From here forward, I’ll be blogging on the new site – http://jakobmartin.blogspot.com every single day until we reach then end of the campaign on August 18th. I’m also taking a video camera into the studio every day this week to capture some of the process, and will be posting video blogs as well. Thanks so much for your support and I’m really excited about what we’re doing.

Calvin Coolidge

I’m also getting great feedback from a lot of you. Please keep the ideas  and emails coming, and I’ll answer them, privately and publicly. Today my friend Evan wrote:

Why not just do $10 pre-orders on the new album? The word “pre-order” makes it feel more tangible rather than “donation” which most people contribute to social causes. On that note, why not have a portion go to charities they can choose from as a social action cause when donating if that makes sense?

If you contribute $10 or more, you get a free download of the new album before it comes out, and for a few more dollars, you’ll get a signed copy of the CD – so at that level, it is actually very similar to a pre-order. For a full list of our gifts and incentives, click here.

I’m also glad you brought up the charity question.  Social responsibility is very important to me and plays a large part in my career. I make sure to participate in philanthropies I believe in (The benefit concerts I’ve been involved with in 2010 alone have raised over $20,000).

Often, people use charities as a way of boosting their own image without really making much impact. We could give a percentage of proceeds to charity, but every dollar we’re trying to raise for this project is accounted for, so we’d have to increase our goal, and I know that we can make a greater impact in other ways.  Also, I don’t want to cheapen or confuse this campaign by telling you it’s about charity, when it really is about bringing this project and this dream to life. I want to keep it honest and real, and make it about the music. Having said that, I’ll think about ways that we can use the success of this campaign to do something philanthropic, and if any of you have more ideas, let me know.

Thanks again everyone, and let’s make it happen!

Preview and contribute here: http://www.jmpreview.info

I’m currently snacking on chocolate chips, or ‘gnome droppings’, as they’re called in the northeast. The trouble with an oversized bag of chocolate chips is that there’s no natural stopping point until you reach the bottom. It’s like my mouth is a giant intersection where the light never turns red. I think I need my candy compartmentalized.

I stayed in San Diego tonight, but had a great talk with Dan on the phone about the campaign, the direction of the record, and what we need to do to finish it. It weird to think, after three steady months, that we’ve only got another week or so of tracking (recording). We’ve gone the entire time without bringing cameras or video into the studio, but maybe this week we’ll film a tiny bit for posterity. After that, the songs get mixed, mastered, the album art designed (assuming we raise the money we need, of course, which I’m confident we will). Then the albums will be pressed and duplicated. Then Laura will start pitching the album to the press, and we’ll start planning the fall tour and the record release. It’s always amazing to see songs that start as little ideas in your mind, become words, then recordings, and then tangible CD’s you can hold in your hand. Of course, everything humans have ever built started in someone’s imagination.

It was important to me to have tangible copies of this CD with inserts and lyrics and packaging that you can hold and explore, regardless of whether everyone buys it that way. I think with iTunes and digital music, we miss out on that really cool sensation of being able to hold a project in your hand and discover it with more than one of the senses. I wanted to make sure this album had that tangible element, too, for those who want it.

I want to thank those of you who contributed to the campaign during these first couple of days. We had a bit of a slow start, but we did receive some generous pledges, and I think next week things will pick up even more steam. $18,000 may seem like a lot of money, but keep in mind that it’s not uncommon for a major label to spend half a million dollars or more on a new release. I think we can do more with less, and I know we’ll get there. Remember, if every one of you who knows me on Facebook contributed only $10, we’d reach our goal instantly.

Happy weekend, everyone, and thanks for having my back. I’m going to go rest my voice for next week and sleep off the chocolate hangover.

