Over the past 18 months, the band and I have been writing some of our best tunes yet, delving into the spiritual realms of reggae radness. It's time to get our butts back into the studio to get these songs down, and we thought, where better to record our spiritual album "Free Spirit" than the magical spiritual realms of Ubud, Bali?  

The story goes.... After a couple of trips to the stunning town of Ubud, Bali's spiritual mecca, I kept getting a really loud message to return, with my band, and make our next album there. Thinking myself a tiny bit crazy, I put it out to the band, and asked if everyone would fund their flights to help make it happen. They all said YES!!!! 



I jumped online and googled Bali studios and stumbled across an incredible producer Ben Last, who has a studio in Ubud, for recording, and another studio 5 minutes up the road from where I live near Byron Bay, for mixing. SYNCHRONICITY CITY!! We met up and immediately struck a magic chord, I hit him up for the job and he said YES!!!!! Ben has worked with Deya Dova, Ganga Giri, Josh Arent, Mel Dobra, Mihirangi among many other great artists.



So... we've all bought our tickets and booked the studio for September... and now with zero bank balance (HENCE THE PRAYING PICTURE) we are leaping into the arms of our fans, family and friends, our angelic supporters, to help provide the means to fund our new opus and give us wings to fly it.



"Leap, and the net shall appear"... is my motto, and so far has served me well in my creative endeavours. As we all know Arts funding is a pit of despair and crowd funding is the new mode of making art happen through people power. So we are appealing to you guys to help make this happen, so we can keep making musical magic and spreading it around the universe, uplifting, healing and connecting people in the spirit of celebration and harmony.



I've been on a freedom journey for the past few years, and the album "Free Spirit" is a collection of uplifting inspirational reggae songs which I've written while navigating the path to happiness, health and healing. It will be a six-track EP featuring the following songs (you may have heard us perform live):

Free Spirit
Lion Song
Runnin' Away
Free Your Mind
No Fight, No War
Hurtin'

Here's us playing the title track "Free Spirit" live at Island Vibe Festival 2014:

All songs have been arranged by my delectable butt-kicking band, featuring:

Claire Cottone (me) (guitars, lead vocals)
Julia Rose (bass, backing vocals)
David Bell (drums)
Stevie Buchanan (trumpet)
Ange Gadd (trombone)

... and welcoming back to the studio our fave special guest, maestro Grim Tilla (guitars, vocals, on-hand genius), who has just spent the last 12 months on a musical spiritual journey of his own out in Alice Springs. So we are delighted to have him back in the studio to play boss while I relax on the couch like a proper cat in between vocal takes. We are stoked to be reconnecting for this new project after the success of our previous album Songs from the Sea (2013).



It's an all-star cast and I'm praying that the stars align to bring all of our fan power behind us so we can make this EP come to life! Please join our musical mission and in return we will make for you a beautiful album for your listening, relaxing, dancing, driving, house cleaning, partying pleasure! We love you!!!!!!! 

We have some great rewards on offer for our backers and we'll keep you updated for the whole journey with video updates and love letters from the studio as the recording progresses.

Here are the lyrics to one of the tracks, Free Your Mind:

It's easy to get lost when you're making your way to your destination
It's easy to give up when you're down and you can't find your inspiration
It's easy to forget yourself when you're tuned to the Babylon Station
Don't ever criticise yourself, just do your best in the situation...

You've got to educate yourself to overstand the political nation
You listen to the news do you choose to believe in the latest sensation
Take a look around who you gonna rely on for your information?
You've got to look inside yourself for the truth

And free your mind
From slavery to misery
Free your mind
From all the lies and hypocrisy
Free your mind....

By now you know that life ain't easy you gotta work hard for remuneration
And nothing is more challenging than the heartbreak of human relations
I ask Jah to give I strength, not to lead I into desperation
I livity to play music and to raise the vibration

Free your mind
And be happy, the better way to be
Free your mind
And you will find the gifts Jah has for thee
Free your mind....


THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

  

Studio hire (Bali) $1000
EP engineering, mixing and mastering $9,000
CD artwork and pressing $2000

Everything is tightly planned in place to make the recording happen smoothly in Bali and back home in Australia.