Local band Próxima Parada is launching an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign to raise money for its next project.
Sam Gilbert
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Local folk/soul band Próxima Parada is taking the next step in its musical journey by launching an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign on Feb. 7 to raise money for its next album.
For one month, people will be able to donate through Indiegogo to help support the band. The band’s initial goal is to raise $15,000 and the stretch goal is ultimately around $18,000.
“We kind of worked out all the funding and all of the financial side with just recording the album and getting out there with CDs, but as far as launching it, it takes a ton of marketing that adds up,” percussionist Andy Olson said.
The extra money for the stretch goal is to put the album on vinyl and to give the band a bit more to launch it, he said.
The band is also demonstrating its appreciation by giving back to those who extend their generosity.
“Depending on what you give us, we’ll give it back,” Nick Larson (vocals, rhythm guitar, banjo) said. “We’re going to be giving some awesome shit out.”
As self-managers, the members of Próxima Parada focus on the business component of being a band, as well as the musical component.
“We’re finding the balance between the creative side of the band and making that so it’s never compromised, but we’re also staying on top of the business side,” Bryson Bailey (vocals, rhythm and lead guitar) said.
You can’t just be a party animal and be in a band anymore; it’s too competitive, Olson said. They have to show they can play the music and be dedicated, on top of handling the business side, he said.
As the campaign runs for a month, so will the recording of Próxima Parada’s full-length album. It will feature approximately 12 songs.
The quartet looks forward to the outcome of the full-length album, after their EP was released in April 2013.
“We recorded our EP in one day and then mixed and mastered it in another,” Kevin Middlekauff (bass, mandolin, banjo) said. “It’s taking us a whole month to record this album, so the quality is going to be better because we have more time to focus on the songs.”
The recording will primarily take place in a studio rented in San Luis Obispo with audio engineer and producer Vincent Cimo.
It’s not a very conventional recording space, and the band has been talking to Vince a lot about cool, experimental techniques, Olson said. He said the quartet feels this environment will facilitate a lot of creativity.
The recording process is an art form just like writing or playing a song, Olson said.
“Our vision of the album is pretty live-sounding,” he said. “We’ve written all of our songs in a live setting, we’ve played all of our songs in a live setting — we feel like that’s what these songs have developed to be.”
Every facet of the band’s music — blues, jazz, folk, soul — will be represented, and it will be diverse, Larson said.
The album is expected to be released in July or August at the earliest.
The next stop for Próxima Parada: onward.