Kickstarter

Oh, it is finally happening! The official Iowa CD release party concert! HOORAY!

I’ve had a few people be a little confused, asking me, “Didn’t you already release your CD?” The start of the longer answer is that there have been waves of different kinds of releases.

As you folks know, I got the discs in August and have been sending them out and hand-delivering them to everyone who pre-ordered through Kickstarter (allowing me to actually create those discs!! THANK YOU again and again!).

Then on November 13th I released it online everywhere, like iTunes and Amazon and CD Baby, etc, so folks who missed out on the pre-order could now get their own copy, or download or stream the songs.  (Search for "Heather Miller Anchor" on your favorite digital music site, and don't be confused by the other Heather Miller who pops up, this is indeed my first release!!)

Coming up this Friday, November 30th is the first time I will play these songs on stage with a band since recording the CD! Even during recording I never had all the instruments in the same room at the same time, so this is a big exciting deal for me!

This is kind of like breaking the champagne bottle on the boat and sending it out to sea for the first time. I have lots of little plans and ideas that I shall leave a surprise for now (especially in case I don’t have time to do all of them!). The most important thing is there will be a band (Lauryn Shapter, Dennis James, Greg Holland and Sarah Brooks!), there will be CDs, stickers and a select number of whales, guitar string earrings, cards and such for sale, and it will be a party! Hooray!  Hope you Iowa people can make it!

Details:
Cafe Paradiso, Fairfield, IA
Friday 11/30/12 8pm
Tickets $8 Advance/$10 Door

P.S. I still very much plan to have an Austin release party with a band too, sometime in early 2013!

P.P.S. If you haven’t gotten your Kickstarter reward yet, I have not forgotten you, it very likely is already signed and on my desk, just waiting on a few loose ends left there, or in my bag, ready to hand over when I see you. If you are worried, drop me a line! I am super happy to send you a download code if your reward is not quite ready to ship!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Even if you got the download or already have your CD, I still need to know how to list you in the Thank You section for the digital booklet! (Anonymous is OK, but I need to know that too).  So pretty please take a few moments to fill out the survey you should have gotten recently!  To everyone who already filled it out, THANK YOU!!!

So the stickers and padded mailer envelopes made it to my house on the same day and I have started sending out CDs and stickers!  Everyone who pledged for a CD or a CD and guitar pick AND filled out the information survey by September 5th has their package in the mail.  The exception there being the people in town who I am planning to hand deliver to either at Cafe Paradiso or elsewhere if I run into you before that. :)

I'm now beginning to sew the eyes on whales and package them up with CDs, earrings will come next and then the accordion pop-up lyric booklets.  Thanks for your patience with me finishing these handmade items, I'm also juggling my cafe job and setting up our new house with all of this.  So many good things!

Again, for anyone at any reward level, if you want to hear the tunes before you get your physical package, I'm more than happy to send you a download code now, just let me know!  Also if you pledged for a download code and didn't get it yet, let me know and I'll resend.

I wanted to share a quick story with you about the white cardboard envelopes I'm using to send out the CD and CD/guitar pick packages.  About 4 years ago, I was working in the merchandising/marketing department for an internet company that sold framed art reproductions.  I learned a lot during my time there and made some excellent friends, (including Alicia who drew Mr. Whale and made the pop-up books, and Stacy who designed the stickers!)  When our department got dissolved in order to re-locate it to offices in Florida, there was a lot of stuff we had to get rid of before moving out of the office.  One of those things was a big box of white cardboard envelopes, which appeared to me to be the perfect size for mailing out CDs.  

So I grabbed it and I've been holding on to that box of mailers for about 4 years!  Some tiny part of me knew then that I would have CDs to send to people, even though that was about two years before I was able to say out loud that I wanted to create a CD, and another two years before having one!  It felt a little foolish at the time but now I feel pretty justified and pleased with myself.  :-)

The other thing I am pretty excited about is I got myself an official little PO Box and an official address stamp, so going forward I will be able to do a quick stamp for my return address!  I feel all fancy!

Pictures of the sticker, a box of envelopes ready to ship, a whale inside a bubble mailer and an an example of the PO Box stamp all below.

Hello, hello!

I am back from my 5th annual trip to Planet Bluegrass, where it was so wonderful to unplug and soak up the sunshine and songs for a week.  There are so many amazing teachers and friends to learn from and connect with out there, the location is amazing and the weather was great!  It is truly a blessing to be in such a beautiful community where we are all creatively recharging for the year!

