Amanda Fucking Palmer’s next album is a big, super-duper extravanganza, with lots of bells and whistles funded by Kickstarter. She wants $100K. She’s at 258K as of this morning. And I just kicked in:
hi folks, it’s AFP. this is my first BIG, LEGIT studio album undertaking since breaking from a major label. i’ve spent four years writing the songs for this record, and more recently, putting together the perfect band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, comprised of genius musicians/arrangers/programmers MICHAEL MCQUILKEN, CHAD RAINES, and JHEREK BISCHOFF. in march, we locked ourselves up in a studio in Australia and, with the help of producer/engineer John Congleton (who’s worked with a zillion amazing people including St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, and Xiu Xiu), we made what I believe is my best fucking album to date. it sounds…BEYOND EPIC. we laid down “The Bed Song”, “Massachusetts Avenue”, “The Killing Type”, “Trout Heart Replica” and a slew of other tracks…some solo piano, but many featuring HORNS (locally sourced in Melbourne, Australia!), SYNTHESIZERS, GUITAAAARRRRR, and BIG BAD-ASS ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENTS that will blow your domepiece. we’re working on finalizing the arrangements and mastering as i write this text. i expect great, big, giant things to happen when this record comes out in september. the band & i will be touring it across the globe ALL YEAR. here is me with the band, plus performance artists anthony cleave & jess daly, in melbourne right before taking stage:
NOW, about the ARTWORK. over the last six months i’ve been working in secret with OVER THIRTY visual artist friends of mine (full list below) to create a massive explosion of song-inspired album art, in all different kinds of media. some people took the project really literally and made super lyrics-specific paintings….some people went way abstract. the end result is an EXPLOSION of incredible art.
here is the list of artists who made things (alphabetically by first name):
Amanda Palmer, Barnaby Whitfield, Blake Brasher, Cassandra Long, Conrad Keely (…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead), Cynthia von Buhler, David Mack, Desi, DJ Spooky (Paul Miller), Empire SNAFU Restoration Project, Hans Rickheit, Heide Hatry, Judith Clute, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses), Kyle Cassidy, Lee Barron, Meghan Howland, Michael Pope, Michael Zulli, Molly Crabapple, Neil Gaiman, Nicole Duennebier, Rick Berry, Robyn Hitchcock, Sarah Beetson, Shepard Fairey, Steven Bogart, Sylvia K, Tao Lin, Tony Albert, Vladimir Zimikov, Walter Sickert, and Zea Barker.since i’m now without a giant label to front the gazillions of dollars that it always takes to manufacture and promote a record this big, i’m coming to you to gather funds so that i have the capital to put it out with a huge fucking bang. i think kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms like this are the BEST way to put out music right now – no label, no rules, no fuss, no muss. just us, the music, and the art. i’m also making sure EVERY PRODUCT sold through this kickstarter is unique to this campaign, to reward all of you who KNEW ME WHEN and were willing to support me from Day One.