Rachael Brady

"In Case of Falling: songs of comfort & consolation"
That's the tentative working title 
and it encompasses the things we embrace to help us weather our storms and navigate the insanity
(and the beauty)
 wrapped up into songs, making audio blankets of our myriad life preservers.

I can't tell you how much it means to me as an independent artist to be on the verge of creating our 3rd studio album and to have your invaluable help in achieving that goal.


(Nige recording at the Tanuki Lounge 2006)

Many of you have our previous albums
("Peace by Peace" & "Somewhere Sunshine")
and love them like old friends. We've toured these albums over the last 6 years through Australia and in the USA and we've made so many lasting friendships through our music that I can't even begin to describe the depth and breadth of the experiences these two albums have blessed us with.

 

Soundchecking @the Acadia - Minneapolis USA  ** Me & Nige: Feelgood Festival, Wisconsin USA

Nigel and I funded the making of those two albums (and a US tour) ourselves with lots of help from our families but circumstances have changed and we're not able to contribute the bulk of the funding as we did then; believe me when I say we would if we could! On a positive note, I'm grateful that you like what we do enough to have been asking for another album for quite some time. It's been 4 years and we agree that that's long enough so we  want to do something about it.

We have the material, the raw demos of which you can find on our YouTube page but some of which you'll not yet have heard (unless you've come out to see us play live) and we might keep it that way just because we need a few surprises up our sleeve.

We've found our engineer - John Stuart at Soundheaven Studios  who has recorded with other Blue Mountains artists like Kate Rowe and Urthboy and has (and is still experiencing) a long and prodigious career as a musician, composer and arranger. His studio is nestled on a breathtaking escarpment in Wentworth Falls -  needless to say, plenty of fuel for all creative fires. Here's a brief little video I put together:

What we don't have right now is the all important funding! And that's where you come in and we're excited to have you be a part of it so please let me break it down for you so you know exactly what we need in order to make this happen.

$4,000 - Recording/Mixing

John's fee is $2,000 per week (which is about as reasonable as it gets for his level of experience). This includes the use of his studio, his engineering and production skills, his experience and any additional musicianship we might find we need to flesh things out on the album (which is a really good deal because it means we don't have to hire session musicians). So, Nigel and I plan to have all our tracks down in ONE WEEK which is pretty speedy when you consider that some people take a year to make an album. But we're going for a minimalist approach with an emphasis on layered vocals (including vocal percussion) and multiple guitar tracks so we figure we can get our part done in a week which equals $2,000 and then John figures he can get his part done (mixing etc) in a week which equals another $2,000. Thus, 4 grand.



$800 - Mastering 

Mastering (in case you aren't familiar with this term) is the equalizing/balancing out of your final recording and it's an invaluable (and unavoidable) part of the process. Soundheaven studios outsource their Mastering and John tells me that the fellow who'll be responsible for our album was the head of mastering at Sony in Western Sydney for a number of years so I feel confident that he knows what he's doing :)

$1,000 - Artwork

Even though it could be said that CDs are a dying medium we still like to print at least 500 to 1000 copies to sell at shows, and that means artwork is an essential part of the final creative product. The only girl for me when it comes to artwork is the very talented Donna Gee. She did both our previous albums - she's a creative joy to work with and I couldn't say enough good things about her as a person and about her beautiful, intuitive work. I usually hand her a dog's breakfast of ideas and images and she always manages to shape them into something beautiful.

$1500 - Printing

I myself am more of a downloader but there are still many who want the finished product in their hand - my Mum is one of those people so I can't argue with that. We try not to print too many both for environmental reasons and because we like the idea of a limited amount of CDs floating around out there. It seems a bit more personal and a little less commercial.

So, that's a 
grand total of $7,300
and  we really think that will do it if everything goes smoothly in the studio and we don't run into any overtime (which we hope not to) but ahh - the recording process is a fairly organic one so it's not always easy to tell; any additional funding will certainly be welcomed and used in order to make this the best album it can be.

This is the first time we've entertained or attempted this kind of funding and we really want to stress how grateful we are for your help. Music to me is an indispensable part of my journey on this planet and I always hope the songs we make mean something to someone more than Nigel and myself but at the same time I know it's a luxury to be able to spend this much money on the making of a piece of artwork in a world where many don't have a roof over their head or food in their bellies. Still, we hope that you are able to continue to find value in what we're doing and help us out however much you can in bringing this album to fruition. We're really excited and we know it's going to be our best offering yet.

With Gratitude,

Rachael and Nigel.



Please come and visit us in our other cyber hangouts:
The website
ReverbNation
Facebook Music Page
YouTube
Rachael's Photography