Donation protected
A little over two years has passed since Wild Iris debuted their first eponymous LP and a lot has happened since. The band embarked on two different tours: A southern California jaunt that started in the red dirt of Joshua Tree and slowly made it’s way up the coast…to local College pubs in SLO, iconic Irish bars and venues in Sonoma and Mission district cafes in San Francisco. The following year the tour expanded to the North West and Wild Iris played as far up as Port Townsend after a night at the legendary Central Saloon in Seattle.
Those of you who donated to our cause the last go ’round are very much the reason why we have gained the confidence to grow as a band and create this special full-band studio recorded work! The 'live' approach to this record was very new to us because the first album involved higher amounts of isolation and overdubbing. This time it was more like a highly prepared live show with small amounts of overdubbing and little-to-no isolation...
On the night of their first album release at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in April of 2016, Bryan and Kate were joined by an energetic young drummer by the name of Jesse Young who brought a more versatile rhythmic sound to the mix, not to mention a magnetic stage presence that always keeps his buds coming back for more “Jesse! Jesse! Jesse!” He’s playing a full kit on this album and shows off his musical sensibilities and passionate drive.
Another welcome addition to the Wild Iris family is Sam Barrow who joined the band and played two gigs her first day! She’s an extraordinary vocalist who imagined and arranged many of the sententious background vocal harmonies. She brings an emotional weight to the work, blending her incredible vocal range to perfection to compliment Kate’s melodic lines. Sam brings the body of work to a new dimension and was one of the main reasons Wild Iris able to tour. She loaded up her trusty SUV, lovingly named “Roada”, with drum sets, tents, guitars and got us where we needed to go!
Emma Shaw came to Wild Iris in the spring of 2017 after her long success in the local band Abalone Grey. She plays the upright bass with fervor and flair, embellishing the lines with her own unique style and soulful grace. Emma met up with us in Oregon during the last tour after climbing Mount Hood in the snow, her face bruised up a bit from falling rocks. She lugged her stand up and down a flight of steel stairs to give an amazing performance to the folks at The Liquor Store that night in Portland!
Owen “Shredder” Ragland is the youngest member of this album's ensemble and probably the busiest - he recorded this album, played tour shows and local gigs while he was finishing his BA at UCSC and at the same time performing with The Brothers Strong and Co. Wild Iris played a couple of tour shows up in Columbia, California with his other band and it was always a good time! It’s always time to get down when Owen starts to feel the energy in the room and ramps it up tenfold with his fiddle!
Andy Zenczak of Gadgetbox studios was excited to record our second collection up in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Wind River Studio. The studio is positioned in a large redwood and oak room with high pitched ceilings, oriental rugs and big picture windows gazing out onto the redwoods. He had a vision of all of us recording the bulk of the songs together, in a live setting, to capture the essence of Wild Iris. We trusted Andy after the great success of the first album and are very happy with our result. Andy joins us again on this one, playing haunting harmonica and some percussion as well. His enthusiasm for our work makes us “give it our all” to the performances and preserves the human factor of the music. We also want to thank his assistant Collin Atkinson for his positive and unraveling support throughout the project.
And so we bring to you 'The Sleepless Light' by Wild Iris, a project that needs your help to be completed. Booking the studio time was the bulk of the cost but now we need to finish and print the record, which is where this crowdfunding campaign comes in! If we can raise the money that we need to finish this project by the end of the year, we can get the audio mastered and print the CD's to have the album ready for release in spring of 2019. We have laid out some rewards for donors below in an effort to say thank you for your generous contribution.
Donation Rewards:
$1 - CASUAL DONOR
'BEGGING YOU TO STAY' GoFundMe exclusive single (Digital download, will not be available anywhere else until album is released)
$15 - PATRON OF THE ARTS
CD (or digital download)* and SINGLE
$40 - FAN
SHIRT or HAT and CD and SINGLE
$60 - SUPER FAN
SHIRT AND HAT and CD and SINGLE
$100 - BOX SET BUNDLE
Every physical album we've ever made! (EP, Album 1, Album 2, Covers album) and SHIRT and HAT and SINGLE
$500 - SONGBIRD
A personalized song written and recorded for you and CD and SINGLE
$1,000 - SHOW STOPPER
A show for you at your house or via Skype and CD and SINGLE
*All CD's or full album digital downloads will be available upon project completion (Spring 2019).
