Kickstarter

Okay, 

To all of you who haven't heard of kickstarter.com, here's how it works. I make a funny little video and pitch my latest project. You guys contribute what you can, and I'm incredibly grateful as a result.

Here's how it works. You PLEDGE money, and if the goal is reached, your credit card is charged. If I don't reach the goal, your credit card isn't charged. 

Now, I'm here because for the last couple years I've been telling myself that I want to make a record, but I really want to do it the old fashioned way. That means in a great studio with a great engineer and a great band - all of whom are being paid. When I started to look at the financing of that, I got a little discouraged, but then I heard about kickstarter.com and I began to feel hopeful. 

If 300 people put in $50, I would reach my goal. That's not that unreasonable. I'd totally put in $50. 

Now, before you go getting out your credit cards, you have a right to know what you're getting into. So, check out http://soundcloud.com/zakschaffer/sets/new-song-demos/ to hear demo versions of these songs. If you think they're good songs that you'd like to hear recorded well, then please contribute. 

Over there on the right you'll see a bunch of silly stuff that I'll do in the event that people make some big contributions. It's all true. Also, I'm open to suggestions and negotiations. 

If you're thinking "$15,000 sound like a lot of money", I would say that for a F-16 fighter, yes it is. But for a great sounding album, it's actually pretty cheap. The breakdown of costs looks something like this

Studio/Engineer $7000 

Yep. I have someone in mind, and I hope he's available. Now, I'm going to ask this guy who is as good as people get at this stuff, and has more gear than Guitar Center to work for far less than he deserves. I just hope he agrees. 

Musicians. $5000

Wow. Yep, and these are my friends. Think about it this way. Five guys (2 guitars, bass, drums, keys) at $___/day x four days is a lot. Plus the String and horn players. I hoping $5000 covers it. 

Mastering $2000

Pressing  $1000

I've actually seen a lot of people on this site who have much more modest budgets, but the goal of this project is to come up with something that sounds first rate and classic. My last record (Maybe It's Me - you can find it on iTunes) was a good record, but didn't SOUND great. I'm trying to fix that this time. 

Thanks a lot for your time and generosity, I really appreciate it. 

Zak Schaffer.