Delaney Young Music: Help Me Fund My New EP!

Here's the summary:

I am in the middle of a new music project! Together with a good friend (who doubles as my producer), I'm producing a 6-song EP and need your help raising money for it. Recording and producing (especially when done well) is an expensive and painstaking process. The studio gear and equipment are not cheap; plus, dozens of hours go into the editing and arranging of each song, which takes a toll on both brain and body. My producer Daniel is incredibly talented and is spending his personal time and money (two resources that almost none of us feel we have enough of) to make these songs excellent. With this fundraiser, I hope to collect enough money to compensate him for that time and money he is spending.

I know there are a million and 1 worthy causes to give your money to these days, so if you would consider donating your money to make this dream a reality, I'd be really grateful.

Here's the story:

For those of you who don't know me -- my name is Delaney Young and I am a singer-songwriter. My story with music began when I was fairly young. I grew up in a family and community that loved to sing, whether it be in the church choir or in the annual family reunion talent show. When I started taking classical piano lessons in elementary school, I was immediately taken with it. But it wasn't until college that I started writing and playing music of my own. After deciding to transfer out of Wheaton's Conservatory of Music to another degree path, I wanted to find a new way to engage with music that was less about performance and more about community and honest self-expression. In this way, I sort of stumbled upon songwriting, and fell deeply in love with it. It's enriched and infused so much meaning into my life, and has become one of the most powerful ways I know how to engage with my community and world.

In the last 5 years, I've thrown myself into the craft, participating in workshops, co-writing with other artists, playing shows at coffee shops and releasing some of my original songs on streaming platforms. 2023 has been a big year for me. In February, after spending a few months recording and producing with some dear friends, I released my single "Wrestle". It has been a little miracle to watch this song make its way around the world and resonate with so many friends and strangers alike! I could have never dreamed this, but in the first year of its release, it has been used in several church services and gained 10,000 streams on Spotify alone!

I also released my first EP this summer, titled "pilgrim memos". The project is a collection of live, unedited voice memo recordings of 4 songs I wrote while backpacking through Europe. Its style and format aim to mimic the content of its songs: raw and honest words to and from God about doubt, discovery, and journey.

In June, I had the opportunity to opening for one of my favorite artists of all time, Jon Guerra. It was a surreal sort of watershed moment for me, sparking new goals and motivating me to plan my next steps. One of those goals was to get more serious about producing and releasing my original music. So, this September, my producer and I started to turn that dream into a reality. Throughout the end of 2023 and into next year, we'll be hard at work recording and producing a 6-song EP that will hopefully be released next August. It's a long, expensive, and sometimes grueling process. But this project is worth it, and I think you'll agree.

The EP will explore themes of doubt, suffering, surrender, and relationship with God. These songs are about the aspects of walking with God that are uncomfortable, difficult, unrewarding. One track, called "sufferwell", asks: "Body broken -- is this what you mean when you say that we live now as your hands and feet? Well then show me the way to suffer well today..." The culmination of the EP is the realization that friendship with the Divine is better than comfort, ease, and instant gratification; that "walking with you through the desert is better than gardens alone."

Creativity proffers the opportunity to remember that honesty is beautiful. Art endorses vulnerability, and it has the power to draw us out of our isolation and into communities of solidarity and shared experience. This is what I hope my music does, specifically for people trying to walk with and toward and alongside God and each other in love.

Creativity is also so reciprocal, and I am constantly receiving that companionship and solidarity from listeners in return when they tell me about how my music connected with or spoke to them. So thank you all so much. The love, support, and enthusiasm I receive from y'all is an ineffable gift. I've had many, many moments this year where I've asked myself, "How did I get so lucky?!" And I have a hunch that this is only the beginning. I really believe in this project and I can't wait to share more about it in the upcoming months!