Our Story
When you are an independent musician you learn to wear a lot of hats. Often times you end up being your own booking agent, tour manager, merch salesman, roadie and any number of other things, all while trying to write, record and perform your own music. There’s always a lot to do, and rarely is it possible for any one person to do all of these things effectively at once. Everyone needs a little help sometimes. No one get’s there on their own. Unfortunately, what I found is that, often this help comes at a premium.
One of the biggest ways that this hurts up and coming bands is that the pricing of physical media is geared toward the needs of the pressing plant, which makes producing short runs of CDs cost prohibitive, if not impossible, for up and coming bands. For vinyl, the best selling of all physical media formats, the process is even more intense as profit margins can be very slim, and the process can be even more complicated. It’s such a challenge, that generally only established bands are willing to take the risk.
It is for these reasons that Lonely Atom Records chose to do a series of split 7” singles for their debut offering. Every member of our team here at Lonely Atom Records are more than just music “fans”. Three of us are musicians, one of us is an audio engineer and the two of us have been booking shows for almost 20 years collectively. Between us we’ve worked with hundreds of amazing artists. Artists that we want to see grow to their full potential who don’t get nearly the attention they deserve; something we hope to rectify.
So, all of this sounds well and good, but here’s why you, the listener, should care. If you look at ska bands and punk bands, typically the only ones making a living off their music started in 1999 or earlier. What followed over the next 15 years was the expansion of digital music on the internet. It became easier to release your own music, but also far more easy to be lost in the white noise of an ocean of bands doing the same. Not being able to turn a quick and tidy profit, lots of the smaller labels dried up, which gave growing local bands no place to turn to in order to grow bigger before being able to take the leap and transition into full time musicians. The labels that didn’t disappear, tended to only work with established artists currently in their prime or running on a resurgence of nostalgia…
While nostalgia can be a fun time, promoting only nostalgia doesn’t give back to the scene so that the next generation of bands can grow and continue to thrive and live on. One of the ways we aim to combat this is by booking concerts regularly in order to showcase current local independent music! An environment that allows artists to thrive ensures music for years to come, and reseeds the scene for the next generation. By booking mixed genre shows whenever possible, we hope to foster a community based on mutual growth and cooperation, because the scene isn’t just a ska scene or a punk scene, or a hardcore scene, etc. It belongs to everyone, including you, the listener.
But we can’t do it alone. That’s why we need your help to help us grow to the next level. We are a team of highly motivated creative individuals, but we need your help to start some of the more ambitious wheels in motion.
What We Need & What You Get
We came up with the idea for this split series as the inaugural release of our label, with a focus on spreading a diversity of underground music, to people who will appreciate and connect with it. It was immediately clear that this would be a huge undertaking, as the entire series will eventually grow to cost over $10K. That number alone, even though it’s spread across 18 months is overwhelming if we were to try and fund this from our day jobs.
With that in mind, we’ve set a goal of $3,600 which will cover Vol. 1 of the series and the added rewards from this campaign, and will help us officially launch Lonely Atom Records!!
Of that goal, IF raised in full:
62% will go to funding Vol. 1 of the Series.
23% will go to the perks exclusively offered here.
and about 15% will go to IndieGogo.
To account for such a daunting task, we’ve come up with some awesome perks unique and limited to this campaign and series.
At each contribution tier, you’ll get one, some or ALL (+in some cases more) of the below:
Featuring:
THE PANDEMICS
INCIRCLES
AMERICAN PINUP
KARIKATURA
….and you?!!
***THAT’S RIGHT!! Lonely Atom Records is actively looking for bands, musicians, and artists to collaborate with and promote. Send us your songs and art!! If we’re feelin’ it, you could be featured as part of this series, and the founding of our label!*** (Contact
lonelyatomrecords@gmail.com for more info.)
Risks & Challenges
Any project this big, of course, has risks. I'm sure you're wondering "what happens if we don't reach our goal?" Rest assured, we’re doing this regardless of whether our goal here is reached. It may take a little longer if we aren't able to reach our goal, but nothing will stop this project from happening. No matter what happens, we are determined to make a difference!
Any contributions made will greatly help us get this thing in motion. This campaign is set up with IndieGogo’s Flexible Funding option, so any and all contributions will go toward the founding of the label, with the first 7” released in April of 2016. In addition to this fundraiser, we've also been booking shows in the NYC/Long Island area. A portion of the proceeds from these shows goes toward label expenses (the rest goes to the bands because paying musicians for their work is cool).
Other Ways You Can Help
We understand that some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean you can't help:
- Get the word out and make some noise about this campaign. Your shares might lead us to a big investor (or at least a few more dollars)
- Remember even word of the mouth mentions to your friends and coworkers could be helpful, so don't be shy about chatting us up!
- Come out to a show! If you live or work in the NYC/LI area (or are just visiting for a day) check out our calendar and see what cool things we have coming up.
- Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! Social media is how we can share information with you and you can share us with the world.