Crowdfunding Campaign
The story behind my first album - 'Movement'
Greetings everyone! Welcome to (or 'Croeso i' in Welsh; the native language of my home country) to the fundraising page for my first solo music album.
The Story behind the album
For the last four years I have been travelling all around Australia; from landing in Melbourne to travelling around almost the entire coast (around the same size as the whole of Europe) and the central desert. Spending many months in dry, dusty landscapes camping under the blanket of the night sky to then living in tropical wet rainforests and being buried underneath the deep green tree canopies of otherworldly flora. Surrounded by the strange sounds of so many unfamiliar yet beautiful creatures.
In this time, I have met all sorts of people from various walks of life; many with different philosophical natures of how they approach living and interacting with the World and where we feel situated in the grand scheme of this Universe. This in turn helped me evolve, grow and it consistently inspired this period of transcribing my own life's journey to music.
From day one upon my return to Australia in February 2020, I have been accompanied by the same guitar; the instrument that would harbour the stories and emotional releases to come throughout this adventure. With all of its imperfections: warps, cracks, scratches, squeaks and all of the rest, there was simply no other instrument that this album could be recorded with. This guitar has been sat on my body upon writing and expressing every note.
Amongst all of these incredible stories of life, this album comes deeply engrained with the natural emotions and feelings that we as human beings experience: all of the intense and overwhelming emotions, to the more subtle and grounding.
The album has in all physicality now been recorded; it is the mixing and mastering processes that remain. I'm extremely excited to be this close to releasing some official music; the sonic journal of many experiences and emotions. Many written, formed or evolved on the streets whilst busking around the country in towns or cities, some composed in a deep state of existence inside a small cabin in the Daintree Rainforest and some expressed sat under a flawless night sky of stars hundreds of miles into a barren desert. This music is the reflection of the deepest parts of myself to the outside World, and from the outside World to within.
Thank you for being a part of the journey!
James
Tracklist
1 - Eclipse
2 - Movement
3 - Witness
4 - Until We Meet Again
5 - Reflections
6 - Eternal
FAQ
Where does your donation go?
There are many factors involved in recording and releasing music, and your donation will help with all of them - here are some of the avenues that your contribution WILL help with!
- Studio recording ($12,000+) : This is the big financial cost for independent artists who are taking themselves seriously and recording in a notable studio. My recent recordings are coming out at roughly $2,000 AUD (1,050 GBP) per track along with mixing and production. The album, being 6 tracks in total will cost me in excess of $12,000 (6,300 GBP). I have mostly self-funded this part through hard work planting trees in Aussie hot weather (usually around 30-35 degrees!) for six+ months, every weekday, and playing music in various local venues in Byron Bay once or often twice a week. Additionally to this I was out busking as and when I could be! This being said, I'm still falling short of the amount needed to finish off the album production, which is where your help will be greatly appreciated!
- Album mastering ($600+): In a nutshell, once all tracks are recorded, mixed and ready, they are then sent to a mastering studio to go through the process of ironing out all of the creases in sound frequencies and volume inconsistencies across the track/album; this process smooths out all of the tracks so that it makes for consistent listening. Mastering is also the process behind making a track sound the best and most consistent that it can across all listening mediums and devices (speakers, headphones, phones, laptop, the list goes on!).
- Marketing (the sky is the limit): We all know what marketing is: how do we reach our demographic without them knowing that we exist? Investment in this side of things means that we can grow into our audience and reach those that we feel will benefit from what we have to offer. Donations will also go into this side of things to help grow in the online community so that my music releases stand a much higher chance of reaching those that will be interested - like you!