Cds being sent out to funders.


(photo by Jenny of her copy of the album)

A big batch of the CDs were sent earlier this week, so hopefully those of you who pledged for a reward that included a copy of the physical album who have also sent me your addresses, will start to find the album in your post boxes!

If you’ve not already sent me your address, you’ll probably find an email from me detailing how to send it to me, but just in case, you can email me at ebby@misterebby.com with your postal address if you’re one of the few who’ve not gotten around to it yet. But don’t worry – I’ll probably contact you directly about it if I’m down to just a handful of people left still needing their copy to be sent out.

In case you missed it, you can see a little behind the scenes video about how the covers for the funders handmade edition were screen printed.

Things have been much slower than anticipated, but hopefully the final result will be worth it in the end. Do let me know when you get your copy by leaving a message on the facebook page, or tweet me, or posting a reply on this post. I like knowing that the cds arrived safe and sound. I’ve grown quite attached to the handmade versions after all the time and work that went into them.

88 is a magic number

88 folded and waiting.

88 handmade covers specially for the fundit funders finally finished tonight. In the morning they’ll be double checked for flaws or disasters, then editioned and signed and I’ll start putting together the packages to be posted out to funders very soon. There’s a bunch of you who’ve not contacted me with an email address. You’ll be getting an email reminder, and you’ll be getting yours later than everyone else because I can’t post it to you if I don’t have an address to post it to. It would make me sad if the cd didn’t get to its home.

I have a paper cut – of course it was just with the last handful that I managed to get a bad paper cut on my index finger. Damnit. I’m having a glass of wine to celebrate.

I’ve a bunch of shows coming up this summer, but the first two confirmed so far are for two different fringe festivals here in Galway. (apparently we’ve gone from no Fringes to two! Excellent stuff.)

So, July 6th I’ll be playing on the bill with three other male solo performers for an event called “Solitary Men” for the Colours Fringe. I’m very tempted to learn Loudon Wainwright’s “One Man Guy” for that gig, as that would make me chuckle. That will be in the gorgeous upstairs venue in Kelly’s on Bridge St and so far I know that Willow Sea is headlining and Matteo is also performing. I’ve not found out who the last performer is, but I’ll be sure to edit this post when I do. Seems like it’ll be a diverse evening of music, and I’m really looking forward to it. There is a door charge of €3, and it is in a licensed venue, so it’s over 18’s unfortunately.

I’m doing a full solo show for the Galway Fringe on the 22nd at 3pm in Rouge restaurant. They have a grand piano there. I’m pretty darn excited about that fact. It’s also a nice afternoon show that’s open to all ages, and it’s free! They do have pretty delicious wine there too, just saying. It’s the day of the Macnas parade for the Galway Arts Festival, so you should really be in Galway that weekend to experience the height of the summer festival season here.

I’m looking at having some singers with me as well as some string players, and I’m open to people who want to come and play with me on a song or two at that performance. Just get in touch. I’m going to be asking some of my fellow string orchestra members as well as some of the singers I had for the launch. I quite like a crowdsourced bunch of talented folk making the musical experience even richer.

Off Beaten Path producions is the dance company set up by Genevieve Ryan and Katarzyna Voetter, and they’ll be doing three dance shows as part of the Fringe festival too. One of the two pieces they’ll be presenting will be the dance they’ve choreographed to my song Codail Sámh. I’m so excited to see this being performed live, as what I’ve seen of it in workshop form has been so beautiful. We’re looking at incorporating some live music into their show too, but I’ll fill you in on exactly what’s happening closer to the time.

There’s a few other live gigs being organised at the moment too, and as soon as details are confirmed I’ll update on all those plans. As ever, I’m completely open to doing a house concert anywhere there’s a piano or where one can be set up. So, if you’ve ever fancied having an evening of live music in your home for yourself and whoever else you like, then get in touch by email or on twitter, and ask me about it.

Behind the scenes: screenprinting the covers

The very lovely Grace Mitchell was in Lorg Fine Art Printmakers last Friday finishing off the screenprints for the handmade limited edition covers I’m sending out to the wonderful folk who funded my album. I tagged along, pretended to be helpful, but really just made coffee and shot some video footage and took some photos of the work in progress.

So, if you’ve ever been curious as to what a fine art print studio was like, here’s a little bit of a look inside the studio at Lorg. We were just screenprinting that day, but there was another artist in the studio doing some etching at the same time, which was interesting for me to watch as well, but I didn’t shoot any footage of that.

I’d done a little bit of screenprinting when I was studying art in secondary school myself, but this is on a whole other level by comparison, and was quite interesting to watch. I now have another batch of about 60 covers to assemble – which will take me a little while. But once they’re all made, editioned (numbered), and signed, they’ll be getting sent out. Nearly there at this stage. This is the home stretch of the CD making side of things.

The music I used in the video is bits of the piano instrumental “Bewerunge” that is up on my soundcloud too:

Cds have finally arrived.

Cds arrived.

If you have already sent me your address, then thank you very much – I have your address on file. I know mailouts don’t have the best chance with some spam filters, so I figured I’d best remind people through the website too.

But, the CDs have finally arrived back from the manufacturer, and this weekend the print artist is making her handmade covers which will be a the limited edition just for Fundit Funders, and won’t be available in any shop. So, all things going to plan the CDs should start being posted out from early next week. But yes, please do email ebby [at] misterebby [dot] com with your postal address for me if you are one of the wonderful people who helped fund my record and thus are on my list. And check your emails to see if my mailing list for you funders is getting through to you as some people have had issues with that it seems.

Other folk, stay tuned as the record should be available in some of the fantastic little indie music stores around Ireland very soon, and then the physical cd itself will be on sale through bandcamp too.

Talking about fundit some more

Damien Mulley is blogging about :fund:it at the moment by way of three interviews with people who used the site to fund their different creative projects. I was one of those three who was interviewed by him – he emailed over a few questions about my fundit campaign back in August shortly after the campaign finished.

The first interview with Philly McMahon of thisispopbaby went up on his site yesterday, and the one with me went up today.

I remember my replies being a complete and utter brain dump, as my project wasn’t long finished when he emailed me, so everything was still in my head. If I was asked now, I’d probably be a bit more succinct on the whole. Well, maybe not.

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