Crowdfunding is GO!

Well the time is upon us. The crowdfunding site is now live and you can check it out at pledge.tkbollinger.com. This has been quite a journey for me. I find asking for help quite difficult – it’s not something that comes naturally to me. I’ve always been a do it all yourself kinda guy, which has helped me to learn a lot of things – guitar, music production, graphic and website design, meditation – just to name a few. Asking for money though, is a new and very big challenge.

I have been recording what I feel is an amazing suite of music. It’s not as stripped back and bleak as Shy Ghosts, in fact it’s probably a little more like the That Sinking Feeling stuff on a Catalogue of Woe, but a little more polished, produced and dare I say it, hopeful. I have placed the official audio for the first 3 songs in a playlist on YouTube and you can check it out and see for yourself.

This album is about coming to terms with the loss of things that are seemingly impossible to discard. From the obvious loss of loved ones who have died to letting go of things that helped define us in the past but are no longer useful. Moving into and through such an experience involves entering a space of profound discomfort which is not a thing we do lightly, or even voluntarily. Still, circumstances can conspire to bring us to a place where we must make a choice. Do I hold on to the same old belief or do I take the risk, step into the fire, and see what lies beyond it and face what I will become once the old me is burnt away? This is how it feels for me taking on this self-hosted crowdfunding campaign.

The hardest part of this process is usually taking the first step – having the strength to throw yourself over the edge – not knowing what to expect. Before you take the plunge, the new person you are likely to become seems overwhelmingly strange, alien or just plain wrong, possibly scary beyond belief. But once you arrive and find that you are still in one piece, it’s not uncommon to look back at your fear and wonder, “Why was I so scared?”

Recently my family has been talking about taking an exquisite risk each day: doing things out of our comfort zone – one thing a day that scares us, or that we find challenging. That thing for me today is asking for you to make a contribution to my crowdfunding campaign. I know everyone does not necessarily have money that they can spare, and if that is the case perhaps you can share the page URL (http://pledge.tkbollinger.com), or this post, with your social media peeps and let them know how my music has affected you. Of course making a big pledge is what I’d really love, but no pressure. Either way, thank you for helping to keep myself, and independent music alive and kicking.