Kickstarter

This is the Last Chance kickstarter for new fans who didn't get to kickstart at Christmas time.   The goal amount is set low to make sure that even if only a few people would like to get in on the backer rewards, they will be able to. 

In the past few months many people have found out about Patchwork Life because of my duet with James Roday from the TV show Psych, which was a birthday gift for Curt Smith.  I'm happy to say Curt Smith has given me permission to include Ideas As Opiates on my new album as the bonus track!  The album is about 2 weeks from going to press so this is your last chance to support the album and get your name in the CD as a backer, Executive Producer, or Producer.  Plus you get all sorts of fun stuff that comes with the CD that won't be available outside of kickstarter!

All money raised will go to licensing Ideas As Opiates (roughly $350 to license it for 1000 cds), as well as promoting Patchwork Life.  Marketing was the one thing that I did not include (but should have!) in my previous kickstarter.  Since I am proudly unsigned and 100% DYI, I am in need of funding to sending promotional copies and press kits to indie radio stations and promoters.  Every dollar is appreciated!

Here's James recording his vocals for Ideas As Opiates!
(Video put together by Riktal!)

Patchwork Life Album

After doing 71 covers on The Smiths Project last year, I was ready to work on original music.  These songs were created in a similar recording style to The Smiths Project,  with layers of vocals making up all instrumentation including drum beats, strings, synths, choirs, etc. but this time, with the addition of piano samples on a few songs and, in one case, a drum machine and bells. That's it.  These layered-vocal tracks take months to piece together and edit into arrangements.  I will be posting videos and snippets to let you see how the music is created. 

Album Title
I called the album Patchwork Life because of the many distinct elements of my life that have come together to make up who I am- and make the music what it is.  Growing up, I had a quilt on my bed that my grandmother made from my mother's old 70s clothes. Each square was so completely different, bold, and colorful.  Nothing matched, yet the over all effect was cohesive and deeply personal.  The quilt mirrors my musical attempt to honor the many aspects and extreme differences of my life- real vs.online, acoustic voice vs. digital editing, motherhood vs. music dreams, sleep vs. finishing an album... to take all these elements and use what ever is around me to create something new.

Artwork
The artwork represents what I see when working on music every day:  waveforms.  Since my music is made up of acoustic voices stitched together digitally, I spoke each song title into ProTools, took snapshots of the waveforms and then embroidered them onto fabric.  The album art consists of an embroidered physical representation of my voice for each of the 11 original song titles as well as the album title. 

Patchwork Life's track listings:

1. Megalodon
2. Built My World
3. Buried
4. It's Not You, It's Me
5. Tunnel Vision
6. Collapse and Dissolve
7. Integratron (listen!)
8. Sugar and Fire Ants
9. According To A Liar
10. Haunt Me
11. The Unusuals
12. Bonus track: Ideas As Opiates (listen!)