Those of you who donated to our cause the last go ’round are very much the reason why we have gained the confidence to grow as a band and create this special full-band studio recorded work! The 'live' approach to this record was very new to us because the first album involved higher amounts of isolation and overdubbing. This time it was more like a highly prepared live show with small amounts of overdubbing and little-to-no isolation...
On the night of their first album release at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in April of 2016, Bryan and Kate were joined by an energetic young drummer by the name of Jesse Young who brought a more versatile rhythmic sound to the mix, not to mention a magnetic stage presence that always keeps his buds coming back for more “Jesse! Jesse! Jesse!” He’s playing a full kit on this album and shows off his musical sensibilities and passionate drive.
Another welcome addition to the Wild Iris family is Sam Barrow who joined the band and played two gigs her first day! She’s an extraordinary vocalist who imagined and arranged many of the sententious background vocal harmonies. She brings an emotional weight to the work, blending her incredible vocal range to perfection to compliment Kate’s melodic lines. Sam brings the body of work to a new dimension and was one of the main reasons Wild Iris able to tour. She loaded up her trusty SUV, lovingly named “Roada”, with drum sets, tents, guitars and got us where we needed to go!
Emma Shaw came to Wild Iris in the spring of 2017 after her long success in the local band Abalone Grey. She plays the upright bass with fervor and flair, embellishing the lines with her own unique style and soulful grace. Emma met up with us in Oregon during the last tour after climbing Mount Hood in the snow, her face bruised up a bit from falling rocks. She lugged her stand up and down a flight of steel stairs to give an amazing performance to the folks at The Liquor Store that night in Portland!
Owen “Shredder” Ragland is the youngest member of this album's ensemble and probably the busiest - he recorded this album, played tour shows and local gigs while he was finishing his BA at UCSC and at the same time performing with The Brothers Strong and Co. Wild Iris played a couple of tour shows up in Columbia, California with his other band and it was always a good time! It’s always time to get down when Owen starts to feel the energy in the room and ramps it up tenfold with his fiddle!
Andy Zenczak of Gadgetbox studios was excited to record our second collection up in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Wind River Studio. The studio is positioned in a large redwood and oak room with high pitched ceilings, oriental rugs and big picture windows gazing out onto the redwoods. He had a vision of all of us recording the bulk of the songs together, in a live setting, to capture the essence of Wild Iris. We trusted Andy after the great success of the first album and are very happy with our result. Andy joins us again on this one, playing haunting harmonica and some percussion as well. His enthusiasm for our work makes us “give it our all” to the performances and preserves the human factor of the music. We also want to thank his assistant Collin Atkinson for his positive and unraveling support throughout the project.
And so we bring to you 'The Sleepless Light' by Wild Iris, a project that needs your help to be completed. Booking the studio time was the bulk of the cost but now we need to finish and print the record, which is where this crowdfunding campaign comes in! If we can raise the money that we need to finish this project by the end of the year, we can get the audio mastered and print the CD's to have the album ready for release in spring of 2019. We have laid out some rewards for donors below in an effort to say thank you for your generous contribution.
Donation Rewards:
$1 - CASUAL DONOR
'BEGGING YOU TO STAY' GoFundMe exclusive single (Digital download, will not be available anywhere else until album is released)
$15 - PATRON OF THE ARTS
CD (or digital download)* and SINGLE
$40 - FAN
SHIRT or HAT and CD and SINGLE
$60 - SUPER FAN
SHIRT AND HAT and CD and SINGLE
$100 - BOX SET BUNDLE
Every physical album we've ever made! (EP, Album 1, Album 2, Covers album) and SHIRT and HAT and SINGLE
$500 - SONGBIRD
A personalized song written and recorded for you and CD and SINGLE
$1,000 - SHOW STOPPER
A show for you at your house or via Skype and CD and SINGLE
*All CD's or full album digital downloads will be available upon project completion (Spring 2019).
Organizer
Bryan Shelton
Organizer
Soquel, CA