Who: GEOtrio

GEOtrio is Geoff Simpson on acoustic guitar and lead vocals. Geoff has been playing guitar and songwriting since middle school. In the seven years GEO has been a trio, Geoff has written a wealth of thoughtful, up-tempo, acoustic songs which capture the tension between hope and setback, joy and struggle. He has the ability to entertain while communicating his feelings about the predicaments common to human experience. These songs are ready for recording.

GEOtrio is EJ Simpson, the bass, mandolin, guitar playing, singing, songwriting brother of Geoff. EJ and Geoff have been playing together since they were kids, until EJ broke out professionally and started touring with such bands as Johnny's Problem, The Goats, Maggi, Pierce & EJ, and Sweet Briar Rose.

GEOtrio is Owen Osborne bringing it on drums. Owen began playing drums and percussion at the age of eight, and has loved creating music ever since. He went on to study music and percussion performance in college.  After graduating Owen began playing with several bands and singer songwriters in the Philadelphia area.  His former band, The Beekeepers, stopped playing in 2014; he has traded one fraternal trio (with his brother) for another. 

WHAT: a Great sounding, Entertaining ALBUM

GEOtrio booked recording time at the increasingly renowned Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY, and will be working with gifted engineer/producer/musician John Davis. We want to make a great sounding, entertaining, and enduring album. We will be laying down basic tracks, adding instrument and vocal parts, and relying on John to help us navigate. We are looking forward to the process and to having a great finished product.

WHY: music that ENDURES and enriches

These songs are fun for us to play. We want them to sound their best so that you will enjoy listening to and sharing them. We hope that this recording project will prove to be for our mutual enjoyment and edification. 

EJ and Owen are great musicians who have been invaluable in turning Geoff's songwriter musings into tunes that are as fun to listen to as they are to perform.

Recording an album is a big step for us, but we aren't rookies. Geoff has three past CD projects to his name - first recorded in a living room, then in a music room, and finally in a home studio - each one a technical and acoustic advancement above the last. EJ and Owen each have multiple professional recording credits of their own. We want this CD to sound (and look) fantastic, and that costs money.

COST: anticipated expenses total $16,000

$6000 Recording

$4000 Mixing

$2600 additional musicians

$1000 Mastering

$800   Art/cover design

$885   CD production

$90     digital distribution

$625   travel and food while recording

In this campaign we are seeking to raise over half of the total cost, to compliment our own contributions toward the project. 

If we raise more, we have more

In addition to THESE 14 SONGS - meant to be played in cafes and pubs - we have another whole project ready to go: Geoff has several MORE SONGS written for other contexts. They are poems, hymns and psalms, some with familiar and time tested words by great poets and writers of the past, now put to new tunes and settings, adapted to speak with a new voice and from the heart in new ways. If we raise more than we need for our initial album, we will put it toward finishing this second project.

A final note from Geoff

My first real musical influence was Neil Young (I play acoustic guitar with a pick), but my songwriting inspiration comes from the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Mark Heard, T Bone Burnett, Pierce Pettis, Brooks Williams, Van Morrison, and U2.

Through songwriting, I try to speak to the common desires in all of us, approaching the issues from a variety of perspectives. Through this recording project and our live performances I hope to start a conversation that is part of a larger Conversation. Often just by telling a story, a song creates the potential for conversation – with the songwriter, among an audience, or in the stillness of one's own contemplation. 

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