Hello everybody,
First of all we just want to thank all of you for the overwhelming support we've received over the last couple of days. It has been incredible to feel the constant love and tremendous generosity from people all over the place. Thank you, thank you!! Secondly, we are continuing this tour. We feel terrible that we had to cancel the St. Catherine's show, but it's going to take a few days to try to get the show back on the road. We are desperately renting and borrowing gear so we can finish this tour. So, until further notice, all other shows are still a go.
For those of you who don't yet know, our trailer was stolen two days ago. On Oct 24th we parked our van and trailer in well-lit hotel parking lot in Laval, QC. The lock connecting the trailer and van was cut and the trailer towed away by thieves. So now it is with a lot of thought and hesitation that we turn to crowdfunding to recover some of what we lost. We spent the last ten years slowly acquiring the instruments and equipment that was stolen, and we've tried to think of an alternative option, but we find ourselves in a place where we can’t afford to continue moving forward in the long term without some help.
The total cost of what was lost when our trailer was stolen is approximately $85,000-$90,000. We're a band who brings so much gear on the road and it was all in that trailer. This includes all of our instruments, a two-week old trailer, a mixing console, production elements for our show, a few personal effects and a very fresh shipment of merchandise including boxes full of shirts, sweaters, CDs and vinyl. A large portion of this was insured.
But a good chunk was not. Earlier this year, when we renewed our insurance policy we made sure all the gear we owned was on it. But, since renewing the policy, we purchased a number of items to improve our show for this tour that were not included. Our merchandise was also not insured. The amount of uninsured losses exceeds the amount we are asking for here. This amount reflects what we see as the essential items.
We are hesitant because as people of privilege, we get to tour around the country playing music, and are so lucky to have all the support we do from our country and fans. Unfortunately, we’ve done the calculations every way we can, and to continue doing what we do we need to raise some funds.
So, we are offering up the Agassiz EP (the name of our recently departed trailer), two b-sides that we had recorded for our two most recent albums. You can download them with the link on the right. We hope you enjoy these songs and we can't say enough how much we appreciate any help you can give! Thank you all for caring. Even if you can't donate we are forever indebted for the well-wishes and love that you've all been so generous with.
Love always,
Royal Canoe
***--- IF THE TRAILER IS SOMEHOW RECOVERED EVERYONE WILL BE REFUNDED IN FULL ---***