TVA3: Introductions

Hard to believe it's been over a year since releasing the last full-length and I'm glad to say 'A/U' and 'Extras' are out now too! For those of you who don't know I started a page at Indiegogo.com this month in hopes of funding a new album. It's harder and harder for some musicians to make things happen without the backing and exposure most celebrated acts already have. What's this mean? Well, artists on bigger labels and who've had these luxuries will continue to sell sell sell. Doesn't leave much room for new talent but hey, I'm happy with our little niche.

The next thing for us (or me) anyway is to keep on truckin' and work on more tunes. We haven't even kicked off the campaign yet and have nearly 25% of the projected funds to reach our goal. Even at 2k it won't be an easy task to get album 3 underway... We still have to write, track, mix, and master this thing. With the help of friends, family and most importantly fans of the band we should see this thing out by the end of the year.

Aside from that we are offering great perks to go along with backing the project. These include:

Full-album downloads
Hard copies of both previous albums and the soon to be
Handwritten lyrics
Your name in the credits and
Even a custom painting by yours truly

At 2k we hope to get most of pre and post-production completed and even help pay for some manufacturing and distribution down the road. Those at certain levels of backing will get to hear the new album before anyone else and even get a copy before anyone else can. I'm also in talks with a local company about having some limited edition vinyl stickers and buttons made for the campaign. So what are you waiting for? Let's make this the best album yet!

Let me introduce the players I plan to have on the album:

Me (on guitar and vocals, and maybe some keys/synth)
Pete deGraff (Bassist, formerly of CLEARTHEWAY, Villain, and Cast Iron Hike)
Eric Sakmar (Bassist, from Run Silent Run Deep)
Youlee Park (Pianist, formerly of Shebore, teacher at Levine School of Music)
Tom Murphy (Guitarist, formerly of Veritoss)
Jordon Zadorozny (Multi-instrumentalist/Producer, of Blinker the Star and Digital Noise Academy)*

Jordon is also going to be my wing man on this project. He recently mastered the 'Extras' b-sides and I'm looking forward to working with him. I'm also looking forward to working with Pete who was an engineer for my previous band Lost in Stereo and has been in a few notable bands himself. An old bandmate of mine Tom Murphy said he could help out too. I don't think we've played together in almost 15 years now. We started our first band together called Blis. I've only recently been introduced to Eric after putting out an ad but I'm confident he'll bring his very best to the table. So there it is, let's get this thing off the ground. We have 5 weeks to go to reach goal. I've even sorted out that I'll have to raise some funds outside of the campaign to keep things running but that's minutia.

Where can you contribute? Visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-velvet-ants-3rd-album. I'll be posting updates whether it be a lyric, sketch or video for each new contributor. Even if sharing the page is the least you can do it will help us out, and many many thanks to those who plan to or have already contributed!

-Ian