Thanks for becoming a patron and ordering a portrait song on the forthcoming Momus album, Stars Forever.

This unusual record is already attracting incredible interest and widespread publicity, with news coverage published or pending in Spin, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, CMJ, Melody Maker, BBC Radio, The Scotsman, Music News Of The World, not to mention a cracking debate about the ethics and aesthetics of the record on the indiepop mailing list.

I'm reading books about portraiture and studying the work of Velazquez and Pierre et Gilles right now to get in shape.

I know most of you are also preparing for this totally new experience, pondering the difficult question of what to tell the world - and the future - about yourself. Since some sitters have asked for more specific guidelines, here are a few of the sorts of things I'm interested in.

First of all, I'd like a recent photo if you have one, or a website address. You can send the photo as an E mail attachment. Although I'm not portraying you visually, appearance is still a vital clue to character.

What I'm really looking forward to, and what will help me the most, though, is your written autobiographical sketch.

It doesn't have to be 1000 words. What I'm interested in is not so much the sort of stuff you'd put on a curriculum vitae, but more the sort of things that have helped you accumulate positive self-image, 'subcultural capital', or cool.

So, things like:

* Have you rebelled against someone else's dreary expectations of your life, and become something more unexpected?

* What in your life can you point to and say, like Frankie, 'I Did It My Way'?

* What creative achievements are you most proud of?

* If there was one event in your life which really shaped you, made you the person you are today, what would it be?

* If you had to make a rap song boasting about your irresistible charm and sexiness, how would you describe yourself?

* Have you ever made material sacrifices because of your integrity?

* Describe a public personality who exemplifies everything you'd like to be yourself, then another public personality who incarnates everything you'd least like to be.

* If you were an Egyptian pharoah and had to be buried with a few key objects to take to the next world, what would they be?

* Do you have a favourite joke, quotation or proverb?

* What's your favourite portrait (it can be a song, a painting, a film, anything)?

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