Originally Posted by
Kasey Anderson
I've been doing things on my own for a while now. Most of my career, really. My first record, Dead Roses (2004), was self-released - a process that took me nearly three years. While the follow-up, The Reckoning (2007), ended up being released by label, that process also took three years, and ended with me deciding to start my own label and, once again, do things on my own. Both Nowhere Nights (2010) and Heart of a Dog (2011), were released on Red River Records, which I continue to own and operate, mostly by myself, though I certainly owe a large debt of gratitude to a few friends. (Heart of a Dog was re-released by Red Parlor Records in late 2011, but Red River Records co-released that, as well.)
Prior to Heart of a Dog, I was responsible for the entirety of the songwriting responsibilities for my albums, which is why the albums bore only my name. The songs were mine and mine alone. When Andrew McKeag and the rest of The Honkies came on board in 2011, the way I wrote songs, and the way I played songs, began to change. Eric Ambel - who had produced my first three albums - and I began to collaborate, and Andrew and the rest of the Honkies took that a step further, contributing lyrics, riffs, and arrangement ideas. Y'know, all the stuff a band does. Over the last year of playing shows with Andrew, Eric Corson, Mike Musburger and (sometimes) Ty Bailie, I've come to learn that not only is it okay to occasionally depend on others, but there's often a pretty great benefit in doing so.
As we start work on the next Honkies record, and as I watch my friends in their own independent, self-financed bands (Glossary, American Aquarium, et al) make use of platforms like Kickstarter and PledgeMusic, it dawns on me that maybe it's time to, once again, admit that I need the help of others -- this time of my friends and fans.
You see, we've got an idea for this record that we think is pretty good, but we'll need your help to pull it off.
Back in October, we had a little time between CMJ gigs and we figured we'd try to duck into a studio and record "Abaddon Blues" (which just so happens to be the song you'll receive immediately, free, when you donate to this project). While we were tracking at Strange Weather, Daniel, who was assisting Eric in engineering the session, mentioned that it had been a long time since he had seen a band track a song live, everyone in the same room, which surprised us, and got us thinking: why not make our record - or as much of it as we could - that way? So, with that in mind, we called up our buddy Kurt Bloch, who you'll know from his days with the Fastbacks and The Young Fresh Fellows, or from the records he made with Robyn Hitchcock, The Minus 5, Nashville Pussy, and a whole bunch of other bands. We started tracking with Kurt in mid-November, all of us in one room - no headphones (except Muzz), no iso booths - playing live, and playing together. A take is a take. If we don't get it, we try again, together. Sure, we'll need to do some overdubbing here and there, but the band you hear on the record - guitars, bass, drums, keys - that's us, playing live, together.
When we do need overdubs and other players, we think we've got a pretty good idea for that, too. We've all been at this long enough to have made a few friends along the way, and they're spread out across the country. As luck would have it, we'll spend a good part of early 2012 on the road touring behind Heart of a Dog, so we'll end up in the cities where our friends live and, if memory serves, there are studios in those cities. So, when we need a friend to lend a hand here or there, we'll bring our band, and our record, to them. A different studio in a different city, wherever we may be on any given night. The result, we think, will be a record that sounds like everything we love about playing music: being a band and having fun with our friends; playing live, playing together, and collaborating whenever and wherever we can with our favorite musicians.
In order to make the record this way - to record and produce and release and promote it - we'll need your help. This is where the pre-orders/donations come in. At first I considered using Kickstarter or PledgeMusic, but when you donate to those sites, they take a percentage of your donation (albeit a small one), so some of your money goes to Kickstarter, or PledgeMusic, or Amazon, or whatever. Kickstarter also lets you know who donated what, and how many people donated how much, and while I understand the need for transparency there, I've always liked to keep my private life private, and something about that rubs me the wrong way. Likewise, the fact that if project doesn't meet its "goal," Kickstarter declares that project "unsuccessful," doesn't sit well with me. How can a group of people donating money to something they care about ever be considered "unsuccessful," no matter how much or how little is raised? I've seen my friends use Kickstarter successfully, and I know they're very grateful for it, so maybe this is just me being stubborn but, if I'm going to ask for help, I've got to do it my own way. We'll still keep you updated - you'll get the occasional email from honkiesdonations [at] gmail.com if that's okay by you - so that sense of contribution and community that Kickstarter fosters won't be lost, and you can always drop us a line (again, at honkiesdonations [at] gmail.com) and ask any question you'd like.
Our goal is $15,000 and we hope to hit that goal by February 1, 2012. If we don't make the goal, or if we don't make it by that time, I highly doubt any of us will consider this little project "unsuccessful," and anyone who donated will still get every single thing they were promised.
We're so grateful to all of you for listening, for coming to the shows, and for taking the time to read this. If you feel like contributing to the making of Let the Bloody Moon Rise, we'll be infinitely grateful for that, too.
See you out there.
Kasey Anderson
December 5, 2011
Portland, OR
It would be nice to have business model that would be more direct between the artist and consumer. Doing away with the records companies might be a good thing if it means that the artist can get more money from each sale. Systems like Kickstarter sound like a good way forward on this front.
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