7" Vinyl Record with Amanda Palmer

In March 2011 Amanda Palmer and Kim Boekbinder sat on a couch in a warehouse in Melbourne, Australia and sang a song called "Such Great Heights," by The Postal Service. 

It was the end of the night at the end of the tour at the end of the world. The duet is simple and  beautiful. It is a snapshot of a time when two busy musicians found quiet in a city at the end of the earth. 

The song will be released on a 7" record, along with an original song by Kim Boekbinder called, "On the Other Side of the World" which is a song about being in love with someone on the other side of the world, ie: Australia. Australians are wonderful. 

Only 1000 lavender colored vinyl will be made. The packages will also include high quality stickers and 5x7 art cards with the album art and a digital download. Each record will be hand numbered and signed by Kim.

The songs will also be released as a digital EP after the 7" is released.

The album art is by the NYC duo, Teetering Bulb www.teeteringbulb.com who have done beautiful art for comics, graphic novels, album covers, book covers, and more.

The Value Experiment

Since releasing my album I have done several experiments. Sometimes my album is available as a free Pay-What-You-Want download. Most people download it for free, some people give me money. And mostly it seems like it works out okay.

A few weeks ago I put the minimum cost for my album at $5 and most of those who have chosen to download it have given me $10-$15. But most people have actually just not downloaded it at all and I have seen my download numbers drop off. Interestingly enough I have made the same amount of money.

But what does that mean? Is it more valuable for me to have more people downloading my music? Or is it better to place a value on my music so that people respect it?

Are people more likely to enjoy music they pay for? Or are they more appreciative of a gift from the musician?

They say that music is free now. But what the hell is free?

The freedom for more people to create? Or the freedom for more people to starve?

I can set a price for a CD or a vinyl record because those cost money to make. But it is expected these days that digital downloads are available for free. Sometimes the musician offers the music for free and sometimes you have to steal it. But either way, if it's music, and it's been recorded, it is yours for the taking.

The good thing about being an independent musician is that I can do these experiments without having to pass the idea by some committee of suits worried about the bottom line. I also don't have to find answers to all my questions above. Because the answers change for each person. A few weeks is not enough time to really know what the effect is, but it has made me think about the question of value in music.

Do you value my music because I offered it to you for free? Or do you value it because you paid for it?

Am I engaging in a culture of openness and sharing? Or am I devaluing all music by being one of the problem musicians offering my music for free and making it harder for other musicians to charge if they wish to?

What it comes down to is that it is ridiculous to me to place a value on my own music using a monetary system. I can say my album is "worth" a minimum of $5 for you to download. But in reality what $5 means to me and you is different. $5 could be a meal, or an entire day's food, or maybe it's just the morning latte.

I got an email from someone who found my album online and loved it, and even though it was free when he found it he did not download it because he valued it so highly that he didn't want to take it from me until he felt he could give me what it was worth to him, but as he has no extra spending money he decided to go without.

You might make $100 an hour, in which case giving me $5 only costs you about 3 minutes. Or you might make $7.25 an hour (which is the US Federal minimum wage,) in which case giving me $5 is almost an hour of your time which you most likely cannot afford because life is expensive.

And maybe you only listen to one of  my songs occasionally. Or maybe my entire album is on repeat and it has changed your life. But how can we even begin to quantify that?

I have decided to end my experiment of having a minimum cost to download my album, because I don't want to decide the value of my music for you. My music has value for me regardless of how many dollars it makes me. And whether you make $100 an hour, or minimum wage, my music could be the background to your bus ride, or the anthem which helps you make it through another day.

Maybe I'll do another experiment with charging for my album. Or maybe I'll decide I need to value my music using dollars. But today, and for the foreseeable future, I'm happy to offer my music to you for the price you can afford: be it $0 or $1000.

Song Sketch - The Last

I've put up a new album on bandcamp.com, this will be the place I put new songs this summer. Just simple demo recordings.

I wrote this song while thinking about friends, artists, who've had to resort to getting day jobs to pay the bills. Now, I'm not against working to pay bills. I've certainly done my bit of punching time clocks. In this past year I have worked freelance as a writer, editor, graphic designer, and one night as catering staff at an event. My job was to wear black and pick up people's dirty dishes, but you know... glamorously.

What does make me sad is falling into the trap of thinking that some other job is going to pay a bunch of money AND leave time for art. I've had all kinds of jobs, and still done art. But day jobs eat up a part of me that I believe is too precious to be eaten.

