UPDATE: 28 Jan, We have done it! We have reached our goal with still 40 hours on the clock. The way this Pozible thing works, I think money can still be donated up until the clock runs out. Any additional money raised over and above the 3k will go toward a most splendid CD launch gig. All the available rewards are still up for grabs.

So exciting though, we have done it!

UPDATE: 8 Jan 2013: Some have voiced a hesitancy to paying via online means(Paypal etc). If this sounds like you or anyone you know, and you/they would like to contribute but don't want to lodge a payment online, then please contact this email and I will be able to help out, answer any questions, and problem solve as required. We have a lovely friend who has agreed to hold the cash donations and lodge that into this pledge, so that financial can be included into the final total. Rewards apply also for cash donations.

UPDATE: 6 Jan 2013: We have a SENDAM YouTube account with a growing list of videos, pledge invites from band members, and special performances. 
Kia ora koutou. The SENDAM Rawkus has recordeed and album, and needs help to make the CD.

The Introduction:
Kia ora, and welcome to our project. The SENDAM Rawkustra from Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, has the great pleasure to announce that we have independently recorded an album's worth of material and now we want to make into a CD. 

SENDAM has been a hidden secret really, a flourishing and developing group of unrealised musicians who were spending their time at a day centre that provided a safe and non-judgmental space for folk who have past or current experiences of mental illness. There's a more detail history below for your additional information.

For five years, almost every Friday, SENDAM meet's, set's up the equipment - always percussion but often never the same arrangement, and launches into uncharted musical territory. The attendance has always been voluntary, any contribution accepted,  to fully immerse in the music-making or to gently sit and watch, it is all considered part of the group. Talking with words can sometimes be too hard, but to converse in sound, to watch and respond, to gently observe and help tease out a yet-unrealised blossoming confidence is a delightful way to pass the time.

Over the years, people have brought other offerings, talents, hidden piano skills, guitarist skills, and wordsmiths - spontaneous and composed. All have been welcome and explored.

The Proposal:
And now, after half a decade, we have captured an audio snapshot of SENDAM. Now we want to produce a CD and book that anchors this hidden and bold beauty in a format to share. Now we reach out to you. Perhaps you would like to be part of this community-enhancing project?

We are in need of $3000 to help us press this CD, to wrap it in a beautiful gate-fold cardboard package, and to include a generous CD size booklet fully of images that capture the vitality, the fragility, and the boldness that we call SENDAM.

Our recording would not have been possible without the most generous support from sound technician Benni Krueger at Tasman Records. Benni recording the session with a vast array of beautiful microphones, capturing not only the sound of the band, but also the ambiance of the lush wooden hall at the Newtown Community Centre. Benni has also been responsible for mixing and mastering the recordings to deliver the best quality audio that we can. We are indeed thankful of Benni's generous contribution and optimism towards this project.

So please explore the options of rewards ti the right. There are a number of options to entice your support, from the secure knowledge that you have helped, to the ownership of unique works of art. We think this is a brilliant project, and hope that you'll come along for this part of the ride.

cheers

kieran
 

HISTORY:In 2007 primary health care nurse Kieran Monaghan, and Wellington percussionist Andreas Lepper, secured funding to start a health/music initiative at The Clubhouse. This venue has been a long term feature of the southern suburb of Newtown and is a peer support service by and for people who have past and/or present experiences of mental illness.

During Monaghan's regular outreach health clinic's, he noticed that there was a lot of music being made on a temperamentally rickety drum kit and an upright piano. He discussed with the manager at that time about establishing a more formal music workshop. Funding was obtain via Newtown Union Health Service and the then PHO SECPHO (now Well Health PHO). The group was set for every Friday and was a free event for members of the service to participate for as long as they wanted, in a way that accessible and embraced all levels of skill and experience.

One member early on, a young women called Iritana, offered the word Sendam when a name was trying to be imagined. The group was uncertain what SENDAM meant, though it did sound exotic and interesting. Iritana simply stated that SENDAM was MADNESS backwards (minus an S). This seemed perfect and appropriate. Turning madness on its head into something special, unique, and creatively rich.

And it has grown from there.

Five years on, we still rehearse every Friday, usually about 15 participants (tho this always varies during the course of the morning) and we have a few regulars from IDEA services who come to the Clubhouse especially to make music.

The music is predominantly drums, but now with the addition of guitars, piano, lyric writers, and spontaneous dance the scope continues to expand. The compositions are dynamic improvisations on  top of some generally agreed structure, always the music shifts into unexpected, and often brilliant, domain.

SENDAM has recently welcomed in several new members from IDEA Services, bringing a unique energy to the mix. We do our best to make this project as accessible as possible, accommodating tidal emotional states, differing physical abilities, and a spectrum of skill levels.

In 2012 SENDAM held a fundraising concert at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre to raise a few dollars to put towards a recording project. Benni Kreuger, recording technician from Tasman Records, was interested in working with the group and one Saturday SENDAM returned to the community centre to capture these recording.