Most don’t realize how tough it is to create an actual physical album. Without a major label backing you, physical albums (CDs), and especially a larger concept if you have one, require a great deal of capital: between the physical CDs, professional studio sessions, equipment, merch and more, the money adds up. If you have an even greater concept than that (like a live experience to accompany the album), it’s nearly impossible to do on your own.
That’s the great advantage of crowdfunding. It allows fans to be part of the experience and often includes great perks.
Artists that have used crowdfunding for albums include, but are not limited to, The Polish Ambassador, Bluetech, and Culprate. Culprate, being the most recent of the bunch, was an exceptional example of fans coming together to create a phenomenal product, namely his latest album Deliverance. If I had more room on the Top 10 Albums from 2014, it would have made the cut. 
But that’s beside the point. The point is that Asa is now joining the crowdfunding game, and he’s got quite a lofty goal.
Aside from the funding for the album, his debut album in fact, the funding will go toward having a live band accompany him on tour. Full breakdown of the costs is as follows:
- CDs/Vinyl Manufacturing: £3,000
- Mastering & Distribution: Undisclosed
- Music equipment: £12,000
- Living & Touring expenses: £4,000
- Everything else: Whatever’s left!
Now, Asa is generally a pretty reserved individual. As he states in his Indiegogo page, he’s a bit “camera shy.” But our friends over at Electricept were able to have an at-great-length one-on-one with the 24-year old Bristol producer.
EC- Are there certain pieces of technology you need though, in order for this record to sound a certain way? Do these technological barriers often hinder self-sufficient producers who are trying to reach the next level?
Asa- Absolutely. The goal is to have a small signal change we can take anywhere, I’m already acquiring the gear. For, starters I got a good RME soundcard, UCX interface. The converters in the RME soundcard are some of the best around, I always see RME units in big studios and mastering houses, at least the one’s I’ve been in, and so I feel they’re necessary for recording these tunes. I’ve also got several mics and all the instruments already, but there are just so many small things that are still needed to bring my ideas together. As soon as the campaign ends, we’re going to sit down for a week and get the format squared up to start making the best possible sounds we can.
One of the great bits in the interview comes when Electricept asks about Asa’s “dedication to ‘hard’ format releases, especially vinyl.” Asa’s observations that electronic music these days is overly fleeting, “treated like a disposable commodity” as he puts it, isn’t without truth. The way that I digest music currently has changed so much from when I just started listening to EDM because of that fleeting nature. When I was just starting my collection, I would voraciously download everything I could – singles, albums, EPs, remixes, bootlegs, everything. These days, I rarely download singles and stick mostly to completed bodies of work like EPs and LPs. I’m much more focused on the full experience than just a single part of it. Asa says that when “you do a limited run of a 12″, it shows you’re committed to making music personal.” And he’s right. That tangibility is non-existent in digital downloads and it’s something that a lot of collectors have had to forego in the absence of a healthy supply of fresh vinyl.
From what I gather from the interview and the Indiegogo page, tangibility really seems to be at the heart of this whole endeavor. It may be a little abstract in some senses, but I believe that’s what it boils down to. Asa wants you to feel this work physically and emotionally, with the live band and a disc to go home with. Releasing your album/EP for free via Bittorrent is neat and feeds into the piracy generation, but then that sense of tangibility is completely lost.
Help Asa reach his crowdfunding goal for the new album by joining his ongoing Indiegogo campaign here, where vinyl pre-orders and many other perks are still available to contributors.
Source & Image via Electricept