Yes. I know. I am a very sensitive artist. And for most of my life most people I know have not understood how much it killed me to work, day in and day out. The freelance stuff is okay, it changes, it keeps itself fresh. But the other jobs, like waiting tables which was my highest paying job ever = DEATH.

Sensitive artist (see above.)

And you think, "I could be a stripper. Or a hooker. Taking my clothes off, and having sex, those are both things I do for free. Maybe I could do them for money?" But no. You couldn't... well I couldn't, but if you can and you like it then YAY! And I hope you're making a good living.

And then I think, "If I just waited tables a few nights a week..."

"And if I wasn't so scared about being able to eat then my life would be better."

"And maybe if there wasn't so much pressure on my music having to be 'successful' it would make my music better."

"If I could just BREATHE without feeling the cost of each breath..."

But nothing is free and I know from experience that each breath taken in a job is worth far more than any money paid me.

So yes, I work other jobs when I need to. I do what I have to do to get by.

And sometimes I think I just can't make it. I can't go on anymore like this. Living on the edge of financial chaos like I do.

So I wrote myself a song to remind myself why I keep going.

The Last

It's the last unicorn you'll ever see

Resigning itself to a life

In the cold winter sea.

It's the last love you'll ever know

So don't let it, don't let it,

don't let it, don't let it go.

How hard can you fight when you know you will lose,

But when it's your life how can you choose?

It's not a game you didn't come here to win,

You just try your hardest and do whatever you can to live.

I know what you think there's an easy way out,

You fell in the pit with the voices of doubt.

I know that they tell you you're not good enough, 

"Get a job, make some money, life isn't that tough."

But it is.

How hard can you fight when you know you will lose,

But when it's your life how can you choose?

It's not a game you didn't come here to win,

You just try your hardest and do whatever you can to live.

It's the last unicorn you'll ever see

Resigning itself to a life

In the cold winter sea.

It's the last love you'll ever know

So don't let it, don't let it,

don't let it, don't let it go.

Oh don't let it, don't let it,

don't let it, don't let it go.

*

Gosh, I had no idea this post would be so long. But you know, another thing is: I know people with jobs who live on the edge of financial chaos. Sometimes those people make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and they just can't ever dig themselves out of a hole. 

And then there's most of the earth's population living in poverty. So if I can eat anything at all and sing songs then I'm doing okay.

I also know that each person has to decide for themselves when they've had enough of something and when they need something new. I don't have a family to support which makes my topsy turvy lifestyle sort of viable. 

And there is always the possibility that one of these days I will say, "ENOUGH! I want a house, and a bed, and a place to put things. And I want things. And healthcare. And to be able to give more to charities. And to not be always talking about my shows that people should really, REALLY come see."

That could happen. I could get a job. Any day now. But not today. And probably not tomorrow. Either.

So come to my SHOW

p.s.  Today I learned that the word 'Passion' comes from a root which means to suffer, and endure. Yeah...

Notes From a New Platform

Contained herein is a followup to my pre-sold touring ideas. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about check out my first pre-sold concert HERE or the BoingBoing post about me HERE.

This is an interview with Brad Lagasse of Dukits.com, a developing web platform that will be pre-selling shows just like I'm talking about. All the attention on this pre-sold tour idea made me realize I was just about one one-millionth of a second ahead of the curve and just happened to be the first person to put it into words and sell a show (pre-sold tour impending!)

If you are a musician and/or a fan of music please sign up to receive updates about Dukits.com - it won't hurt and the more interest they have the sooner (and better) they can launch. And if they turn out to not be your type of thing you can unsubscribe at any time. 

On to the interview!

1. How will Dukits.com work?

Artists/Bands propose a concert date, venue, ticket price and minimum/maximum amount to be sold as well as a deadline for the tickets to be purchased by.  If enough fans buy the ticket within the timeline, their credit cards will be charged and tickets are issued by us.

2. How did you get the idea?

We were researching the Group Buying power trend and as a music lover, I saw it as a no brainer.  This solution takes away a lot of risk for both the venue and the artist while shifting the power back to the emerging artist. 

A lot of emerging artists have a great social media presence but until now haven’t figured out a way to engage their fan base in a meaningful way.

This is a very niche market as the U2’s of the world pre-sell everything, yet the bands with little to no following can’t drum up enough fans to go this route.  Therefore this solution is geared toward bands/artists in your sweet spot.  You have enough fans and a good social media presence to leverage our tool.

