This is my first solo album in six years, and it’s one that’s especially significant to me. This year has been a profound one. As some of you may know, I lost my sweet papa 18 months ago. And then I had a baby four months ago. So it’s been a year book-ended by the most intense of human experiences.
I wrote most of the songs on this record soon after my dad died, and right when I found out I was pregnant. At this intersection of joy and grief, I locked myself in a cabin in the mountains of New Mexico and wrote these tunes. The coming together of these emotions brought about a visual landscape in the songs that I would not have otherwise been able to write about. It was one of the most beautiful and telling times of my life.
The Penny Collector is the first album I'm releasing independently, without the support of a record label, in quite some time. I hope you'll join me on this journey, as I believe this is a recording we can all relate to. I almost feel like I had nothing to do with writing these songs. It's as if the songs wrote me as opposed to me writing them.
Here’s more about the project . . .
The PRODUCTION of the album:
It's difficult for me to pigeonhole The Penny Collector, stylistically. I’ve always loved and admired how Patty Griffin and Brandi Carlile are able to deliver incredibly beautiful and vulnerable poetry with fierce powerful voices, and it’s my hope that The Penny Collector straddles the same Americana/Roots, Folk, and Indie Rock worlds that those women manage to occupy. My most amazing producer, Neilson Hubbard (Garrison Star, Glen Phillips, Ben Glover, Ryan Culwell), focused the production on trying to capture the delicacy and nuance of my voice, draping the vocal performances in swathes of expressionistic electric guitars, velvety strings, and primal percussive heart beats . . . but always trying to leave the stories and the delivery front and center. And I must say, I’ve never been more thrilled with what we were able to capture in the studio. Neilson somehow shared my vision, and managed to actualize it and magnify it.
The STORY behind the writing of the album:
The Penny Collector is about ushering in new life and honoring old life. It’s about standing in that sacred space where the celebration of life meets at both ends. In June of 2015, I learned of my papa's terminal condition with pancreatic cancer, cancelled my tour schedule, and went to Atlanta to be with him through the last month of his life. Caring for someone that close to me and holding his hand through the exposure of that final phase of life, was an incredibly powerful experience, heart wrenching, but also precious and beautiful in its connection. And it was magnified all the more by the fact that I was simultaneously going through the fertility process, and preparing the emotional fields for planting new seeds.
The title, The Penny Collector, was chosen in honor of my papa, Richard Elkin (1942-2015). My dad was a lifelong penny collector. Not just the ‘collectible’ pennies, but rather every penny he could get his hands on. In the process of cleaning out his basement we discovered that, in his lifetime, he had collected approximately 600,000 special little pennies, neatly rolled and lovingly kept. My dad had a way of finding value and delight in the tiny things that other people might walk right past.
My BIG PLANS for the album:
I haven’t released an album independently in a long time, and I’m committed to doing this in a big way, and the right way. I want to balance the responsibility I feel towards my art (and this album which I feel so strongly about) with the responsibility I feel towards motherhood and the nurturing of this amazing new life that’s joined our family. So towards that end, I will be touring extensively, nationally and internationally, with Maizy and Danny in tow. We’re touring the album as a family for most of 2017!
I’ve put an immense amount of planning into building a proper campaign for the album, and I’ve hired a top notch team to support the campaign in its various facets and regions, including a print and media publicist in the US, a print and media publicist in the UK and Europe, and a great production team for photos and videos. And Danny and I will be managing the US radio campaign ourselves, as well as the social network campaign. Balancing all this work with family life is both exhausting and enthralling. But it’s important to me that you understand I’m committed to taking as big a swing with this record as I’m able. As we’re able.
Here’s a breakdown of my expenses and BUDGET:
$12,000 for Production. This includes the studio, producer, musicians, and mastering.
$9,000 for Press & Media Publicity. This includes agencies in the US, UK and Europe.
$1,500 for Radio Campaign. This is for shipping mostly.
$4,500 for Manufacturing. This is to press CDs, vinyl records, and posters.
$3,000 for Tour Support. It is much more expensive to tour with a baby and a baby daddy.
Thanks so much for all your support. I hope to make you all very proud.
Simply.
Carrie
Risks and challenges
None, really. The project is complete and my team has been hired! YES!
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Funding period
- (30 days)