its chains for the first time…D3d is a madman… more beast than man.
There you have it, my brief bit on the two names I use aside from my birth name seen here on this website. I no longer use Nagash or Ambrogio today, both of those are dead names, specters of a time long forgotten, as I no longer am an Occultist. So when you see C Note and D3d you now understand them a bit better.