3. What payment platform do you use? Google, Paypal, Amazon, other?

We use a credit card processor; take all majors.  No Paypal yet.  Might happen in the future though.

4. Will Dukits.com be booking the venues, or is that up to the artist?

We first considered working on the booking side but quickly realized that we couldn’t scale in that model.  Therefore, our solution will provide a form page for the artist to submit all the details including the venue.

It will be up to the band to negotiate with the venue to ‘pencil in’ a date in the future and give a time line for which the artist can confirm the date or let venue resell the time. 

5. What percentage of the money does Dukits.com keep?

There are variables here but on average it’ll be between 7%-15% That is only if the show goes on, if they don’t then we take nothing.

6. Are there any other fees we should know about?

Depending on the failure rate of concerts, we may implement a set up fee for bands that continue to put up shows that don’t go on.

7. What are the potential problems you foresee?

- Promoters seeing this paradigm shift as a threat and acting accordingly.

- Bands either buying their own tickets to play a certain venue therefore pissing off the venue when they play to an empty building or not appropriately qualifying the venue, i.e. They said they had an agreement to play on a certain date but they didn’t.  What next?

To offset some of these challenges, we have set a long term goal of developing strong relationships with venues across north America and staying on top of dodgy bands abusing the system.

8. What is the best thing about Dukits.com?

We are not a huge corporation.  This site is built to put on concerts for emerging artists; a market virtually ignored but huge when you look at the numbers.

Our vision is to produce a site that empowers bands to succeed on their own, provide an amazing user experience for the fans, and generate something so much bigger than just ticket sales.

9. The worst?

We are not a huge corporation.  Our resources, for now, are limited.

Thanks, Brad!

***

Brad brings up an interesting point about mega-famous bands: once an artist gets to a stadium level they announce a tour and if it doesn't sell well enough they cancel the tour. No one comes out and says, "Hey, buy tickets because if you don't the tour won't happen." but it amounts to the same thing. 

It is also quite common for the tour promoters to buy up a block of tickets so the show appears to be "SOLD OUT!" even though it isn't, just so the dates on the rest of the tour will sell well. 

I'm not going to buy up my own tickets. I'd rather just be honest and say, "Hey, buy tickets because if you don't the tour won't happen." Because I know people are smart enough to look at that and understand. 

I have been hearing from a lot of artists about the difficulty of filling venues, even popular bands worry about making enough money because shows are so expensive to produce that people really only start making money at a close to sell-out level. In a 1000 seat venue you may not start to see a profit until over 800 tickets have been sold. So the show could look packed and amazing and full of energy, but still leave the artist with an empty bank account. 

As an aside: last month when I was first telling people about my pre-sold tour ideas people kept saying, "Oh, so its like Groupon." And I don't know from Groupon because I don't use it, but I guess it's a way to understand the concept. 

Next interview: Comedian Paul F. Tompkins on garnering enough interest in a city before he books a show there. 

Past interview: Notes From a Venue Owner - Jamie Zawinski, owner of DNA Lounge in San Francisco, expounds on the difficulty of booking live music. 

Notes From a Venue Owner

My pre-sold concert idea is still making its way around the internet, getting people fired up, excited, or just annoyed. And since I wrote my musician's perspective on the situation already I decided to ask for the thoughts of a venue owner. Venues have challenges of their own: licenses, permits, staffing, rent. It's hard work and a huge risk. I wouldn't want to own a venue, but I'm glad other people do.

Here, Jamie Zawinski, owner of the popular DJ and live music venue, DNA Lounge in San Francisco, was nice enough to answer my questions in detail:


JWZ: So, by way of rambling background...  We don't actually do a lot of live music at DNA for a few reasons.  We're one of those rare spots that is both a dance club and a live venue; most places tend to do just one or the other.  So, all of our Saturdays and most of our Fridays are pre-booked with recurring DJ nights that pay the bills.  They're put on by outside promoters (so someone else is doing the hard part) and our overhead is low compared to a live show.  Also, this is a pretty big room.  This makes it really hard for us to hire a talent buyer who knows what they're doing -- because anyone who knows what they're doing is going to look at it and say, "So, I can only have weeknights, but  to break even I need to get 200 paid? That's setting me up to fail."

This is a constant source of frustration to me, because I really want to see more live music here, but I just can't figure out how to make it happen with any regularity.

1. What do you think of the idea of a pre-sold show? Would you be willing to block out a date knowing that if enough tickets aren't sold the show won't happen?

I think it's a really neat idea.

