About this project

This is it guys! We've been working our butts off writing 30 songs and we're ready to lay down 15 of those for our first album, "Together, Alone". Actually, we've already recorded 4 of them, so we just have to get 11 more done in the studio and we can press the CDs. This is where you come in. Check out our video which features a song we wrote just for Kickstarters and check out the MP3s on our Facebook page (Go here: http://www.facebook.com/hoglenandwages and click on our Links to hear a few of our tunes), and once you've fallen in love with us (and we know you will!), check out the rewards you can get from funding this project. And once you've decided to be part of "Together, Alone", tell your friends to check us out too. We really want to give everyone some real value, and it's going to be a lot of work getting it all together, but we know it will be worth it for us and for you because we love you!

So let's get down to the nitty gritty!

What are we accomplishing with pledges? Here's a breakdown:

• Cost of recording: $1000 to $1300 (laying down 11 or more tracks with our good friend Dan Chilton's Mobile Force Recording: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mobile-Force-Recording/190667674293524)

• Cost of pressing 300+ CDs: $900+ (the more we get, the better the CDs will be, but minimum, it will be a four-page full-color digipak casing featuring 15 tracks; maximum it could be a double-album of sheer madness!)

• Cost of posters: $100 (these posters will be used as rewards for Kickstarters and to promote future shows)

• Cost of shipping rewards: $300+ (this will help us send all the rewards to each Kickstarter; anything beyond this amount will be covered by funds from our own coffers)

• Cost of our first t-shirt: $8 each (we've got a great deal from a local printer that is willing to waive the setup fee for the shirts AND they'll let us print them on demand, so we plan to print the number required for each Kickstarter donating $100 or more, and then we'll be ready to offer shirts on our website and at shows)

ARTISTS! See the section below labeled HEY ARTISTS to see how you can help design our shirt, CD, and poster!

Promotion? You bet! We'll be telling all of our friends, family, co-workers, etc about our Kickstarter campaign. Once it is done and the CDs received, we'll get them online and in local music stores along with the posters to further build our online and local presence. Kickstarter is just one step beyond the beginning and far from the end!   

What IS "Together, Alone"? It's the below 15 songs. We looked over our current catalog of 30+ songs, played them, and made some tough decisions to get to this group that reflects a wonderful cross section of what we're all about. But "Together, Alone" is not just an album, it's an idea. The idea of what Hoglen & Wages is all about. Some of our songs explore the vast tundra of what "alone" is ("The Haitian", "Stranded", "Paperface") while others show what it is to step out of the void and have some fun ("Angry Ducks", our opening bluesy track featuring the kazoo with an attitude). Songs like "Fortune 100" (all the lyrics were taken directly from fortune cookies; we opened about 50 cookies to get these lyrics!) let us flex our progressive rock influences in a fun way, while other songs ("In Only a Day", "Dirt Nap") explore the serious subjects of making it through tough experiences when others let you down. In all cases, we love to use off-the-wall lyrics that really express what we mean in a very unique way (see the "chunk of lyrics" below).

• Angry Ducks

• Evolve

• In Only a Day

• Cut It Loose

• Besides Me

• Fortune 100

• The Wait

• Paperface

• Pedal's Broke

• Haitian (recorded)

• Hardly a Moment (recorded)

• Color Blind (recorded)

• Stranded (recorded)

• Negative Talk

• Dirt Nap

• Maybe Maybe Not (bonus track)

Last but far from least, HEY ARTISTS! We've got a contest coming up on Facebook. The idea is we need designs for a CD cover, a poster, and a t-shirt, and we'd like something cool. Creative license is fine, but we'll need to supply you a little guidance. Anyway, when the Kickstarter.com plan works out, prizes for the winning designs will probably be the CD, poster, tshirt, and some other bonuses. If you are interested in submitting designs, please find us on Facebook to get the details and be sure to share it with your artist friends too! This is a great way you can be even more a part of Hoglen & Wages by having a real hand in the creative juices.

Thanks to everyone! We're stoked about making "Together, Alone" a reality, and we hope you are too!

