Hi everyone, 

Stringzy here. Well, I ended up doing it. I recorded another album. This time in the States, in beautiful Portland, Oregon. What a great city. I travelled over to America with my trusty acoustic guitar and a suitcase of pedals and went in to meet Adam Selzer at his studio, Type Foundry, where I was going to rehearse that evening with local Portland lads Luke Ydstie (bass) and Ben Nugent (drums). I was, to coin a phrase, shitting myself. I've never been so nervous in my life. Except when I went to my first grand final with my brother. Hawks versus Swans. We lost. I'm happy to say, though, that if this rehearsal had been a footy game, WE GOT THE FOUR POINTS!! (That means we won, for those non- Victorians...) It was awesome, such a buzz to play these brand new songs with these guys. And I liked all three of them instantly too, which is a bonus. 

Particularly in Adam's case, because we were destined to spend a lot of one on one time in the studio together. And had we not liked each other it would have been totes awks. HOWEVER, it turned out to be a fantastic experience. Adam is patient, skilled, efficient, funny and a really good musician. I'm two of those things, so we were a good team. And I'm so proud of what we made.


(Type Foundry, day one of recording. They're Adam's guitars that I used for the entire record. There's a Fender Telecaster on the other side of that guitar stand. Beautiful axes, they are.) 


(Adam setting up mics and amps. Ringo - his ridiculously cute dog - standing by.)


It's been ten years since I released my debut album "Soon". And since then we've had "Pendulum" in 2008, "Tides of Time" in 2010 and "Warm In The Darkness" in 2012 . "Live at the Yarra", recorded live (believe it or not) at Melbourne's Yarra Hotel, came out in 2014. The algorithm clearly suggests I was due for one this year. As I mention in my Pozible video which you may or may not have watched (I don't blame you if you didn't, don't worry), I'm so grateful to all of my fans and supporters who have helped me along the way since 2006. My crowd is so freakin' awesome. You're a respectful, loyal mob, (with excellent taste, might I add *flicks hair*) and I love you very much. Should you decide to jump on board this project I'd be more grateful still, but let me make it clear that I am completely aware of what you've already contributed to my career. Respect. Seriously. 



The funds from this Pozible campaign are going towards the fundamental things that need to happen to get the album out. With Creative Victoria's help, I have fully paid for the recording, mixing, mastering and travel costs associated with "All The Bridges". It's time now to fund the album artwork, the production of the CD and Vinyl copies and the publicity for the album and its accompanying launch tour. That's what's referred to in the industry as a "shitload" of costs. 

The cool thing is that you get something for your contribution. Essentially it's a presale arrangement. You can pre-order and pay for the album in any or all of its forms now and receive your copy/ies at least two weeks before the official release date, which is July 1st. Then you can brag to your mates about how you've already got it, and they'll be all like, "who's Liz Stringer?"... but still, pretty cool. There's some other cool stuff too, little extras and one-offs. This is such a nice way for us to connect. I've supported a bunch of crowd funding campaigns of my mates' and it's a great feeling. Because eventually something fun turns up in the post and you have a warm fuzzy about the fact that something mutually beneficial just went on. It's nice (look into my eyes, look into my eyes..). 

The official release date is Friday, July 1st, as I mentioned. I'll be in Canada touring at that time (can't wait to get back!) but I'll return to Australia in late August to begin an  Australian national launch tour. And if we don't make it to your state in September I'll make it my life's mission to get there, with the band, in the ensuing months. The Australian tour dates will be announced soon.  

Anyway. I won't go on. Thanks for reading.

Lots of love to you and I'll see you along the road somewhere.

Stringwit xx



(View from Type Foundry. Across factories to a highway bridge.)

Manufacturing costs (CD and Vinyl): $7,700
-This includes pressing 300 copies on 12" Vinyl and 2000 CD copies. 
Album artwork/layout designs: $3,045
This includes: 
-Original album cover artwork by amazing local artist Courtney Meacham
-Publicity and album cover photos by the brilliant Tajette O'Halloran
-Album sleeve and booklet design and layout for both CD and Vinyl by Kirrily Anderson, who is a legend and who also did the art design for "Live at The Yarra"
-And all poster designs for the album publicity and the tour publicity, also by Kirrily Anderson. 
Album publicity: $6,550 
-Working with Remedy Music, here in Melbourne, based on a campaign that we've tailored with them specific to this album release Australia wide. 

Releasing an album is always a challenge. My throat still constricts thinking of how 'down to the wire' each one of my previous releases has come to being a total disaster. But we've always pulled it off in the end. There are two things that always seem to pose the biggest challenges. The first is timing; getting the physical copies to arrive before the release date, having all the shows locked in, co-ordinating interviews and advertising, booking flights so the tour works etc etc. (And still managing to go to as many Hawks games as possible before you leave for OS.) The other is, you guessed it, MONEY. Money is a facilitator. That's how I look at it. It doesn't have anything do with the value of art, but sometime's it's necessary to allow the art to be created and enjoyed. This ain't my first rodeo (although if it actually was a rodeo it totally would be, I've never been near one) and I have such a great team working with me this time around. My manager Cat is very pragmatic and organised (I've taught her all she knows) and she's hooked up with a great team in Remedy Music. I've worked with MAD CDs in Sydney for every release and their product is always top shelf and their deadlines always dead on.  I feel good about everything. I feel relatively calm... Wait, no... Nah, I do. I feel calm. It's going to be fine. And if a spanner ends up in the works, I feel like my spanner retrieving skills are way better than they ever have been. We'll deal with it. And then keep going. July 1st here we come. 


(My manager Cat and me. We don't ALWAYS drink beer. But sometimes we do. We're a good team.)