The Anecdote

Hi everyone, Andrew, Michael and Leanne from The Anecdote here! We are essentially three musos from Warburton, Victoria; two of us are married to each other. Many of you will be our family or friends. Some of you will have seen Arvo fraternising on the streets of Warburton, some of you may have been to a festival Leanne has helped to create, some of you may have heard Andrew un-shyly playing trumpet on the Yarra river in Warburton. Michael and Andrew are both music teachers at several schools in the Upper Yarra Valley, and quite a few of you will know us in that capacity. You can maybe tell we are really into playing music!

We have been making an album for around 2 and a half years now. It is the product of our dreams and hopes, our creativity, our years of practice and lots and lots of time! We have poured all we've learnt about music, songwriting, arranging and playing into this work, which has been a strong focal point in our lives for the past couple of years. We are very excited, happy, busy nervous... 

This crowdfunding campaign is to enable us to finish the album, produce it in a way that will do justice to all the time we've devoted to it and to send it off into the world in a way that we hope will ripple out and out. If you can help us do this, that would be wonderful. And in a world of endless emails and messages, if you can share this campaign with friends and family, that would be truly wonderful too. Hopefully you can find something in the different pledges we've offered that takes your fancy and suits your budget!

Our quest as a band is for things like beauty, emotion, poetry, upliftment and real connections between human beings. Writing these songs, developing this music, evolving in performance – these are our ways of meeting the hardness and brutality of the world with openness and hope. It's sort of hard to pin down, but it feels like an act of survival. 

For us playing together as The Anecdote and sharing the music with others is a portal into sharing the emotions inside that are deeply personal, tender, loving, painful, at times devastating. And often hidden away. It's a way of sharing beauty that is uniquely us, aiming to connect with the beauty within that is unique to anyone experiencing the music. Music and inner sharing that aims to be publicly beautiful, soft, passionate and fiery, vulnerable and fierce – an artistic meeting in the hearths of ourselves. The music contains our love for the beauty of nature and it is unafraid to share the pain of being human.

We have performed at a range of festivals including Folk, Rhythm and Life, Renaissance Festival, End Of The Line Festival, EarthArtBeat, Ecotopia, and Warburton's Harmony Festival. We have performed on a range of radio programs and were included on 3MDR FM's 2014 'Mountain of Sound' compilation album. The Anecdote have supported such esteemed artists as The April Maze, Stray Hens, Tenzin Choegyal (Tibet), Jed Rowe and Damen Samuel. 

Between us we have performed, recorded or collaborated with musical luminaries such as Gotye, Jeff Lang, Dan Kelly, Greg Arnold, Dallas Frasca, Carus Thompson and Liz Stringer. Our respective passions for music have been lifelong, and will always be so... 

You can have a listen to our music here: 

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-anecdote-1

Here are some links to our online sites:

Website: http://www.theanecdote.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theanecdote

Your support will go towards completing the mixing and mastering of our album, production of the CD artwork by our esteemed friend Ann Roberts, pressing of CDs, and promotion of the album for our album launches in Warburton (Sat April 22 – Arts Centre), Melbourne (Sat April 29 – Wesley Anne, Northcote) and Upwey (Sat May 6 – Skylark Room), to help us attain a wider audience for our music.

Here's a breakdown of costs:

– CD duplication: $1650

– CD artwork: $300

– Album recording & mixing: $800

– Album mastering: $1500

– Album promotion: $750

The greatest cost involved has been the recording & mixing of the album with our good mate Ryan Tews, illustrious drummer from volcanic folk band Stray Hens. A good deal of this we have already paid for, and pretty much every dollar we have earned from shows as a band has gone into this baby! 

If we are fortunate enough to go over our target, any extra money will go towards promotion, and making our album launches as big and successful as possible.

You will be an essential part of what will enable us to complete our album and birth it into the world in a way that will hopefully lead to bigger things...

The greatest challenge in making this album has been the birth of two babies! Andrew and his wife Simone had little Isis around the time planning for the album was getting underway, and Michael and Leanne had baby Jaylah right in the middle of making the album. Hence, the album's gestation has entered its third year! Amongst raising seven children between us and working, the progress of the album has been slow. Our excitement at its near completion is vast. 

Andrew and Michael are music teachers in Warburton, Yarra Junction, Healesville and Warrandyte, and both perform in several bands, so finding time for the seemingly endless recording and mixing of the album has not been easy – a few hours here, an evening snatched there... 

Leanne has undoubtedly had the most challenging job in giving birth to a baby and looking after her, while simultaneously making an album! Fortunately she is good at juggling her various roles in life!!

Financially, it is rather intense trying to find the money needed to cover all of what needs to be done in releasing an album. Money, family, children, they're all challenges!! To launch 'Carved Upon The Air' in the way we'd love to, we need a bit of assistance... If you choose to do so, your help will be so deeply apreciated :-)