Eric Hoglen & Phil Wages

CHUNK OF LYRICS
ANGRY DUCKS what you got is your mind, what you want is your face, it's not a place that you take, it's a place that you have, a bottled mind in your head, the kind of place that is dead, you feel the fire there, it's not the way, it's the where You Rise.... You Fall, Get Down... Get below it all; It's not the weight of your time, it's the grasp of your mind, you have to give to get, and what you get is your gift, it's not the one you want, but it's the one you have, it's time to make your point, it's the way and the where You Rise.... You Fall, Get Down... Get below it all || EVOLVE Your doubts, your dreams, everything that you would have to be the latest thing, you want, it seems, silence on the inside, On the outside only screams, you want it all but you fall under the big ball, keep walking tall, get up and shake off and evolve; make right, your way, it won't pave itself no matter how the price you pay, I stand, as a witness to all the wastes that you have laid and blame that you have tamed you want it all but you fall under the big ball, keep walking tall, get up and shake off and evolve || IN ONLY A DAY This morning is breaking With shadows creeping through the sun spots, the Drops of dew get confused with the tears, and you know that her strong soul faces a weak hole In these moments, Feelings in the front seat but reason must eat those fears...away, in only a day, in only a day or two; her cold and muddled head can't make sense of when a cold life is trudged right through her - it rips her down to the seams, but as night falls, a calm comes, a blanket of cool roams around in a fashion making up a safety net just when she needed it - take it all...away, in only a day, in only a day or two ...please stay, it's only a day, it's only a day or two; oh it's so heavy on your eyes, oh and how it fades in your disguise, the moment comes and you find it's heart, pierce it with the nipple you have hard || CUT IT LOOSE what you want is what I'm here to tell you, what you know isn't much, I'm here to show you, you can't know where you're going until you've been half the way, I know I got it all I've been there before, I can tell ya, there's nothing more you could understand; when the call that you're making is always on the line, you get the feeling no one's home but you know that it's a lie, you will find on your end that it's going to be a lonely time; I know I got it all I've been there before, I can tell ya, there's nothing more you could understand,  what you want with me, you've got to cut it loose, cause it's gunna free where you are, you might as well || BESIDES ME What do you want from me, some sort of apology? now it is clear to me, I've had an epiphany, and all the things we talked about never meant a thing, no one knows what you're about besides me; what should I say to you? after all that we've been through, I’ve got to keep true, I’ve got my will to save, and all the things we talked about never meant a thing, no one knows what you're about besides me; you better know where you're going, cause you'll never know where the future ends, watch for the signs that are showing, keeping in mind what you might owe them, paving the path to nowhere, it's easy to lose your head, I know what it's like to be there, I wear it everyday myself; and all the things we talked about never meant a thing, no one knows what you're about besides me || FORTUNE 100 contentment is just around the corner for you, look forward, look forward, old dreams never die, they just get filed away, old dreams never die, they just get filed away, next week your luck color will be green, there are big changes ahead for you, there are big changes ahead for you, your judgment is a little off at times, rely on your friends, rely on your friends, listen these next few days to them, to get the answers, good things come to those who wait...be patient, good things come to those who wait...be patient, you will be successful through innovation and determination, you will be successful through innovation and determination, these next few days are a lucky time for you, you can take a chance, you can take a chance, now is the best time for you to be spontaneous, serendipity..... serendipity..... || THE WAIT the wait...can never be too hard to find, the mistakes..will be yours to own in time, so fake..you can't resist the urge to lie, so take..your sorries now and say good night; sustain..your pardons can never last, your plate...is breaking into shattered pasts, this lane...oh it will take you to task, no brakes...and you will run out of laughs; if you want to be alone    then you ought to be alone, if you want to be alone then you ought to be alone, if you want to be alone, then you ought to be alone, if you want to be alone, then you ought to be alone || PAPERFACE saw your face covered in newspaper, you read the headlines but you don't see, and you don't give a damn about it, you say