Let's Imagine
When we first started playing together last summer, we planned to make an album so that our kids would have an easy way to remember and enjoy the songs we made up when they were little. But after the album came out, song ideas just kept coming to us, and more and more people seemed to be enjoying our music all around the world, from Minneapolis to Australia.
Now we have more than 25 new songs, and we want to share at least a dozen on a second album - but we need your help. Recording music is expensive, and Dan's 40th birthday (for which he gifted himself our last recording studio session) only comes once every few years. We need your help to get back in the studio and produce a second album, one that isn't just for our kids, but for you and your kids, too.
We're calling the second album "Let's Imagine" after a song we wrote (and not after Alfonzo Blackwell's similarly titled, soft-jazz album), but we think it's a good way to describe what we do in general. We use music to inspire our listeners' imaginations, and to inspire our own imaginations.
What We Need & What You Get
We're planning to start recording in a home studio this summer, which will save us some money. But to finish recording in a studio - and to pay to get the album professionally mixed and mastered, not to mention album art, and CD printing - we need your support. If the first album was any indication, the second album will cost a bit more than $6,000. We're hoping all of our friends, family, and fans will pitch in by the end of the summer so we can get this album recorded, produced, and out by early December - just in time for the holidays!
If you were likely to buy a CD or listen to us on Spotify, then we're just asking you to pitch in sooner rather than later. And there are so many other great rewards to get on top of a digital download or CD. You can get a sheet of limited edition stickers and t-shirts designed by the fabulous David Huyck, a live, command performance of one of our songs via Facetime or Skype, a personalized voicemail greeting (like this one or this one), a ringtone, a fresh song on a topic of your choice - and you can schedule a private house concert!
Timeline
Home studio recording is slated to start during the last week of July, but we can only record certain parts on our personal equipment. To handle the rest, if we raise enough money by the beginning of August, we'll head to The Library - where we recorded album #1. There, we'll make use of recording engineer Matt Patrick's extensive library of musical instruments (Hammond organ, three different accordions, industrial-sized glockenspiel, a panoply of hand percussion), and we'll bring in a few musical guests to record cameos, including Ken Pierce of "Hot Dog" fame.
If all goes according to schedule and if you pre-ordered an album through this campaign, you'll receive your digital download or physical CD by early December. Stickers and t-shirts will arrive with your CD. And if you commission a performance, a voicemail greeting, ringtone, or song, or book a house concert, we'll be in touch about scheduling.
Other Ways You Can Help
Even if you choose not to take advantage of the opportunity to snag an advance copy of the second album or claim any of the awesome perks we're offering, we hope you'll share this campaign (and our first album) with anyone you think might enjoy our music. We hope our music is meaningful and enjoyable to parents and kids alike, and nothing would make us happier than to have our songs spread far and wide.
THANK YOU!!!
