Shane turns to crowd funding for new album
LOCAL musician Shane Clarke aka Elephant has been blown away by the response to his crowd funding appeal to raise money so he can release his new album on vinyl.
Having recorded his latest album, Shane was anxious to release it on vinyl, which is enjoying a comeback among music lovers.
‘I have the album already recorded but wanted to put it out on vinyl as that’s what is selling very well now,’ he explains.
As the recording is an hour long, it would need to be released as a double album with two discs, pushing up the cost.
‘It’s very expensive to get an album pressed so I didn’t think I would be able to do it until one of my friends suggested crowd funding,’ he says.
While a growing number of Irish musicians such as Choice winners Ships and Duke Special have used crowd funding to finance albums, Shane is probably the first local musician to harness the power of the internet to get the money he needs to bring his project to fruition.
Having set up a page on the Irish owned Fund It with the aim of raising €3,000 in three weeks, he was delighted when he reached 75% of the target in just four days.
‘It’s incredible. I didn’t expect that it would be so quick,’ he says.
And the beauty of crowd fund- ing is that those who support the appeal, get something in return. So depending on how much money they pledge, supporters will get a digital copy of the album right up to having Shane and his fellow Elephant musician play a gig in their home or other venue.
The album will be mastered by sound engineer Marc Carolan and Shane hopes to see it realised on Dundalk’s own Pizza Pizza Records label in July.
Elephant will be playing at a number of festivals during the summer, including Vantastival as well as touring to promote the album. They were invited to close Bobby Kerr’s Legendary Roadshow “Down To Business”