This morning I woke up to see my crowdfunding campaign had hit its target, with 101 funders helping to get me to that magic number. The project deadline is later this evening, so there’s still time for more pledges to come in, so anything extra now is a much appreciated extra bonus to help finishing the record off.
All I can think of this morning as a result is this gif:
Because, really, that’s how I feel at the moment. Thank you to everyone who has pledged, shared linkes, retweeted, emailed, taken photos, made a video, donated movie tickets, or helped out in any way with this crowdfunding project. It really will make a difference and it will mean this album will get finished.
Special thank you to Mark Willis for shooting and editing the video you see on the project page, and to Yvonne Ryan for snapping the photos that day that were used for the project too. You should also check out the band she is in, btw, The Ambience Affair. They are aces. It was also Yvonne who suggested Charthouse Studios to me, which is the studio I’ve ended up using.
So, yeah, people are awesome. Thank you. I really do appreciate all the help and support with this crowdfunding campaign.
There’s just over 24 hours left on my fund:it campaign, and I’m just shy of 90% of the way to my target. More than 80 people have gotten involved so far and pledged various amounts of money from as low as €5 to any amount above that. It’s nerve wracking to be so close with such a short time left until my funding deadline. The deal with fund:it and similar crowdfunding sites, is that if you don’t reach your target, you don’t get any of the money at all. So, it’s kinda nail-biting at the moment.
The tickets were drawn for the competition for the film fleadh tickets, and two random pledgers to my campaign found themselves with a pair of tickets each for a movie at the Fleadh. That was a wonderful added bonus to be able to give as an extra reward along with the ones I have listed on the fund:it page.
This time tomorrow I’ll know whether the project is funded or not. I’m trying to not just sit at the computer clicking refresh to see if there are any more pledges – that temptation is there, but instead I’m playing piano, enjoying fresh strawberries and the sunny day, and finishing my knitting project.
I’ve been having trouble with my computer, and it needs to go in for repair, but between that and the funding campaign, I’ve been keeping myself calm and busy by getting back into knitting. I’m making a pair of wrist warmers since I lost my previous pair at some stage over the last few months. They’re kinda essential kit for me in the studio – keeping my hands warmed up between takes. The knitting project is kinda nicely mirroring the funding one, and I’ve one glove finished, and the other about three quarters done at this stage.
Wish me luck with the last day of my fund:it campaign, and please take a look at the link, and share it around, to help push me up that last 10% that I need to reach my target. I would really appreciate any pledge no matter how small, or any link that is posted to help spread the campaign out.
I was obsessed with kd lang for a while as a teenager. I was blown away by her voice and the songwriting on Ingenue. She knocks this Roy Orbison song out of the park every time she sings. She’s one of the greatest singers ever. No contest. Brilliant control, tone, pitch, and power, all used with great musicality. She knows when to pull back, and when to let rip. I prefer the arrangement in the MTV Unplugged session she did in ’93, but her vocal from the induction of Roy Orbison into the The Songwriters Hall of Fame is stunning.
Speaking of that Unplugged session, this performance from it of the song “Barefoot”, is one of my very favourite performances of hers. The song is from the movie Salmonberries, which also kd lang also starred in, is one of those songs that will randomly pop into my head for no apparent reason. The melody of is utterly divine:
I remember completely enjoying the movie Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, but having it open with kd lang singing “Skylark”, a capella, was an absolute gem. Just her voice, unadorned.
Whether cowpunk, or pop, powerballads, or country tinged folk, her vocals are always golden. This song, from the album Invincible Summer is always one of my happy summer driving songs:
The opening chorus of “Bobby” in this clip gets stuck in my head so much. I’m not majorly well versed in Sondheim’s work, to be perfectly honest, but every time I catch something like this I feel like I should try and catch more performances of his musicals.
However, my love of musicals really began when I took a tape of the music from Cats out on loan from the city library as a child. I totally fell in love with those musical numbers as a kid, without ever seeing a production of it.
Even now, I make a living doing musical direction for amateur musical productions, or playing piano for them, and I guess it is only natural that a lifelong association with musical theatre in various ways has informed my own music as much as my classical training, or the music I listen to myself for pleasure.
As a performing art, it intrigues me as it covers so much ground musically – from jazz, to Disney, to rock, to country… you name as style of music, and there’s probably a few musicals in that style. One of my favourites of recent years are two movie musicals, with very contrasting styles:
Here’s some folky french chanson from Les Chansons d’Amour. I like that the actors sing quite naturally, and it completely surprised me when I rented it out on a whim from a local video shop a few years ago. The soundtrack is one of my favourite albums to be honest, and I need to find more of Alex Beaupain’s music. This isn’t the strongest song from the movie (that would probably be “Brooklyn Bridge” or “J’ai Cru Entendre” I think), but it’s my favourite this morning:
And this wonderful piece from Were The World Mine, which took inspiration from Shakespeare‘s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and added gays, rugby, and musical theatre. Obviously. And it’s a must-see for any gay guy that ended up getting a lead in their school show which helped change people’s opinion of them. *ahem* I love the transitions between reality and fantasy in the musical number in this movie too.
I could go on and keep posting videos from other more well known musicals, or other favourites of mine, but I won’t. I’ll leave it with what is still perhaps my favourite number from a musical ever. The weaving of the different melodies from other parts of the musical into this one big showstopper never fails to wow me:
Which of course was parodied brilliantly by South Park, Bigger, Longer and Uncut:
The Galway Film Fleadh has agreed to donate two movie tickets to two pledgers to my fundit campaign. You can donate as little as €5 and potentially get a full album and two tickets for a movie at the Fleadh for that price!
First set of tickets will be given to Pledgers who make their pledge in the first two weeks of the campaign (i.e. before midnight on Sunday 19th).
The second set of tickets to people who pledge between Monday the 20th and Sunday 26th of June. A nice random surprise top-up to your pledge!
The Fleadh takes place in Galway between the 5th and 10th of July, and the programme hasn’t been announced just yet, but keep an eye on the website! As soon as the programme is announced I should know more specific details about the tickets.
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