Affirmations from the Crowd: Some thoughts on Crowdfunding an Album.
As the name implies, crowdfunding is successful because of the crowd. And what a wonderful crowd it was! One day before the deadline, we met our goal...and I cried. I cried with tears overwhelmed with thankfulness and joy.
Crowdfunding can be seen in a very business like way: We have a product, we will offer pre-sales of our product to finance said product. This is probably how a lot of people come at crowdfunding. And yes, this was the purely analytical goal of our crowdfunding campaign- we need to pay for studio time, mixing, mastering, producing vinyl, cassettes, art, CDs, art magazines, etc... But for me it was so much more. I create music and write songs that come from deep within me. They are a part of my story, my fabric, my passions, my frustrations, my desires. It's hard to think purely cognitively about my music. It's part of me- a part of me that I release out to the world. I had a vision for this upcoming record in which I saw the songs as birds of clay. They fly to me, I take them (with the help of my incredible band), we mold them and we send them back out into the world. This shouldn't seem strange because Black Swift is actually the name of a bird, so it fits.
But for me, this crowdfunding campaign was very personal. I think it's a well known fact: It's really really hard to make a living as an artist and musician. But it's a dream of mine that I keep pursuing because I know I was made to create and to sing- that's what I'm supposed to do here with this short life I've been given. But there are always doubts and questions on how to survive doing that. So when the pre-orders and contributions (so many of you just GAVE) started coming in, it was very personal. It was like each one was saying, "I believe in you and in your band...what you are doing is good...I'm glad you are pursuing this...please keep going forward...I support you" And that, my friends, is overwhelming! Over 100 contributions came in and those almost daily email notifications warmed my heart so much! Not only that, so many people helped to spread the word through heart-felt posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, through fans calling the newspaper and telling them they should interview me (still don't know who this mysterious fan was) and even through being featured and interviewed on a friend's podcast: Thanks Billy Power of the Urban Achiever show.
So, all that to say once again a huge THANK YOU!! Thank you to all of you who believe in me and my band BLACK SWIFT and helping support us to keep making music!
If you didn't get a chance to pre-order our record, it is still possible to take part: Click HERE