NOTICE (21/03/2013): As a reward for getting us to all of our goals so quickly, anyone who donates before the end of the run will be sent an email containing a code to download the live debut of Ulysses Dies at Dawn from bandcamp, in addition to all other perks they would receive. Thank you, all!
NOTICE (09/02/2013): Please get in touch with us before you try to fund a song - we currently are (accidentally) on 4/3 and will need to discuss it before we can safely offer any more. We probably will be able to do it, but it will take considerably longer.
Note that there are two further perks available -- we will write you a Story for £125 and a Song for £150. See below for more details.
Roll up, roll up! Now is your opportunity to assist the Mechanisms with their ongoing efforts to record their wonderous tales from the depths of the Universe!
What? No One Ever Warned You About The Mechanisms?
They're only the most amoral piratical scoundrels to have graced the Universe since before anyone can remember. Wanted for multiple counts of homicide, lunacide and petty theft. Probably responsible for the destruction of the Moon, partly responsible for the downfall of the Cole Dominion, and definitely responsible for the chaos that happened downtown in the City last year. Their only weakness? Sometimes their programming forces them to put a halt to their fun and tell anyone who will stop to listen a tale from their past.
On another world, we're a roughly nine-piece band from Oxford, England. We've been described as "a character-band of lovable space-pirate-misfit-immortals mixing steam and cyberpunk" (Sabotage) whose "thrilling yarns" (TimeOut) make for a "thrilling, guttural steampunk-pirate mythology!" (EdFringe Review).
So. What Do You Want?
After the success of our first album, Once Upon a Time in Space, which we successfully funded on Indiegogo last year before taking it to a well-reviewed run at the Edinburgh Fringe, we're looking to record our second album, Ulysses Dies at Dawn. That's the word on the street, at any rate, if you talk to anyone who saw what went down at Calypso's Bar the other night. Who is behind the thuggish band known as the Suits - Heracles, Ariadne and others? What is Ulysses's secret? What is hidden within the security of the Vault?
How Can I Find Out?
Pre-order our album from this campaign! We'll be using the funds generated from this to pay for recording, producing, printing, and all the rest of it. Depending on what kind of total we reach, the results will be something like this:
- £1,000 produces a studio recording in a simple cardboard case.
- £1,300 produces a studio recording in a jewel case.
- £1,500 produces a studio recording with a colour booklet - this is what we're ideally aiming for!
- £2,000 and we'll spend longer in the studio, making for a much tighter recording.
- £2,500 and we'll extend the CD booklet into a veritable treasure-trove of detail and information.
If you want to listen to some of what we do, take a listen to our Bandcamp where you'll find our first album and a few other tidbits, as well as a live recording of the debut of this set - so you know what you're getting in yourselves in to.
Hmm. And What's In It For Me?
- A shiny album of dark musical storytelling?
- OK, you're a hard sell. Have a look at the list of perks. There should be something there to tempt you, from our personal remarks on your CD taste to an opportunity to have a small hand in the Mechanisms universe.
- Note that YOU RECEIVE EVERY SINGLE PERK BELOW THE LEVEL THAT YOU SELECT. For example, want a Poster? You'll get dice, and a patch, and Jess's CD, and a personalised signed CD as well.
- Please note that there are TWO MORE PERKS on offer! For £125, you can remind us of an incident in the Mechanisms' past that we've forgotten, and we'll write you the STORY of those events. And for £150, we'll listen as you explain to us a SONG that we have temporarily mislaid -- and then we'll go away, learn it, record it, and henceforth it will be part of our repertoire! See below for more details.
- Donate £70 or more and we'll note down our personal thanks for your contribution in the album booklet!
- ...We'll give you our eternal gratitude?
- Still no good? I guess you'll just have to move along, then. Sadness.
I Want To Join Your Crew And Help With The Cooking So You Can Concentrate On Your Music Please Let Me In?
That's... Kind of you.
If you want to help us in other ways, how about this? Share this everywhere! Any social service you may frequent (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr...), any anti-social services you may frequent (Facebook, Twitter...you get the picture), any non-virtual society you may frequent. Just tell people. Especially if you reckon there's an outside chance they might have an interest in steampunk musical storytelling. The more people know, the better the album will be.
And thank you! The Mechanisms may be ungrateful bastards but we really appreciate all your support. Hopefully you'll enjoy Ulysses Dies at Dawn as much as we've enjoyed making it - and maybe see you at the Fringe or another gig sometime.
p.s. About Those Stories
Anyone interested in a Story or a Song - our thanks! This is how it works.
For a Story (£125), one of the Mechanisms will scheme with you to develop a character, place, event, time, or other something, that is part of the Mechanisms universe. Said Mechanism will then wander away and come back with a short story (several thousand words) concerning your created Thing and its collision with the Mechanisms. We'll also publish the story on the blog, so we can't remove you from canon again later.
For a Song (£150), the same happens, except this time you can also suggest tunes and suchlike if you so desire. (n.b. While we'll be happy to cover copyrighted material live, we don't have the resources to afford the licenses to record it. Just so you know.) Alternatively, we can come up with the tune ourselves. When we've written the song, we'll record it (probably not in the studio, but as a decent home recording) and let you have a copy. We reserve the right to choose to play it live at gigs and suchlike whenever we please. We hope you don't mind.
Please note; These perks are limited to six (6) stories and three (3) songs.
(These perks should be delivered by December 2013 at the latest.)
And a Caveat: yes you get to write canon! But not too much canon. We'll consider anything you suggest, but we'll veto anything that is totally inappropriate and you shouldn't expect to have a major hand in the main story arcs. That said, try us! We promise that if we have to let you down, we'll do it gently. Enough.