So yesterday it was announced that the Iguana Fund from Club Passim has privileged little old me with a grant so that I can be able to carry out a project that I have been mulling over in my head for a long while. Before we get into the details of that…here is a little more about the fund itself:
The Iguana Music Fund was established in 2008 after a generous donor decided that he wanted to help artists pursue their musical goals. Artists often have the talent and ideas to create incredible music, but they do not always have the financial capacity to do so. To help musicians overcome financial limitations, the Iguana Music Fund awards annual grants worth between $500 and $2,000 to artists with a residential or tour-based affiliation to New England.
For more information on the fund, previous winners, how to apply and all of that goodness head over to the site and read up! http://www.clubpassim.org/about-fund
And while you are over at the Passim site, consider signing up for a membership!
Now back to business, back in August I applied for the grant on a whim. A friend of mine had won the grant the year previous to fund a new tour van. That’s what I think is so great about the Iguana Fund, they are helping people with their musical aspirations but the spectrum of what they choose is so varied. So I thought “ehhh, 5 minutes to fill out a form to potentially work on what I consider to be a really great idea come to fruition. Why not?” What is that idea? I am glad you asked!
My proposal to the committee was to record an album of some of the brightest local songwriters covering songs from some of their favorite local songwriters. Yes, I realize this was just recently done (see https://www.facebook.com/BostonDoesBoston), but I am hoping this will add to that sentiment from a different “pool” within our vast music community here in town. I felt that my proposal gives me an opportunity to help bring light to a larger range of musicians in town, rather than just one artist or group and will be a really wonderful community building event. I am really blessed that I have been given the opportunity by the Iguana Fund and Passim to make this happen.
From first glance and a quick and dirty budget look, I believe that the grant will allow me to record a compilation consisting of 10 songwriters covering a song each. That money will need to stretch across tracking, mixing, mastering, and a short hardcopy run of the project. I have already been lucky enough to have a studio to work with called Riverview Studios in Waltham (https://www.facebook.com/RiverviewStudios) owned by my good friends Sam Margolis and Andrew Kramer.
Well, for now that’s what I am working with. We got some money to work with, some great people tohelp record, and a few ideas of who I really want involved in this as far as songwriter’s are concerned. I fully intend this to be a very well documented process so hope that you all will follow us along the way as we see what unfolds in this crazy endeavor.
Thank you all for the support over the past 10 months of the existence of this blog. The fact that people are actually reading this stuff really makes it worthwhile to embark on this project and makes me truly feel inspired and motivated to pursue this!