Pandemic Sessions Album Project

Aside from wanting to make an album with a band for the love of making music, to explore different ways to bring the songs to life with musical collaborators, and to bring the songs to new and different audiences, there is another, especially good reason to raise funds for a recording project:  to employ musicians.

At a time when tens of millions of people in the US are facing possible eviction between now and September, and millions of people in this country are going to bed hungry, it seems a lot like a very strange time to do a crowdfunding campaign for an album project.  Or it did, until I thought about it for a few minutes, and then suddenly it seemed like a brilliant idea.

My family and I are currently riding out the pandemic situation OK.  Although I can never get through to the Oregon Employment Department, my Community-Supported Art patronage program has recently reached the point where it is covering my family’s basic expenses, even with all the canceled tours.  But a lot of people in this city and around the world are suffering terribly, very much including a whole lot of gig economy workers.

Which then brings us to this crowdfunder here.  I’ve written about three dozen good songs since the pandemic hit.  I recorded two solo acoustic albums from this material (Viral Solidarity and Notes From A Failed State), at my friend Billy’s recording studio just outside of Portland.  As usual, what I long to do with at least some of these songs is record them with a bunch of other musicians, to give them various forms of “band treatment,” such as with albums I’ve recorded there in past years (like Big Red Sessions and Meanwhile in Afghanistan).

Recording projects like these used to actually pay for themselves pretty quickly, via CD sales at shows, but the days of touring are over for now, and the days of selling CDs at gigs ended long before that (thank you, Spotify).  Although we’re subsisting here through patronage OK, there is no extra money for such recording projects.  So, why crowdfund for one at a time like this?

Aside from wanting to make an album with a band for the love of making music, to explore different ways to bring the songs to life with musical collaborators, and to bring the songs to new and different audiences, there is another, especially good reason to raise funds for a recording project:  to employ musicians.

The working musician is a somewhat mysterious phenomenon, part of an industry that has been in a state of perpetual collapse for over two decades now.  However, we do still exist (even if census data indicates there are far fewer of us than there used to be).  We are some of those gig economy workers you hear about.

For a working musician, the term “gig” can mean many things.  A gig might be a live performance in front of an audience in a music venue, or a gig might be spending the day in a recording studio, playing the bass or the drums or the keyboard on somebody’s album project.  Musicians find lots of ways to record albums inexpensively, but if you’re going the more traditional route of hiring a recording studio, an engineer, maybe a producer (in my case this is usually the same person, the aforementioned Billy), and a variety of great local musicians, it’s very easy to spend close to a thousand dollars a day.

Every day you’re in the studio, recording songs, you are paying several people for their time and expertise.  You’re renting this beautiful studio from the owner/producer/engineer (Billy), you’re paying him, his assistant engineer, and on any given day, one or two other musicians.  You’re spending several days tracking your guitar, drums, and bass parts — if you can record good parts for three songs in a day, you’re working very quickly.  Then you’re tracking other instrumentalists and vocalists for some days.  After that, you’re spending a bunch more long days mixing everything.

What I’m describing is a bare-bones, rushed recording project, the only kind I’ve ever done.  The outcome can be wonderful, though having twice as much time could potentially produce something twice as wonderful.  Not only does spending more time on a project make it much better, but it also employs working musicians for a longer period, and potentially allows a bunch of people to pay their rent that month.

This kind of recording project is also very pandemic-friendly, when you’re recording one musician at a time, or if there are more than one at a time, they’re separated by a glass wall.

I’ll see where we’re at with this crowdfunder by early autumn, and then I’ll make plans to spend all the money on hiring musicians and engineers.  The shape of the album — whether or not it involves a drummer or keyboards, and many other musical decisions — will depend on how much money is raised.  And how much difference this project might make in the lives of a few Portland-area musicians will also depend on how much is raised.  What you can be sure of is any money raised will go directly towards supporting working musicians during the pandemic.