When a band self-promotes on a weeknight, the typical rental deal we offer (not having any idea whether anyone will show up) comes out to roughly $1000 rent for 21+, $1300 for all ages.  That covers our staffing costs if the room is empty and we make nothing at the bar.  With that deal, we cover security, sound, and lights, we keep the bar, and the band keeps the door, whatever they want to charge.  So realistically that means that nobody says "yes" to this unless they're confident they can get 200+ people.  Which is good, because this place feels pretty cavernous and empty with fewer people than that.  (Our upper limit for a live show is 800-ish.)

Smaller places get away with doing a straight bar/door split with no rent because they can get away with having like 3 people on staff (door, sound, bar.)  We can't even open this place with less than 10 people.  (Or because they have someone on staff who is a good judge of whether a band will actually be a draw, which we don't.)

As far as scheduling, it depends on what night of the week we're talking about, and when it would be confirmed.  If it's a night we don't have a lot of demand for, like Tue/Wed, then it's almost never a problem to hold that date indefinitely, since we'd likely be closed anyway, so a last-minute cancellation is harmless.  But if it was a night that someone else was interested in, we'd have to make a decision between the two, while leaving at least 4 weeks for promotion.  If it was a Friday, probably more like 6-8 weeks (because risking having a dark or very slow Friday is pretty bad, financially; there are usually pretty good opportunities there, if we have time to find them.)

2. What are the possible negative outcomes you foresee?

Well, the only negatives would be, ending up with an empty house and not getting enough rent or other income to cover staff; or, holding a date for an event that didn't come through or didn't perform well and missing other potential events because of that.


3. Do you have any sad stories you can share about popular bands that you were sure would draw a crowd but played to an empty venue?

Oh man. Almost every time we've tried to in-house-promote a band that I loved, because apparently we suck at promoting.

Our one success at this was a monthly dance party we did for a few years called Pop Roxx, where the primary draw was the DJs, but we booked a band who did a 45 minute set at midnight at every party.  That was great, because we were booking bands who, on their own, usually only had a 100 person draw, but we got to put them in front 700 people and only had to pay them a few hundred bucks.  Usually 20 minutes into their set, 500 of those people decided they needed to go outside and smoke, which made me sad, but I did get to see some great bands on our stage, so that was nice.  But, attendance declined after a while and we couldn't afford to keep doing that party.


4. Best thing about being a venue owner?

Not working for someone else.


5. Worst thing?

It's all my fault and I don't have anyone else to blame.

Alternately: spending way too much of my time talking to lawyers and dealing with insane governmental nonsense.


Thank you for answering my questions, Jamie! 

DNA Lounge  -  375 Eleventh Street, SF CA 94103  -  415-626-2654
Calendar:       http://www.dnalounge.com/calendar
Private Parties: http://www.dnalounge.com/booking
Webcasts:       http://www.dnalounge.com/webcast


(All photos are from the DNA website.)

***

As a travelling musician I've met all kinds of venue owners and bookers. Some are money grubbing jerks. Bust most of them are music lovers who saw a lack of live music venues in their communities and decided to step in to fill the gap. I've also seen many of these people lose money, sometimes a little on one night and sometimes catastrophic amounts over time. It's really quite dreadful to try to make a living at promoting music - especially if you love it. Trying to commodify something you love is a painful experience. Some people can make it, but many work hard for little money and reach a burn out point. For my part I'm happy to share revenue with the venue - they're providing a great service to the world.  (Hey, has anybody else ever noticed the word "revenue" has the word "venue" in it?)

Next interview: Brad Lagasse of dukits.com

NYC Concert Poster by Molly Crabapple

art By Molly Crabapple

Poster is included in the price of a $10 ticket for my New York show 

July 21st : BUY TICKETS

(If you can't attend the concert due to geographical challenges you can still purchase a poster at the above link and I will ship it to you.)

Internet go BOOM!

As you've probably heard if you follow me: I got a little bit more internet famous in the last few days because of my pre-sold show ideas: First show, NYC July 21st. Buy Tickets

My post for Warren Ellis about pre-sold tours got picked up by BoingBoing which spread out and got all kinds of people talking about pre-sold shows and tours. I hear the New Music Group at Mills College in Oakland, CA was discussing me in their email group. Yeah, that means it went deep. When a small group of experimental musicians at a liberal arts college are talking about you in an email group - you've made an impact. (Hi, Mills!)

