1. You want me to do what?

I want to raise $50,000.00 United States Dollars to form a budget to record, remix, produce, release, and market a new full length album by Sunshine Jones.

It costs a lot of money to make an album in this day and age, despite the aid of pro tools, computers and relatively affordable equipment. I want to make a really amazing album for you, and this will take studio time, musicians, rehearsal, post production, remixing, re editing, pressing, printing, promotion, marketing, and distribution.

2. What if you make way more than what you’re asking for?

I doubt it. I really doubt it. But if more money than the budget I’ve planned comes in, I will put it into marketing.

3. What if you don’t make enough money?

I’ll make the best record possible with what I can raise. If for some reason the sky falls in on me and I am unable to make this record, then all the money will be returned.

4. What are you asking for?

I am asking for an investment in creativity and the future of indie/electronic music. My assumption is that if you’re even reading this odds are that you are already involved, and at the very least interested in my music. You are people who would already show up at a shop and lay down the $15.99 plus tax (and shipping in many cases) to actually buy an album I would make. And I’m asking you to step forward in support of this project, and be involved in it.

5. Why don’t you just sign the album to some other label?

I’ve worked for BMG, Universal, Jive, Sony, Virgin, and many wonderful indies, I’ve even run my own record label. It seems to me that in this day and age, where the concepts of what an album is, what a single is, and what a radio station is are totally up for grabs, the best route to take with regards to my future efforts is to be independent.

I want to start Treehouse Muzique and aggregate digitally to iTunes and other online sources, as a source label, a home base for my music.

6. I am interested in licensing this album for my territory, are you open to that?

A contribution to the recording fund could certainly be considered an “advance” toward your licensing this album in your territory. I am not interested in releasing this record abroad (outside north america) in any other form than an import, so domestic and territorially exclusive digital rights are an option.

Traditionally people at record labels want to hear an album before they really want to sign it for their country. I understand that, and have enjoyed the delays of this process for years. I would be looking for a simultanious release worldwide to avoid the blues people have then they try to buy a track at Beatport and are not allowed to because the rights aren’t resolved for their home territory. Seems like such a nasty tease to me.

If you are interested in a domestic release for your region of the world, then contact me and let’s talk about what you have in mind.

7. Why don’t you just sell shares in the album, you know, take investment and offer a return in it?

I thought about that, even met with some folks and talked about the prospects involved with offering shares for the label, and even specific investment into my forthcoming album. The idea becomes deeply complicated very quickly. It appears to be simplest to focus on this single project, and create a community funded album and offer the gifts in return for the contribution to the recording budget. This makes the relationship personal, and clean. There are no annual reports, no royalty statements, and my accountability is simply to create and report on the progress of this album.

8. Aren’t you that Dub Tribe guy?

I wouldn’t put it that way, but yes, I was in Dubtribe Sound System for many years. I wrote ‘Do It Now’ which was the single of 2001 - 2003 on many dance floors and chill out lounges around the world. When Ben Watt from Everything But The Girl included it on their ‘Back 2 Mine’ compilation it changed the world, and brought this beautiful song into the consciousness of people from all corners of the world.

I also wrote ‘Equitoreal’ (often remembered as “lord have mercy on my soul) which was championed at Body and Soul in New York and celebrated around the world between 1999 and 2003. Before that I wrote ‘Mother Earth’ (often remembered as “I want my planet back” or “planet earth”.) This track exploded at the tribal gathering in the UK in 1993 and became a warehouse anthem for many years. The Chemical Brothers included it on their mix compilation, as well a having been sampled by many of my peers, we forged a sound that would describe the better part of the 1990’s warehouse experience.

Yes. That was me.

Here is some recent press pdf format

9. What’s Treehouse Muzique?

Treehouse Muzique is my record label. While I have already re edited, re mixed, and produced music for artists, Treehouse remains un-launched, and private. I have no intention of attempting to license or solicit other people’s work for release on Treehouse, it is an outlet for me and my music alone.

See for yourself: http://treehousemuzique.com

10. What’s in it for me?

By contributing to the recording budget, much like giving to a PBS station, you get the warmth and positive feeling that comes from giving to an effort which is established on a not-for-profit basis. You are supporting independent music, and the progress of electronic music, my art, me.