that we could really live without it all (I doubt it), I turned the page, you didn't notice, speaking of words I didn't say, but you don't really care to hear it, you've made your mind, you won't come near at all (you know you fear it); You're running out of time...I'll be goddamned if you make it right, I'm turning with the tide...I'll be goddamned if you make it right; PEDAL'S BROKE Your pedal's broke, out of order again, so you walk alone, six-pack in hand, you crack the first one, and you guzzle it down, nothing better than a cold one on the town, so you walk around, you reach in your pocket, and pull out a pack of smokes, searching for that special one, the one that tastes like jokes, no thought of being angry, no thought of losing patience, one single soul's epiphany, just a simple sensation; when did you know...when did you know..you'd be lost forever, from the state of your mind you will finally sever || THE HAITIAN I want to go where the people are nowhere so I don't have be so personal, I could be free then if I could be in a place that didn't have to feel so uncomfortable, I've got an inclination, a sort of sweet revelation, a perfect destination, it's always on my mind; you catch me clickin' my heels one two three times, I don't want to be Dorothy but it's on my mind; I could be leaving if I could believe in the things that I had always thought impossible, I've always wanted and I've always hunted for something that would make my odds more probable; a single explanation, not some abomination, please don't go get the Haitian, I'd like to keep my mind; you catch me clickin' my heels one two three times, I don't want to be Dorothy but it's on my mind; you might find me behind a big mirror wearing women's clothes, that's the way, the way, yeah babe, that's the way that it goes; you catch me clickin' my heels one two three times, I don't want to be Dorothy but it's on my mind || HARDLY A MOMENT it's easy to sit, from the back of a fence, too high to see past and say, 'oh yeah if it were me', laying judgments on the bed like a maid, Yes, please fluff the pillows, and please massage our egos, but don't expect a tip, it's such a small bump, that the road forgets, and it will soon fade, it may take a shot in the eye running down the crack of your lip to see the show won't go on and forget all the money spent and the people who spent it - the rose colored can't believe it - hardly a moment goes by that they don't try; somehow it seems, I can't get past the memory of what just happened, in my proximity, everyone around feels the same way, we wanna break things but there's nothing left to break, it may take a shot in the eye running down the crack of your lip to see the show won't go on and forget all the memories spent and the people who spent 'em - the rose colored can't believe it - hardly a moment goes by that they don't try || COLOR BLIND I can't think at all with you in my way, sure it's rough with the way you make me have to see my day, you got me to the point, now I can not focus, it's enough for the rest to provoke us, We are all our own people, I feel just like a wounded fiend and my enemy... is me... is you; From my point, askew, too late for the train, don't get off cause I know just what it's like here in the rain, the world just spins around, all this circular motion gets me down, I lose all my devotion, We are all our own people, I feel just like a wounded fiend and my enemy... is me... is you || STRANDED never knowing... where you're going when you want to be alone, the place that takes you... where you want it to even if you don't know, I wanna be stranded, stranded like you wouldn't believe, I wanna be stranded, so stranded like you wouldn't believe; and I stay... I choose to separate myself, on display... how I now feel, not how I felt, I wanna be stranded, stranded like you wouldn't believe, I wanna be stranded, so stranded like you wouldn't believe || NEGATIVE TALK maybe you've got to make a choice maybe you don't, negative talk can't save you now, every annoyance that you have, you must let go (of) cause all it can do is take you down || DIRT NAP laying in your bed...looking like ya didn't do a thing...you had it on the side: a wasted plate of life, a steady student of the worst kind, sketching out an evil plan to take the man, and make him...make him fall...like laying in a dirt nap, make a friend then sell him out, sell him out... sell him out... sell him out... sell him out...; you dug that hole all night to send a sound into the world, a singular vision that you sold as a con man's pearl, you never pulled a trigger or even made him bleed but you drove him to the streets and he might as well be...as well be dead... like laying in a dirt nap, make a friend then sell him out, sell him out... sell him out... sell him out... sell him out... when you're done... you can leave him ... out to dry || MAYBE MAYBE NOT maybe, maybe not, maybe for some but not for others