Contribute Here

The campaign has officially reached day 2, and I want to thank those of you who have contributed so far. A few of you have written or approached me and told me that you’d love to give, but$18,000 is such a large amount, and you don’t have a lot of money right now. I just want to remind you that any contribution will help get us there, and any contribution will be well received and appreciated. You don’t need to take out a second mortgage or sell your kids into servitude. Even if it’s only $5 or $10 bucks- your generosity will go a long way toward our goal. As a matter of fact, if everyone on my email list each gave only $10, we’d pass our goal by leaps and bounds. You can really make a difference in bringing this to life, and I hope if my music has touched you in some way, you’ll join in helping us get there. We’ve never done anything like this before, and we’re learning every day, but one thing I’m sure of is that it’s going to take a whole community to make this happen. So thanks in advance and please keep passing the word along. The last thing I want is for my blog to become this Telethon-style propaganda page, but this is really important and I will keep you updated on how it’s going. And thanks again. It means the world.

Again, here’s a little list of the gifts we’re offering to thank you for giving: Incentives

And here’s where you can go to contribute: http://www.jmpreview.info

My friend called me this morning to say her congratulations, and made sure to remind me that in order to reach our dreams, we have to be willing to take risks along the way. I remember once I was in the middle of a tour, and I found myself playing this dingy blues club. There were about 3 people in the audience – two of them drunks; the other was the bartender. I was still singing my heart out, and I looked over this musty scene and had the realization that there was a chance that I could work hard, and give everything I have, and still end up playing these dirty, empty clubs for the rest of my career. And it hit me that I would be willing to do that, if it meant that I could continue to pursue this thing that I love. And it was that knowledge – that I was completely unafraid to fail – that made me certain I could do anything. We’ve come so far, but I think the same rules apply here. We have nothing to lose and the world to gain.

I’m in San Diego tonight, and looking forward to performing with the Guggenheim Grotto tomorrow night at Y-1 studios. Time for me to get some sleep, but I just wanted to thank you for having my back, and let you know that I’m here and enjoying every moment of it.

http://www.jmpreview.info

I’m writing to tell you about what I’ll be doing over the next few months, how you can get involved, and why it’s so important that I have your support.

I have always been an independent artist, which means I have the freedom to write and record the music that I love without compromise. On the flip side, I have no record label investing in me, so I must raise the money for every album I put out on my own. It takes an enormous amount of work and a large, talented team to make a good record. It takes even more to promote it and make sure it has a fair shot at being heard. I cannot do this alone. That is why I am reaching out to you – my friends and fans – to ask for your support in funding this project. We have set a goal of raising at least $18,000 for our upcoming album release and promotional campaign, and I’m confident we can get there with your help.

The money we raise will go toward mastering and pressing the album, working with a publicist to get press/media attention, creating a music video, and doing many of the same things a record label would do to get the album to a bigger audience. The difference is we’ll get to do it our way, keeping the music honest and real. I am attaching a link to a  special site – www.jmpreview.info – where you’ll have the ability to sneak preview a recording from the new album and contribute securely online. If you’d rather contribute by mail, let me know.

We’ve put together a few incentives and gifts as a way of saying thank you for your generosity, and you can see a list of those on the preview site as well. Any contribution, large or small, will go a long way toward bringing this project to life. If you’d rather give your time, let me know; there are many ways you can get involved. I’ll be keeping track of how the campaign is going on my blog, and I hope you’ll follow along and see what your contribution has done to help us move forward.

Many of you have been supportive of my music for years and for that, I am deeply grateful. I rarely reach out and ask for anything from my fans, but I am positive that the time is right to take the next big leap, and I cannot do it without you.

Thank you so much for being a part of my life and my life’s work, and together let’s continue to do great things.

Jakob

Woke up with a cold that has me sounding like Fran Drescher, so we had to cancel the vocal session today. The good news is I could finally star in a remake of The Nanny.

It can be frustrating as a singer when anything voice-related happens. The quickest solution is complete vocal rest – no talking or singing – combined with lots of water and tea, and actual rest – all of which I’m trying to do, although the no-talking is tough. I end up with all these pent up words that have to get out somehow – even if through long, winding, pointless journal entries (see Here). Fortunately, this cold shouldn’t set us back more than a couple of days. Dan and I are both much more concerned with doing things well than with doing them quickly, and this is no exception. We’ll wait.