Additionally, In return for your contribution you will receive the appointed gift or gifts as described in detail on the index page of this micro-site:

11. How can I donate?

All you need to do in order to contribute to the recording budget is to click the “donate” link at the bottom of the page. This will ask you for an explanation of your donation, and to enter the amount you wish to donate. Then you are taken to the paypal transaction engine where you can process your donation. You don’t have to be a member of paypal to donate, all you need is a credit card, or a debit card.

Paypal accepts most currencies, but it does charge me a very small fee for the transaction. It will not be counted against your level of donation, so there’s no need to add this fee into your contribution. It’s a small price to pay in return for the administration and book keeping fees required to track and account for this sort of endeavor.

Note: If you don’t have a paypal account your address, email address, and other important contact information will not automatically be included in the transaction. Please make sure you include a method of how to get ahold of you so that I can get your free gifts to you once you’ve donated.

12. I am not down with PayPal… Can’t I just send you a check?

At first I thought the short answer to this simply had to be no. I don’t want the recording budget contributions anywhere near my personal finances. I love the fact that paypal offer me a clear and at a glance way to track and account for each and every single contribution. Recently I’ve received more than $3,500 in pledged contributions which have arrived in the form of a request to get together and receive a check. My response has been “Oh… please go and use your debit card on the site, I really need to keep the recording budget and the contributions separate.”

Now after a chat with my good friend Peter, it seems that a pledge is encouraging, it is received as love and support. This usually means more to me than money, however, love and support doesn’t press vinyl very well. So in that spirit (thank you Peter) I have become open to receiving contributions in any form. It’s easy enough for me to simply transfer the money from my account into paypal.

If you really need to use another method of payment, please contact me and we can work something out.

13. I signed up early as a “Listener” and I’m so excited about this that I want to give more and change my status to VIP, can I do this?

Yes. I’ve set up the donate window to allow anyone to contribute again and again. Even if you don’t like this business of “levels” I will be keeping strict account of everything everyone contributes (including time and encouragement) and adding it up to fulfill my promises and make sure everyone gets the gifts I have to offer.

14. How can I buy advance copies for my friends and family?

If you are looking at this as a pre ordering of my forthcoming CD and want to reserve multiple copies I’d be glad to manage that for you, or simply send you however many you want when that time comes and let you take care of it. The transaction engine at PayPal has a nice “comments” section where you can add whatever instructions, or remarks you would like to add to the contribution. If you know now what you wanna do, then simply include them. Otherwise, just communicate with me and let me know what you’d like to do and we can do it. Yes.

15. What is the backend? Is that the name of your new album?

No. I haven’t named the album yet.
The backend is a section here on this site which is password protected. People who donate more than $25 will have access to this section where I’ll post updates from the beginning to the end and report on my progress with the album. I will post some rough mixes and out takes for your pleasure and enjoyment. Also, members of the backend will receive a weekly email digest (mainly for people who are too busy to check a web site every day) and get all the info in one compact email message.

16. Is there some sort of time line for this fundraising effort?

At this writing I am still considering if I even want to do this, to go this route, or ever make these pages public. So for the moment, I suspect that I would like to raise this budget and begin the process sooner than later. I think it will be essential to put a limit to the time period established to collect the goal. that said, reaching the goal is really the point. I am thinking that I will not want to run a campaign like this for longer than one to three months.

I wonder if using some kind of clock or counter might give the three people hovered here at this site feel all desperate and nervous and get people excited? The verdict is still out on that one (obviously.)

17. Once you have the budget together how long will this take?

In the past I’ve been notorious for taking up to three years to make a new album. Largely this has been because I loved to tour music for a very long period of time, revise, learn, and extrapolate on my tracks before setting about recording an album.

In this instance, I already have more than 20 songs written and will get right to work. My best guess is (assuming we begin in May) that I’ll be done with this album by the end of July and ready to begin manufacturing, marketing and tour planning. As an overview, I look at this from top to bottom as a 12 month project.

18. This thing doesn’t auto-update does it?

No, it doesn’t. I do it manually, and reply personally to each contribution.

19. What’s the legality of all this? What are my rights?

20. Do you really charge $5,000 for a gig?

No, I don’t. That said, if a sweet benefactor were to be so generous as to contribute $5,000 to this project I would be delighted to fly to wherever they lived, at my own expense, and perform an amazing live set wherever they wanted me to. It would be my pleasure.

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