New artist visas for Chase the Comet!

Hi there, we are Nika and Alex, two high school sweethearts making music together... well, since high school! I, Nika, sing and write songs, and Alex plays guitar and bass and creates our arrangements. We started making music back in 2005 in Moscow, Russia where we originally are from and where we achieved some success both with our band(s) and individually, as session musicians. We released 2 full-length albums in Russian and multiple EPs (shorter albums usually consisting of 6-7 songs) and even took part in a TV-show a-la "American Idol" with one of our bands. We both performed on huge stages with Alex opening up for Metallica, Muse and Linkin Park (to name a few) with one of his other bands.

But we’ve always wanted to deliver our music to a wider audience in the world. Besides, the political tension in our motherland started building up…

We worked hard to gather our artist cases and in the end of 2019 we finally applied for O-1 visas - it's a type of visa for people with extraordinary abilities in their field. There were no guarantees but in March 2020 we got our envelopes from the Immigration Services saying our visa petitions were... APPROVED!

You all know what happened next. 1.5 year of COVID almost completely ruined the music industry (and that's the least of the issues)! Both you and us are lucky to still be here, right?! In 2020 we had to cancel the scheduled tour and sit and wait for the embassies to reopen. They eventually did and in January, 2022 we finally got our visas but… only vaild for the duration of the initial petition - 3 years from 2019 until 2022!

However, we were MIRACULOUSLY able to escape Russia just 2 days after the tyrant we never chose started the war against a brotherly sovereign state! We were devastated but wanted to do all we could for the victims of the war. We played at fundraisers, did live-streams to gather means and I, Nika, even taught English to refugees for 4 months for free.

But it turned out we couldn’t simply extend our visas cause our petitioner had died… So we decided to just keep doing what we've been doing (and what we do best in this life) - writing songs and sharing them with the world. We initially planned to launch this fundraiser to gather funds for the new album due on September 22! We have a booked West Coast tour at the end of September and the beginning of October. We were planning to go on tour on the East Coast for the first time later next year...

We are a small family business with one little exception: our main product - our music - is free for all to enjoy. We already paid for and recorded the album for you.

But... our artist visa expires at the very beginning of October, and yesterday it turned out that we have to apply AGAIN and go out of the country AGAIN!.. Can you imagine that some people have to go through this all just because they were not born in the US?

We also have to apply for expedited visa processing (15 calendar days) cause otherwise, it may take about 6-8 months (like it did last time) for them only to approve our petition. And we don't have that time right now - our current visa expires in less than 2 months.

So... will you help us come back, create music, and get on the road with our new album?

If so, here are the perks we are offering to thank you for your support!

Here are just some of the expenses that we've borne while recording the album:

1. Recording live drums in the studio: $100/song x 10 songs = $1000 total

2. Editing drums: $50/song x 10 songs = $500 total

3. Mixing: $300/song x 10 songs = $3000 total

4. Mastering: $50/song x 10 songs = $500 total

This doesn't even include the time that we spent working on these songs (and that's a loooot of time - all unpaid), album art + design ($200-$300), printing CDs (~$300/100pcs), printing merch (~$900/100 T-shirts)...

And now we have to pay $9000 for the attorneys' services (for 2 of us) + $2500 each for expedited visa processing. Which makes a total of $14000. We've already

put down a $1000 which makes it $13000. We are asking you to help us pay at least a part of it. $10000. We will try to manage the rest.