Build Me Up is a love letter to my brother; my best friend. My everything. It’s the tale of how he and I dealt with our parents’ divorce; specifically, our estrangement from our father, and at times from each other; and ultimately, how that experience formed an unbreakable, invisible and intense bond between us. With the benefit of hindsight, and through that particular lens of inquiry that only age and lived experience can offer, I have come to deeply regret not fully appreciating or being there for my brother when we were younger. Three years my junior, Matt’s presence at school seemed ‘uncool’, and I pushed him away too often, never fully knowing how much he was going through. But he kept coming back, and by some familial osmosis, we healed. Finally, in late 2019, I had an epiphany. Nearly every story I held dear was a father-son tale, or one of a broken family. And the whole time, I’d had the antidote right there with me. My brother. And with that, Vera and Sprocket were born.