Ashley Bell

Thanks for coming over for a little look!! My name's Ash Bell, and I'm the guitar player and singer For Starboard Cannons. The bloke on the upright bass is Matt Bone. We are fairly good mates most of the time, and we've been playing music together since 2009. The reason for this campaign is to fund a new release. It will be a 10 track album, and will be released in April 2014.
In 2012 we released our debut album, 'Somebody's Opus'. We are super proud of how the album went, with heaps of national and international airplay, some great reviews, contest results and most importantly, the feedback from real live people such as you about how you felt about it and what it meant to you. So thanks for that!
However, one can only rest upon one's laurels for so long, and it's time to give back..
We're hitting the studio in January. Once again, we will be teaming up with the magnificent Jordan Power, who engineered and co-produced our debut album. He has done some amazing things over the years with some amazing artists (Angus Stone, The Living End, Ash Grunwald, Powderfinger, Kasey Chambers to name drop a few).
Here he is being fruitful with Matt..


We have a specialist team of super-musos up our collective sleeve for this release, and we're very excited. All we need is funding. That's where you lot come in..
Presumably you know how this all works. In essence, you are pre-purchasing your copy of the album. We use the funds you have pledged to then actually make the thing. There are several levels of investment you can make, from a digital download of the Album to a full band concert and CDs for everyone.. There's merch packs and combos and other stuff. You'll see. The next bit is where we tell you what we intend to do with YOUR hard earned folding stuff..

We were a little bit disorganised last time round, I'll admit. This time, though we have the knowledge and the knowhow. We have done up a budget and it looks something like this:

Musicians - $1200
Engineering/Mastering - $3300
Artwork/Photography - $800
CD Printing - $1500
Publicity - $2000
Film Clip - $1200

If I'm not mistaken that is exactly $10,000..
Of course, there are always some variables, but this is a pretty close approximation..

The songs are already written, we don't intend to waste any time, or sit around eating up studio minutes brainstorming ideas for songs. They're pretty much ready to go, so as far as challenges go, the main one is reaching the target. We'll already be most of the way through the process befor the end of the campaign, so I guess the biggest risk is if we don't make the money, but the album is already recorded, then some guys are going to come after us. And I've seen what happens to anyone who tries to mess with Jordan. It's not what you want. Also, Matt and I do tend to argue a lot. That's a bit of a challenge, but we do get results.. And we really like doing this stuff.
Thanks for taking the time to check out this project. We really have no idea how this campaign will go, but all we can do is try!! If you decide to contribute, then please know that our gratitude is immense and our appreciation immeasurable. If you'd like to contact us for any reason, email [email protected]
Also check out our Facebook at www.facebook.com/starboardcannons
Stay tuned!!!