One LP of original music. One LP of songs from composers around the world.
"Like some sort of dream supergroup featuring members of Grizzly Bear, the Flecktones, Kronos Quartet and The Books, the Maladies manage a sound that winds through psychedelic passages, classical interludes and intimate folk melodics — all through the course of one track...a progressive mix of Appalachian Roots, Neo-Classical Chamber music and modern Indie Folk." - Mike Breen, CityBeat
2014 will be our most exciting, challenging, ambitious, and fantastical year yet! Here is what your contribution will go toward. And thank you for reading!
#1 A full length record of original music written in the last two years. Though we don't take ourselves or each other too seriously, when it comes to our music, we are unabashedly obsessed with every musical moment. This is partly why it takes so long to write one song, and consequently, why it has taken us so long to write an entire record. But, we're finally ready to go into the studio to share this music with you!
We're very excited to be working with Ed Spear of Sputnik Sound in Nashville, TN, a wonderful recording engineer who is as obsessed with details as we are. Find out more about Sputnik Sound here!
#2 An album of brand new compositions, written especially for us, from composers around the world. Must Love Cats, our composition call, is one of our most exciting collaborative projects. We asked composers to write music for our acoustic instruments and voices, and once the June 1st deadline passes, we'll carefully select 5 compositions, work with the composers to learn the music, and record the pieces here in Cincinnati with Ric Hordinski of Monastery Studio.
We've been planning concerts with regional museums, universities, clubs, and music conservatories, and we're so excited to be able to share the music of our contemporaries with a number of diverse audiences. The record is only one part of the whole project -- we'll also be creating a book profiling each composer, a live film, and more. Find out more here!
#3 Part of the money raised will go toward hiring a team of professional publicists and promoters to help expand our reach. We've been Doing-It-Ourselves for the past 6 years, and while we'll continue to Do-Most-Everything-Ourselves, there are just some things we can't really do so well. We'd like to share our music with more people, and we'd like to eventually be able to make part of our living performing our music around the world. We work tirelessly to make sure our music is being written and performed at the highest level possible, and we think it's time we have a little help on the non-musical side of things. Your contribution to this campaign will make sure we are able to take steps to make our practice healthy and sustainable.
#4 We need to press more copies of new again, our EP from 2012! It's hard to believe we've sold out of this record, but we couldn't be more proud to say so. Our first record since becoming a quartet, new again was nominated in 2013 for Album of the Year by the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards.
Thank you for taking the time to watch, read, and listen. We've always felt so supported in our crazy musical adventures, so thank you. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or ideas.
Yours,
The Happy Maladies
Risks and challenges
Must Love Cats is a kind of project we've never attempted -- we'll be performing other people's music, we'll be producing a lot of different art products (record, book, film), and we'll be performing the pieces in very diverse venues (concert hall, museum, university classroom, bar). There are bound to be obstacles along the way, many of which we will not be able to predict.
But! We're very committed to this new model of composer-band collaboration, and believe in what we're doing. Not only will it be fun for us, but hopefully it will inspire other bands to try similar projects! -- or inspire them to invent totally new projects.
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Funding period
- (30 days)