Listen to singles from the record:

Iris, 3:54 of dreaming dangerously

The deal

Hey folks! I'm Tom Filepp, the person behind the electronic/experimental project Cars & Trains, based out of Portland, Oregon. After a couple of years break since releasing my 2012 full-length We Are All Fire, I've got a brand new record for you all. My fourth full-length release is called Dust, and is completely instrumental!

The record features walls of analog and granular synthesizers, acoustic instruments, and additional arrangements by the profoundly talented William Ryan Fritch.

I've released most of my records to date via the amazing label Fake Four, Inc, but decided to self-release this one because I want to keep it simple and release the album on October 16th, earlier than I'd be able to otherwise. I'm going to release the album digitally and via a limited edition cassette edition of 250, with beautiful offset printed packaging.

I'm keeping the release modest and trying to do as much of it as I can myself, but the rest I need to hire folks. Essentially what this boils down to is making things happen, but making sure I'm paying folks like the designer, additional recording engineer, and video editor as close to a fair wage as I can. Anything past that will go to trying to cover production costs on the cassettes and packaging.

Listen to the first single Iris, on Bandcamp.

Here's the artwork, and the cassettes:

What I need, what y'all get

My goal here is to raise $2,500. Exactly $750 of that will go to the talented designer Michael Crigler, who designed the artwork for Dust. $750 will go to the amazing musicians that helped build out additional instrumentation on the record. The remaining $1000 left after making the perks will go to helping me cover any production costs for the cassettes, packaging, and mastering, which adds up to a little over $1400, all said and done. I can't do it alone, but with your help we can make this happen. I also love the idea of making this record a project we're all essentially a part of.

I'm offering a handful of different items and packages to make this worth your while, including an early release of the digital album, the cassette, t-shirts, hoodies, my entire discography in vinyl and CD, in addition to a remix of your song, or even having me produce your original song in full.

If I don't reach my goal, then I'll at least pay the artists and musicians in proportion to what I've laid out above, giving them priority and foregoing covering production expenses on the cassettes. We've got this, though!

Beyond the goal, a vinyl edition?

I'm aiming for the $2,500 goal to cover expenses. If this ends up being successful enough though, if we can get the campaign to a more ambitious $4,000 then dang, I'll press Dust on a run of 250 vinyl!

Risks & Challenges

If we don't hit the goal I'll figure out a way to still make this happen. It's more of a risk to me personally, since I'm fronting the money. Either way this is coming out, but by helping you're ensuring that I'll be able to do future Cars & Trains albums.

If you can't afford a perk, you can still help

Regardless of whether you can help fund this campaign, spreading the word to your friends and family via social media is a gigantic help to me. I can't do this without you either way!

Let's make this happen, thanks 1000x folks! Looking forward to sharing this album with you all!

<3,
Tom // Cars & Trains