Instead of spending today in the studio, I’ve been able to catch up on some reading and prepare some things for our album release campaign, which is starting soon, and which I’ll definitely tell you more about soon. The release isn’t until this fall, but you probably won’t be surprised to know that there’s a great deal of preparation and pre-release shenanigan…This is the first time I’ll be working with such a dedicated team, including a publicist, street team, event planner, etc, and I feel so lucky to be working with such brilliant people on this record. There seems to be a collective sense among all of us that this album is going to be an important one, and that it’s going to be reaching a lot more people than any project I’ve done in the past – which is obviously very exciting, but in the moment, it just means that we’re all trying to stay focused and at our best. My priority now is making the best album I possibly can, an album I can be proud of. We’ve given so much love and attention to every aspect of the record – from choosing the songs, to the recording of each individual track and sound, to the design of the artwork, the fall tour, and even the new website. A work of art can have so many dimensions, and it’s exciting to realize that nothing we’re doing is a throwaway or an afterthought. Still, nothing is guaranteed, and we go to work every day with the intention of doing our best and hopefully creating something beautiful and real.

Before I get back to drinking copious amounts of tea, here’s something I read today that spoke to me:

“Deification of success is truly commensurate with human meanness…It is mad that success is supposed to be worth more than the beautiful possibility which was still there immediately before.”

-Nietzsche

Heaven exists in at least two forms.  The first is a giant piano brownie. Or a Piowny, as it’s known in the industry. All I can say is that Dan picked the right girl to marry. I’ve learned that if I ‘happen’ to come around at the right times, I get to share the overflow of amazing baked goods that she makes. I think I ate the F, the F#, and the G this afternoon.

The second form of heaven is called Vibe Night. Vibe night started as this small, underground event, and has evolved into a phenomenon in San Diego that so many of us (both artists and fans) look forward to. Even though I’ve moved, I still drive down to play at Vibe, no questions asked. I hope you get to experience it someday, if you haven’t already. Check out what our good friend Kate wrote about it yesterday:

http://katedaigneault.blogspot.com/2010/06/christmas-comes-once-month.html

I haven’t been following the World Cup, though my roommate Cassanova Joe is usually in the living room with the TV on when I get up in the morning, and I occasionally get a few glances at a game during breakfast.  I’ve never really been able to focus on sports on TV; I have to be there in person to stay focused. For me, watching games on TV is a lot like flipping through a Where’s Waldo book – I know I’m supposed to be following something, but I end up getting distracted by something else more interesting in the background – a wizard, an obscure celebrity, or some topless fat guy with body paint. Plus those constantly blaring air horns during the soccer games make it feel like you’re being chased by a swarm of bees the whole time.

Nevertheless, the excitement I felt on the street translated well in the studio, where we spent most of today doing vocals on “Leave the Light on”, a new song with a lot of promise.  This is the first record I’ve made where the songs and the recordings feel like they tie themselves together with very little effort. The songs each have their own personalities (songalities?) but they all belong together, and they all compliment each other.

The upheaval and disorientation of being in a new place have had a great effect on my performance. I used to be so concerned with little technical details in my singing, and it took me awhile to get to a place where I could sit back and let myself sing a song the way I felt it. Now I find that I’ll go into the studio and a lot of those feelings I have come out naturally through the music. It’s easy to feel lost in a new place, and ironically, I think it’s my acceptance of that feeling that has given these recordings confidence and depth. I’m not sure how I feel about people who say you have to suffer for your art, but I do know that inevitably, there is a great deal of intensity in life naturally, and the more we channel that deep honesty into the things we create, the more real the creation feels.  I’m at my best when I’m in the mood of the song and I can deliver it purely, and I know I’ve done my job when I leave the studio feeling completely depleted and exhausted -  but fulfilled. When I know I haven’t held anything back.