Update #22: Bravely, Faithfully, Perhaps Successfully
Four hours until my first-ever attempt at using Kickstarter as a fundraising platform is officially considered a success -- wait, a HUGE success. I thought it would be a miracle if I reached my $5,000 goal, which to me (and most people) is an insanely large sum of money. Knowing how broke I am, was, have been, will be, I thought it was too much to hope for, to ask people to put money aside for something like this. I thought most people would only be able to donate $1 - $20. I laughed to myself when I made the $100, $250, and $500 reward packages, thinking that if even one single person claimed one of these rewards, I would be dumbfounded.
Well, dumbfounded doesn't even begin to describe how I feel right now. Over 100 people have not only helped me hit my mark on Kickstarter, but have pushed it $1,000 over, and more. Over 100 people put money aside from their paychecks, cut into their budgets, took the time to create profiles, and committed to making the second Gardening, Not Architecture album a guaranteed reality.
So to everyone on THIS PAGE: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gna/send-gardening-not-architecture-to-record-her-seco/backers
THANK YOU. This album is for you, and I can't wait to make it, and I hope you love it and play it for your children someday and tell them, "I made this album happen!"
But it's not just the money, and it's not even just this particular fundraiser. It's bigger than that! (It always is!) This attempt to raise funds for a second album is yet another humbling reminder to me that there are so many real people who are really involved in Gardening, Not Architecture. People who have believed in this project since I first started recording the songs, people who have come to the shows, and worn the shirts, and played the music for their friends. Real people who have let me sleep on their real couches, have cooked me real food, have sent real donations again and again from around the world to keep me afloat on the road. Real people who have "liked" the G,NA Facebook page, who "follow" G,NA on Twitter, who send me real heartfelt messages, who really listen to the music, still, two years after the first album came out -- four years after the first EP came out! There are so many real people who have encouraged me to keep G,NA moving forward, who can see enough value in what I'm trying to do that they don't tell me to quit, or try to get me to change direction, or try to convince me to get a real job, live a normal life, give up this crazy adventure. It's so real, and that is the craziest and most inspiring thing in all of this.
I feel like I have hundreds of relatives constantly pushing me to create and produce new music and ideas, moms and dads and aunts and uncles and cousins and sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews all over the country and the world, who have my back and want me to be happy, who love me unconditionally and care about my well-being. These are people I have gotten to know, whom I look forward to visiting on the road, like miniature family reunions in every town. These are people who have let me into their lives, who have made me a part of their stories, who keep me updated on what they are doing. These are people who check in with me on a regular basis, who are happy when I come to town, and who share their lives with me. If that isn't a family, I don't know what is.
So, thank you for being my family. It's all of you that I think of whenever I start to feel lost, and it's all of you that keep me focused. I can say the sentence "I couldn't do this without you" and know that it has a tangible meaning. It's not just some line that I throw around to evoke unfounded emotions in people who I am trying to sell something to. The truth of that statement resonates in my daily life. When I say "thank you for your support" -- I know what that means, in the metaphysical sense, in a deeper way than those over-used words could ever express.
I am going to keep doing this for as long as there are people who want to see it continue. Thank you for being one of those people.
Fortiter fideliter forsan feliciter,
Sarah
128
Backers
$6,265
pledged of $5,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 1, 2011.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
Official Sponsor status and private blog access: Your name will be added to the list of "Official Sponsors" on the G,NA website, and you'll have access to my private Kickstarter blog detailing the progress of the new songs, planning for the studio, and in-the-studio exclusive daily updates even after the Kickstarter campaign has ended!
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
Official Sponsor status and private blog access, PLUS: Digital download pack of G,NA music and extras: "First LP", "Remix EP", "Live at Hotel Cafe", both G,NA music videos, and some new wallpapers for your computer and phone!
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, PLUS: A digital advance of the new album before it's released, with an exclusive B-side track that will not be available on iTunes or on the CD.
Pledge $35 or more Pledge $35 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, PLUS: Handmade shirt featuring new stage design! If you've seen G,NA photos or live shows, you know that I wear a hand-painted shirt on stage. For the second album, there will be an entirely new "stage shirt," and you can be the first to own one!