Hooray! People are talking. But what next? This is one show. And I am one very particular case. I did this to solve a problem in my career: I'm too busy with this music thing to work another job, but not making enough money to tour properly. It's a terrifying gap in a creative career that almost every artist must face at some point. Too busy to make money, too broke not to. Sucks. So solve it.

I knew I had more fans than were coming out to shows. Part of the problem is that one person cannot possibly do all the things I attempt to do and promotions suffer. So I figured out a way to promote first, then sell, then book.

I am so excited about all the things I've been learning in the past few days. Several artists and websites have been mentioned. And because this is the internet there are a few people saying, "She's not doing anything new. This is an old idea. Here are examples 1 - 67."

I've looked. And I can't find anyone who is doing it. Not at my level and not in this way. I would love to see someone else pre-selling tours. But you know, when it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter whether I'm the first, or the last. What matters is that I'm doing something that people are thinking might work for themselves or for other musicians.

Here are a few of the things I've learned about: 

There are sites like www.eventful.com or www.upcoming.org that allow fans to "Demand" an artist in their town. But that's not pre-sales, that's just clicking a button. Singer-songwriter and internet celebrity Johnathan Coulton has been using Eventful as a gauge of interest for his shows. Seems to work well for him.

Comedian Paul F. Tompkins has fans set up Facebook events for their towns - when that event hits 300 attendees he'll book a show. And his website states it works really well. Once again it's just clicking a button, but since it's really fan motivated I think it's probably better. We talked a little bit about pre-sales. He said my plan seemed less anxious. I said his plan seemed less needy. He's funny, check him out: www.paulftompkins.com

The founder of www.dukits.com contacted me and they are going to be doing EXACTLY what I'm talking about, but they're not quite ready to launch yet and their site is a mess - don't try to click anything on it but do go look. If you're interested you should check back in with them soon. They look like they could actually be great when they get it together. I hope to work with them at some point.

Friend and social media pioneer Amanda Palmer pointed me towards www.nuevostage.com which has also not launched, and while they will be pre-selling shows in a way, they will also have bands competing against each other for the same venue, getting fans to commit to buying tickets in the hopes that their band will "win" the show. Looks like a bad deal for fans and bands but great for venues and nuevostage itself.  Competitions are the worst part of the internet. Let's move on.

www.queremos.com.br contacted me, they're from Rio, Brazil. They pre-sell shows by getting backers to pledge to bring big famous bands to a country that otherwise might not ever get to see them. So these backers put up large sums of money (in smaller, bite-sized chunks) and when they reach the minimum they book the gig and start selling tickets. If the show sells well the backers get their money back, they get credit on show promo, and they get to go to the show. I think it looks pretty great. But once again, for the already famous. And in Brazil.

www.gigmaven.com in NYC has also been in touch - they don't  pre-sell shows, but they do put venues and bands in contact with each other and they're helping me find a venue, so they get a shout out.

So far, no one doing the pre-sales the way I'm talking about doing them. I'll keep looking though and would like to keep hearing about it.

I think what has people excited about my plan is that I'm just me, not super famous, not represented by a manager or agent, and not letting anything stop me.

The Problems with my Model of Pre-sold Shows

- It's only worked once. So far. So there's that.

- It might not work for everyone. I mean, I know it won't. This isn't the magical answer to solve all touring problems. It's just an awkward first step.

- It's way more work than just showing up at an established venue and playing my 45 minute set.

- All ages venues are as rare as unicorns, or people who don't promote themselves, in NYC.

- Venues are hard to book this short notice. I might have to rent an empty room and have to get my own sound system and staff.

- It's a hard sell. I've made enough money to put on the show, but there still aren't that many tickets sold. I have incredibly supportive followers who are backing this very generously just to see it happen. The press on this has gotten me even more generous champions, but not high volume sales. That's okay for this show, but it makes me realize just how hard it will be when it's not my first show this way and I don't have all the internet poking at it.


These aren't complaints and they aren't going to stop me, I just know I can't solve the problems if I'm not making them (errrr… thinking about them.)

Things That Are Not Problems

- Fans in each city get to make a show happen! That is maybe the most exciting part of this whole thing. You want me to play. I want to play. You know I can't afford to travel, and I know you can't afford to fly me there yourself. But I can give you the resources to make a show happen. I'll set up a Kickstarter (or some such) in each city/town/hamlet/shire/what-have-you and then you and me get to work together to sell the show. Sweet!

- Little cities in the midwest or Florida (or wherever) that feel left out of the cultural loop because bands always pass them by get an equal chance to bring me there. (The caveat being that I can't be everywhere at once and might not make it to every city this first time.)

