Donation protected
Butterfly Music begins recording our debut album on April 17, and we need your help!
Who is Butterfly Music?
BFM was started by Robert Merritt and Lucy Blagg as a way of holding their live performance work and poetry. The band is an improvisational collective of poets, musicians and artists, centered around generating new forms of music with traditional instruments, DSP, and with experimental, handmade acoustic and electronic instruments. They are releasing their debut record Silver and Blue, on Holy Family Records this fall.
What is Silver and Blue?
Silver and Blue is an album-length narrative work that tells the story of a faustian bargain set across several historical events ranging from the wreck of a 2nd century Greek merchant ship to a 2019 satellite launch on the California coast. It explores the relationship between memory and technology as a way of understanding the role of desire in spiritual experience.
Growing Our Community
The rise of the streaming economy and other downward economic pressures on musicians has made the music community disparate and atomized. It is more important than ever to take into our own hands the fostering of a sustainable music community.
We are very excited to be working with the amazing drummer Martin Baggarly, multi-instrumentalist Jay Mamana, and many other collaborators on this album! We will record over three days in a renowned studio, Machines With Magnets, that’s less than a mile from our home. Many of the songs on the record will also feature performances on Anarchestra foundation instruments made by RI artist Andy Thurlow. Additionally, RISD Movement Lab Fellow and collaborator Azadeh Ahmadi will work to document recording and multimedia live performances.
Your funding will directly cover recording and production costs and compensate all personnel involved in this project.
Growing Holy Family
Funding Butterfly Music’s first release will also help to significantly grow the label, Holy Family Records, started in 2023 by J. Mamana, Robert Merritt, and Theodora Ward.
Holy Family is an artist-run label for independent musicians making experimental work in Providence, RI. HF draws inspiration from a long tradition of DIY artists and spaces who band together, embrace differences, and share resources. Our mission is to inspire our partners’ best work and to foster a vibrant, local independent music community. We put on live events, provide creative and professional services for artists, and create opportunities for musicians and performers to record what they want.
We do all of this for free, and we would like to continue offering free, unrestricted services to our partners.
Tour
The BFM recording project will culminate in a series of live performances, called “Holy Family Presents,” at local venues and DIY spaces. Each concert will feature performances from local bands and visiting artists from across the US and Canada. BFM will then tour the Northeast.
Live events are vital opportunities to expand Providence’s music and arts community. We see live events not just as music shows, but as fairs where other artists are invited to sell and exhibit their work. We are excited to continue cultivating relationships with local DIY venues and businesses, and to expand our relationships with artists and musicians making work across medium and genre.
Giving back to our funders!
Tier 1 - $10.00 — Thank you in liner notes, and 20% off digital release.
Tier 2 - $50.00 — Free copy of digital release and credit in liner notes.
Tier 3 - $75.00 — Handmade BFM t-shirt on comfort colors.
Tier 4 - $150.00 — Handmade BFM t-shirt, and copy of vinyl release w/poster.
Tier 5 - $250.00 — Handmade BFM t-shirt, vinyl release w/poster + small painting.
Tier 6 - $500.00 —Your choice of a commissioned drawing or music lessons.
Tier 7 - $1000.00 — Contact us! Lucy and I help you design and create a website.
*All funders will receive thank you gifts from previous tiers. If you donate $150.00, you will receive a credit in the liner notes, a digital copy of the album, a BFM shirt, and a vinyl copy of the record with a poster.
Budget:
3 days of Recording at MWM: $1800.00
2 days of Mixing at MWM: $1200.00
Final Mixing and Mastering: $750.00
Vinyl Master and Production: $2000.00
Artist Compensation & Food: $1250.00
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$7000.00 Total
Organizer
Robert Merritt
Organizer
Pawtucket, RI