Pledge $36 or more Pledge $36 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, PLUS: "The Collected Demos" limited pressing CD in hand-sewn paper sleeves, numbered and signed! I did not always go by the name Gardening, Not Architecture, and in fact I recorded several demos between 2003-2007 with my friends in their living rooms, bedrooms, and closets. I even posted the demos on Purevolume under two different band names over the years: We The Living and Alma. Now, for the first and last time ever, I'm going to release these demos in a limited run of 100 CDs. Hear the original pre-2007 versions of songs like "Buried in the Basement," "If You Only Knew," "Jabberwocky," and "Great Unraveling" -- plus long-lost demos! The CDs will be manufactured, but the sleeves will be handmade and numbered/signed.
Pledge $37 or more Pledge $37 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, PLUS: "The Gypsy Life" photo zine. Experience a year of traveling, sleeping on couches, and looking out car windows on the hunt for fulfillment through twenty pages of photos taken during my year on the road. Along with each photo, each page will include some of my favorite quotes and lyrics that inspired me along the way. I'll be making the zines myself, by hand, and will sign each one.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, PLUS: Limited edition 18x24 silkscreened poster, on eco-friendly chipboard French paper, designed and printed by Verdilak and numbered and signed by both Verdilak and myself. This was a popular item in my last tour fundraiser, but we still have a few left!
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Official Sponsor status, private blog access, digital download pack, limited edition poster, digital advance of the second album with exclusive B-side track, PLUS: "First LP: Instrumentals" the mastered, but never-before-released, instrumental version of the first album! I created this version of the album to have on file for soundtrack and other uses, but have been holding off on releasing it until I had good reason to. This is definitely a good reason! I'll be pressing the CDs through a manufacturer, but creating hand-sewn screenprinted canvas sleeves that are the inverse (black on white) of the original hand-sewn screenprinted canvas sleeves for "First LP," which you can view here: http://www.gardeningnotarchitecture.com/shop/first-lp-limited-15-00. Experience the first album in a whole new way!
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The Everything Pack: Get one of every single thing on this page, until the limited stuff runs out! HOLY SMOKES!
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Come up with your own reward item(s) and email the idea to sarah at gardeningnotarchitecture dot com. If I approve the idea, you can claim this reward! Please don't be foolish and claim this reward without running your idea past me first... duh.
Pledge $10,000 or more Pledge $10,000 or more
This is my Dream Amount, which would not only allow me to go to California and record my second album, but would also allow me to cover all of my living expenses AND put out an exclusive Kickstarter-only release of the second album on vinyl for everyone who donated! This version would have its own artwork with its own liner notes including the names of every single person who donated to this campaign, and would be available for only those people!
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Gardening, Not Architecture is a DIY/EIY solo recording project started by Sarah Saturday in 2003 in Baraboo, WI. The first recordings were quietly released online through Purevolume, under a couple different names. The first official release under the "Gardening, Not Architecture" project name was a four-song EP in 2007, entitled "The First EP," which was available for free on the G,NA website and in a limited run of 49 CDs in hand-sewn, numbered/signed paper sleeves. In 2009, Sarah completed her first tour as G,NA: 19 self-booked shows in 21 days on the west coast. In the fall of '09, Sarah self-released the first full length album, entitled "First LP" -- available on iTunes and in a limited first pressing of 500 CDs in hand-sewn screenprinted canvas fabric sleeves (now sold-out), followed by a limited second pressing of 1,000 digipak CDs. To support the release of her album, Sarah embarked on a self-booked 75-day US tour at the end of 2009. In 2010, Sarah went full-time with the project, moving into storage, couch-surfing, and playing nearly 150 shows including a Canadian tour, the entire Vans Warped Tour, and a solo North American tour over the course of ten months.
To enhance her live solo show, Sarah enlisted the help of a few tech-savvy friends in 2009 to build an LED "light wall" that she had designed: a handmade curtain of LED lights that were programmed to sync up to her backing tracks through her laptop. On stage, Sarah would play bass and sing along with the tracks with all the lights in the venue turned off and only a wall of lights behind her on stage, turning the live show into more of an art installation than a concert.
At the beginning of 2011, Sarah moved her home base from Los Angeles to Seattle, where she currently works two jobs to support both Gardening, Not Architecture and her not-for-profit music advice/resource website www.earnityourself.com.
Awesome :D
Yay!
so happy for you