- No more empty venues! 10 people buy a show, I play in a living room, 100 people and I book a small and lovely venue. 300-500 people and I get a small to mid-sized venue. 3,000 people… 300,000… it just works.

- Venues get a guaranteed audience to buy drinks and/or food. Venues lose lots of money all the time on shows. It sucks. That's why so many of them try to sell you lots of alcohol - hence the serious dearth of all ages places to enjoy music.

- Everyone feels invested in the show. Me, you, the venue. We make it happen, we're all financially risking something and we're all working as promoters. And let me tell you that nothing tastes as sweet as the fruit of your own labors. You help me put on the show and it's your show too. I love that.

- Equal commitment equals happy relationship. I commit to play for you. You commit to come see me. We meet each other halfway, and then we go all way (no, not that kind of 'all the way' just all the way to a great concert.)



I feel really lucky to be at a point in my career (and in the history of the world) where this can work. I have the fans. I have the network. I have the tools.

Twitter, Facebook, email, Kickstarter and one very determined me = good things.



X O X O - BoingBoing Girl


p.s. NYC July 21st. Buy Tickets

Right Side Up

 The Story

This is how it goes (or how it went for me) you start a band and you get in a car and you drive around the country many many many times until after a while people start coming to shows. And then more people come. And after a few years of this the empty rooms have become full rooms and you can afford things like food and rent.

Then your band breaks up.

Then you start over as a rocking solo artist and you drive around a little bit but nobody is coming to your shows and you know that you don't have it in you to drive around the country again for three years. So in Portland Oregon you drink a lot of whiskey and re-invent the concept of touring.

BAM!

You realize, from your years of experience (and by use of your vast intellect,) that touring is backwards.

Booking a gig and then promoting and hoping people will show up is crazy. CRAZY.

We don't think of it as crazy because we take it for granted that crazy people (called musicians) all over the world will risk their livelihoods and happiness on the off chance that empty rooms will stop being empty and people will come to shows.

And then you realize that you are one of the crazy people. Have some more whiskey.

At this juncture, out of money and out of whiskey, you realize there are two options:

OPTION A) Quit touring, be a recording artist who never plays live. Or get a day job, nobody likes you anyway.

OPTION 2) Do something you don't think anybody has ever done before at your level: pre-sell the concerts, the tour, the everything. You've got the fans, you know they support you, you raised $20,000 to record your album. SOMEBODY likes you!

You know you're crazy anyway. Might as well do something crazy about this crazy situation.

Yeah. We know for all your mild mannered cuteness that what you really want to do is change the world.

So do it. One show at a time.

They've got your back.

Go!

by Shami Kiely

Thursday, July 21st

New York City

The Kickstarter will be up for two weeks. The show will be all ages. Tickets are only $10. Everyone who attends gets a limited edition poster with art by Molly Crabapple. The show will be webcast so you can watch from anywhere in the world. The show will also be recorded and every single person who pledges will get a download of the set played live. I want to play for you!!!!

***
EDIT
***

I want to do this in other cities! Contact me to bring the show to your city: kim (at) kimboekbinder.com

Wrapping it Up

Six months ago my very first solo album came out. I am very proud of how it sounds and how it was produced. The album was made possible by many of you who contributed to my pre-order campaign and for that I am immensely grateful!

Yesterday I sent out an email to check in and make sure that everyone got what they ordered. The USPS lost some things and I didn't get to send some of the things I meant to. I'm posting this here for those who have changed email addresses, don't check email, or just like to read things twice.

I've been writing custom songs for people who pre-ordered the $200 + packages. The custom songs are still coming - some of them have been written and are up HERE, if you ordered one you'll get yours by email from me.

Mostly I want you to know that though I have been busy, and that things got confused and lost and dropped, I have not forgotten you! I feel incredibly lucky to have such wonderful supporters of my art and I really want to make sure you know how much I appreciate you. 

If you need to contact me, email:  kim at kimboekbinder.com

**

Into the Future

I'm in New York - this is me in my new living room (there are books!) I'll only be in this house for two months, but that's about as stable as I get and I have my own room with a door and everything! I also have a great roommate who makes fancy cocktails. We have two baby mice who like to climb walls.

There are many new projects on the way, some which launch very soon. This is going to be a busy summer. 

Look out for an upcoming 7" vinyl record, new songs, a new tour announcement, and random side projects with amazing collaborators in New York.

Thank you for coming along for the ride!

Love,

K