Aurelio Voltaire

Aurelio Voltaire Hernández (born January 25, 1967 ), professionally known as Aurelio Voltaire or simply Voltaire, is a Cuban-American musician, singer, composer, author, and animator.

Known for his gothic style of dress and music, Voltaire is considered a leading figure in the dark cabaret music genre.

In 1997, Voltaire wrote and illustrated the six-issue Sirius Entertainment comic book series Chi-Chian, and created a Flash animated webseries of the same name for the Sci-Fi Channel website.

Within a year, Projekt Records signed them and by June 1998 they released their first album called The Devil's Bris.

Two years later their second album, Almost Human was released.

One of Voltaire's popular hits is "Brains!", a song written for the Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, aired in the episode "Little Rock of Horrors".

He also wrote "Land of the Dead" for Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, which plays in the opening sequence.

He has also created songs for the Cartoon Network animated series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2001–2007).

He also authored the graphic novel Oh My Goth! (2002), and has written such books as What Is Goth? (2004) and Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking (2005).

The latter book led to a YouTube webseries titled Gothic Homemaking, in which Voltaire shares information related to gothic homemaking and decor.

In the past, when asked about his real name, Voltaire avoided the question or implied that his real name is in fact Voltaire.

Voltaire chose to use his middle name as his performance name because his namesake "saw through the hypocrisies of humanity and commented on them through satire. In essence, he was able to educate people about the world around them by making them laugh."

According to the School of Visual Arts where he is employed as an instructor, Aurelio Voltaire's real name is Aurelio Voltaire Hernández.

His stage name is now "Aurelio Voltaire" for the following reason: "I got tired of there being other people releasing albums as Voltaire. There's an indie band in Germany and some American guy who makes instrumental hip hop. Like, do these people not do a fuckin' Google search before naming their bands? Anyway, it was just easier to distinguish myself from them by using my first name."

Aurelio Voltaire's father died when he was four months old.

At ten months old, Voltaire emigrated to New Jersey with his mother and sister remarried.

However, he did not enjoy residing there, stating he was a victim of bullying because of his heritage and strange hobbies and interests.

At the age of ten, Voltaire was inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and began animating on a super 8 camera.

By piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he eventually was able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate them.

His stepfather was abusive, considering Voltaire's strange hobbies and interests to indicate he was homosexual.

A family friend sexually molested him from infancy into his teenage years.

His girlfriend at the time committed suicide, which made him consider doing the same.

Before he followed through, he promised himself to live one more day, doing and saying what he wanted to do and say.

This allowed him to stand up to the people who were bullying him, and instantly elevated his self-esteem.

At the age of 17, he ran away from home and moved to New York City.

His first job there was an animator with Parker Brothers.

Voltaire says that he loves New York, and that the only other place he would be happy living is Tokyo.

Voltaire's music has strong roots and connections to European folk as well as other influences such as the goth scene.

However, many listeners find his music hard to classify.

Although it has a sound reminiscent of European folk music, many people claim it to be dark wave; perhaps as this is a label often given to many other artists from Projekt Records, and a word often used to mean many things by the label themselves.

His music has also been linked to cabaret, with Lexicon Magazine using the term "goth cabaret", possibly referring to dark cabaret, a term often used to describe some bands Voltaire cites as his influences.

Voltaire has also been linked to the steampunk scene with Victorian-era horror related subjects, and some of his visual and music styling, and in recent years he has become a favorite at major steampunk conventions such as the Steampunk World's Fair.

New wave has also been used to describe Voltaire's music by some reviewers.

Voltaire describes his own music as "Music for a parallel universe where electricity was never invented and Morrissey is the queen of England".

He says that bands and artists who influenced his music are Rasputina, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Cab Calloway and Danny Elfman.

The first band that Voltaire played in (during junior high school) was called "First Degree".

At this age, he was a fan of Duran Duran, but then began listening to gothic music, most notably bands such as Bauhaus and The Cure.

It was not until later that he began participating in the goth scene; it did not at first occur to him that there was a goth scene at all.

As an adult, Voltaire formed a band which included a violin, a cello, drums, and himself as the vocalist and the acoustic guitar player.

He has released 13 studio albums, including Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children (2011), BiTrektual (2012), and Raised by Bats (2014).