Long Time No Post! I know….I am still getting used to the idea of writing blogs. Nowadays it is such an accepted thing that most people with computers do but I am still getting used to it as you can see!
If you already know about the campaign and you want to go straight to it, click here!
Anyways I am excited excited excited! I am going to get to share more music with you, and I am really psyched to know what you think!
Ok so first thing’s first-
As some of you know and some of you may not know, I make music. I have been writing and performing music since I was in my early teens. Both of My Parents and pretty much all of my relatives are musicians. So, it runs in the blood and is very much a part of who I am and who we are as a family.
In my late twenties, when I had a regular band, I was going to go the major label route and went through a whole bidding war and all that jazz, but ultimately walked away. They wanted me to change everything about my music, and wanted to brand me in ways I was not at all comfortable with (to say the least). Long story short, I kept writing, but did it for myself, as it is something that I find I have to do, rather than I choose to do.
A few years back, I released my single “Stormwinds“, and came up with the idea for ALM ( Armed Love Militia). I wanted to be able to write and record music with some of the great musicians I’ve met over the years, and not be tied to any one single genre of music - like only do electronic music or only do rock etc. (I would love also to do this with fine art as well, but that is another story/project). I did a very quiet and unannounced release, basically only letting die hard fans know about it. I wanted to see what the reaction would be, and luckily people have been very receptive and it made me want to share more music and keep going. Not long after I released the single, however, my boyfriend went out On My Ducati motorcycle, and got hit by a drunk driver. He was lucky to have survived, as it was a bad accident that broke him into pieces. I had to put everything on hold to take care of him, and help him to heal. It was a very long and painful process, but ultimately he can walk and did heal up which is an incredible blessing. (By the way, if you ride a motorcycle make sure you go overboard on your insurance because if they can find a loophole to get out of covering you they will)!
So that happened, then a whole bunch of other life happened, as it does- I created a candle line, did some art shows, made a whole bunch of fine art, made a few indie films, created a kids/adults art book, started a photo/art/bits of writing book with The very Gifted Kyle Cassidy, many projects in true Gemini fashion, etc. Argh! There is so much! I must get to finishing them all so I can share them with you! It is only now that I realize how much there is to fill you guys in on!
Back to the Music-
People have been reaching out to me through letters, tweets, and posts on facebook, that they want to hear more of my music, and they kept asking, and kept asking, and I very much want to make this happen.
With the advent and massive popularity of crowd funding, I was drawn to looking into it to see if it might be a good way for me to go about doing this ALM record independently. After doing all this research over the past couple of years, and talking with different artists who have gone down this route, I have heard some pretty crazy stories. A great deal it seems is never disclosed to the artists, and it can end up going backwards. Many of them told me that after it was all said and done, they ended upside down, rather than raising what they really needed to get things done. It is too deep to really go into on here, but some of the issues I heard about were things like incorrect shipping costs (host site not calculating or charging properly for international and domestic shipping), and the site taking high percentages of all the monies raised by pledges. One of the Artists is still waiting 2 years later, to get ANY money from the site at all for the project they wanted to do, even though pledgers expect to receive their goods by a certain date! All the people who had pledged got very angry, and said they had been stiffed by an artist they really loved. This information really made me step back and look at the idea from a different perspective.
I also think it is easier for people who have a whole load of money behind them, legal teams, publicity armies and internet specialists. I am an independent artist, who is not on a label, and who wants to do this simply for the sake of sharing her music with other people. This isn’t a big business move, or some attempt for more fame or attention.
I just want to record and play with some brilliant folks I know, and share it with you guys!
One thing that they ALL told me was that all of the things that these sites did for them, they realized later that they could have done it all for themselves, and that none of the pledgers were people who found them through the site, they were all previous fans!
So, here is what I am going to do. I am releasing my new single Davie, and I am offering all kinds of excellent, and very cool merch, as a part of a way to raise capital to get started with the album. Later in the year, I will do another big campaign, depending on how this one goes, to get the album recording fully funded, so I can make videos and ,and do a day by day blog and video diary, following the whole process of what it is to make an album independently!
I am going to do it Myself, on the advice of my Artist friends!
I know it will be a crazy huge amount of work, but it would be either way right!? I like hard work, and this is something I want with all my heart.
I also want to record some of the traditional music I perform with my family, more specifically, with My father as he is an incredible multi-instrumental musician, and offer some of those tracks as special extras.
I am going to need your help in getting the word out there, into this mad mad world! Share share share, post! Blog! Tweet! Sing it from bridges! Graffiti it on walls! Whatever and however, to get it out there and make this happen.
I am the luckiest person in this world, as I have the most loving, brilliant, creative, loyal, supportive fans ever. I Love you guys so much, you have no idea. Fans are what give artists their careers. Some Artists think it’s all about them and their talent but they are…well…severely challenged in the old mind tank, if that is what they truly believe.
I kind of feel like I’m about to jump off of a very high cliff, but it is exhilarating, and I cannot wait to get it all going!!!!
The Davie single is an entirely different style of music from Stormwinds, and I am super pleased with it. I really hope you like it, and that you like the new artwork too!
This campaign will be running for only one month: from today, August 14th, until September 16th. The merch that we make will only be available for these thirty days. So, they are ALL limited edition.
Oh! Before I forget, the first 150 people who order will get a special surprise with their order, especially from me, as a thank you for your support :)
If you have questions, please email us at [email protected]
Yahooooooo!!!
XXX
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