Hi, my name is Bryan. Some call me CC, and I’m the creator of a musical project called CREAM MACHINE. I’m a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator living in Los Angeles, CA. I’m very passionate about the art that I make. It’s a personal need that I’ve been dedicated to for years, making a new project every year since I was a teenager. These projects have always been a priority in my life but never a source of income. I never cared about money, clout, or commercial “success”. I always was, and still am happy just to enjoy the process and keep it to myself. I’m more focused on the personal journey and the expression that writing songs offers me. I’m consumed by it! It’s simply something I cannot do without.

Now I am older, more refined, and even more dedicated, I am more determined to make higher-quality work to share with the world. This is still not about “success”, but more about the realization that art is meant to be shared. In 2021 I made my first “public” EP 0001 and shortly after, I released my follow up Á LA Mode. Both of these projects took an unprecedented amount of time and work for me, and were a major challenge to accomplish underneath the burdens of my regular adult responsibilities and schedule. Nonetheless, they were both well received by my community and I was very happy to finally be putting music out.

The reason I’m here on GoFundMe today is that I want to continue that process. My ambition is to push it even further but unfortunately making an independent project requires a lot of money, even more than the time and effort. I’m working as an elementary school teacher (also time consuming) but with the amount I make and all the life changes that I had to endure in the past years, I can no longer afford to sustain these endeavors, much less push them to the next level. I’m already head-deep in my next project Turbo, and the expenses are piling up.

Not counting time, the average cost to make a quality 5 song EP is about $3000. Most of this goes to mixing and mastering costs which typically have been around $400 per song to do. The remaining expenses are divided between distribution costs, artwork/design, promotional costs, and paying what I can to artists/collaborators who help. Even with that $3000 granted, I’d likely still be paying some out of pocket.

I’d like to try printing vinyl for my next project, which is why I’m asking for $5000. The process for getting a run of records made will cost between $1500-$2000. But besides the accomplishing feeling that holding my own tangible record will give me, it’s more about the great opportunity for me to fund future projects. Selling a relatively small run of records will provide me with enough profit to keep this cycle moving. At the end of the day, that’s really all I’m looking for. I want to be able to keep operating this machine in a way that is self-sustaining.

It doesn’t make me proud to be up here asking for money. I wish that art wasn’t so expensive! But unfortunately it is and after a lot of debating, I thought I’d try my hand and this resource so many artists are turning to. Achieving this goal would really change my life. It wouldn’t make me a rock star, but it would take so much extra weight off of my back. Some extra funds would also make it easier to do more with the project such as live shows, touring, merchandise, videos/media etc. It’s really the only dream I have and your help could definitively help it come true. Thank you in advance for anything, and everything!

You can hear everything I’m doing with CREAM MACHINE on every major platform (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon etc). Shortcuts to all my info/media can be found here:

https://linktr.ee/CREAMMACHINE

Love to you all!

Bryan