In January I launched an Indiegogo(crowdfunding) campaign to help me with the 'Seiche' music video and album project. I called it Sydneygogo and asked for $11,000 to help pay for song mixing, cover art, a music video, a PR campaign, and merch for my debut album, 'Seiche'.
Before the launch my friend Letitia(White Light Exposure) and I created rough album art for the album. This is us shooting for it:
Letitia superimposed photos of my face, a sparkler, and confetti blasts. She's hella chill so we hang out a lot. Mostly making stuff and talking about our inner children and boyz.
I added both of these because we each look best in the other and I'm not the photoshop frand:) hollaaaaaaa!
But back to the story.
I launched the Sydneygogo and my friends and fam were like *blllrrraatt blrat blraaaaaah! all over the internet and it was rad and I felt so dang loved! It included a 'Request Perk' that let contributors request a cover song that I'd make a video of just for them! Here's one:
'When You're Gone' by Dolores O' Riordan(The Cranberries)
About halfway through the the campaign, I noticed our trajectory wasn't looking good. Despite all of the generosity of my super popular friends and fam, we seemed to have reached our cap of social media influence.
SO, with the help of many friends, I added a 'PajamaJam' perk, and threw a party! In two weeks, we nailed down the venue(Lux), ordered tacos from Holy Taco, booked several friends to roll through and play a short set:
Danny Malone + Eric Tessmer + Kalu James + Johnny Goudie + Fair City Fire + Buenos Diaz + Color Candy + Neosho + Jane Ellen Bryant
ALL VOLUNTEERED TO PLAY AT MY PARTY. I cannot hype these friends enough.
Like most of Texas, the Austin music scene is full of good people willing to help their neighbor. I'm just lucky to be neighbors with the best musicians and songwriters on the planet, and I'm so grateful and proud for them.
We ended up funding the whole project with the help of 99 supporters and tip jar contributors from a couple shows in west Texas!
I immediately got started creating the Seiche music video that was released in May 2018.
Afterthoughts:
Like many humans, I sometimes I suffer from crippling self-doubt and negative self talk. Whenever those feelings start creeping into my conciousness and wasting my time I gas myself up by thinking of people who want to hear my songs. They shared and tagged and spent and supported in so many ways.
I feel lucky, I feel loved, and I feel encouraged.