It was also super duper awesome to be there for the first time with CD's in hand!  A longtime dream come true! Not to mention that all my hard work of the last year "anchoring" myself in to my music really paid off - for the first time, I was not trying to cram all of my musical self into one week of the year, but rather it was just an awesome week among many in a life of being a musician.  Pretty much all of that distinction is mental, so it was proof that the Rubicon Year really changed my mind in a way that makes me happier and more content all around!  Big win!

So now, instead of trying to reconcile that awesome week with "real life" plus catch up on lost sleep like years previous, I'm just catching up on lost sleep, as best I can, because life doesn't seem to slow down at all!  In terms of the album and musical stuff, I just sent in the sticker design, they should be ready in about a week if all goes well, and I'm the opening act for Ali Sperry's CD release concerts this weekend at Cafe Paradiso tonight and tomorrow!

Here's where I'm at in terms of delivering rewards:

1) I've already hand-delivered a number of rewards to the folks I saw in Colorado.  Hope you folks are enjoying, would love to hear what you think!

2) I will have CD's available at the Ali Sperry concerts this weekend, let me know if you'll be there and I'll be able to sign your copy ahead of time!  

3) I also sent out download codes to everyone who chose the levels that include a download of the music.  Let me know if for some reason you didn't receive it or if you are having trouble redeeming it.  The digital booklet will be sent out separately, when it's actually completed! :-)

For everyone else, I appreciate your patience and understanding that the hand-delivering stuff to some people already saves me a bunch on postage!!  Plus I want to be sure you all get a sticker!  And I still need to make some of the earrings and sew tails and eyes on whales and such.  I'll be sending out surveys soon for your addresses to ship things to you.

I most definitely haven't forgotten about you and I also want to make sure you get the music as soon as possible, so if you just can't wait, send me an email (heathermillermusic @ gmail dot com) and I will give you a download code for a digital version of the album to tide you over till I can get the physical rewards in your hands.

Thank you, love you!

Heather

PS Check out the sticker design, very excited!!

Hiya folks!  I'm here in Boulder and I just picked up the box of CD's I had shipped to my friend!!  Got a little video clip of me opening the box to share with you!  (You might have to come over to the Kickstarter site to see it if it's not showing up in your email.)

After I got back to the house I just sat on the couch with the box on my lap and grinned for like 10 minutes and then I popped the disc in my laptop to listen.  Somehow it sounded just a little more special knowing it was coming from a real disc!!!

Tomorrow I play at the Boulder Farmer's Market as part of the National Songwriter's Showcase, and Sunday I head to nearby Lyons for the Rocky Mountain Song School and Folks Fest.  When I get home in a couple weeks I have a lot of signing and mailing to do!

I haven't sent the surveys out yet because Kickstarter recommended to me to wait till I'm actually closer to ready to send the packages, in case people's addresses change and whatnot, so look for those survey's in a couple weeks actually.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you again and again!  I'm beyond happy!  Can't wait to get these to you!

Best,

Heather

Wow!  Wow!  Here are the final totals:

$4,030 pledged
115% funded
176 backers

You folks are all super amazing!  I am so grateful to each and every one of you!!  I will be sending out surveys pretty soon to make sure I have all the info I need for sending you your rewards.  Please keep an eye on your emails!!

Digital downloads will be going out shortly since they are already done!  I just need to get the codes together.  If you ordered a handmade item, you may have to wait a little bit longer, but don't worry, it's coming!

The CD is at the factory and due to arrive by the end of the week.  My last big leap of faith with this project was putting the CD manufacturing on my credit card, trusting that this Kickstarter would end successfully and I'd be able to pay the card off right away. 

The big reason I did that is I am heading out to Rocky Mountain Song School this Thursday (I guess that's tomorrow!) for my 5th annual trip to beautiful Planet Bluegrass and I wanted to be sure and have CD's for that amazing gathering of songwriters!  I'm actually having a portion of the discs shipped to me in Colorado, because I am leaving Iowa before they will arrive here.

I am so looking forward to seeing many of you there in Lyons, CO!  That will be one of my survey questions, because if you will be there I will bring your reward with me.  When I get back to Iowa August 21st I will also get to work on sending out reward packages to everyone else.  

This month has been an amazing and affirming final portion of this journey I started over a year ago.  It's one thing to have a dream for yourself, and quite another to have a community of folks supporting that dream!  Did I mention you're amazing??

You are!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

So excited for you to get the music and rewards!

Best,

Heather