Welcome to the Crowdsourcing Mornings segment! Every weekday morning, Geek Alabama talks about and features one crowdsourcing project from crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others. The hope with Crowdsourcing Mornings is to feature and help a project be successful and reach its fundraising goal. Please enjoy today’s featured project!
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This is Skybound, a concept album of atmospheric modern folk music. With 17 tracks, and about an hour of music, Skybound uses intimate nylon-string guitar, skilled vocalists, natural and ethereal Foley, immersive synths, and rich string textures to bring you along on a journey.
Or at least, it will when it’s released.
Hi, I’m Octavia. I’m a singer-songwriter living in the part of the world I love most – the beautiful pacific northwest. I’ve always been enamored with and inspired by the natural surroundings and have been described as a “forest-creature” or “wood elf” a good handful of times. I’ve trained as a classical soprano and conductor and have been performing as a solo singer-songwriter since 2016. In my music, I pair intricate fingerpicking with smooth melodies and, thanks to my love of choral music, layers upon layers of vocal harmonies.
I’ve been drawn to stories of magic for as long as I can remember, always looking for ways to add a little fantastical mystery to my life. The tale of Skybound is heavily inspired by the influence of magic and a deep connection with dark, misty woods. The story is set in an era long since past, in a small village haunted by an elder bargain. Here, the earth has learned to fend for itself, and the woods call the unlucky few out on moonless nights. A change in fate sets our star-crossed main characters, Aneira and Theodred, on a path where they will risk the lives they’ve known and their corporeal forms in order to live in this most ardent of loves.
I have nurtured this music since Summer 2019, when I wrote a song called “Moonless Night,” depicting a spirit of the forest that shines as the aurora and culls the nearby woodland village. From there, the inspiration for a full story sparked, and I knew I had much more to write.
At the start of the pandemic, it was quite a challenge to find ways to perform. The choirs I rehearsed with most nights of the week were put on hiatus, venues stopped booking or closed altogether, and my life as a full-time musician was turned upside down. For months, I stopped writing and rarely touched my guitar, as I felt more and more lost. Then in Spring of 2021, I found an incredibly supportive community for streamed concerts, who helped me understand that music careers can be as unique as the musicians. That Summer, all of the remaining songs came rushing out, all the lyrics I’d been trying to finish, all the pieces of the story yet undetailed – I wrote the final 8 songs over the course of 2 weeks and began working on instrumentation and arranging parts.
This is my second album and a much larger project than my first. I’ve used my experience as a classical musician to arrange parts for string quartet and instrumental solos, and will be inviting a handful of choral friends to join me in filling out the sound.
What I’m doing here is not just writing a couple songs about these characters, but rather, creating a world in which this story lives, that can be revisited time and time again. Some of those who have already heard the songs have mentioned hopes of one day staging this as a full production. I think there is so much potential for the life of these songs, but it all starts here, with you.
I’m fundraising for this album here on Kickstarter, where you can select from numerous reward tiers or donate any amount to this project. As I’m sure you’ve heard in countless fundraisers before, every little bit helps. If you are unable to donate funds, I hope you’ll take a moment to share this with your friends, as genuine word-of-mouth suggestions are incredibly helpful.
As of April 12th, this project has raised $8,100 of their $9,000 goal. This project has 2 days left to raise the $9,000 or it will not be funded. For a pledge of $15, you will get one postcard. For a pledge of $25, you will get one CD. To learn more and to pledge money, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/octaviamcaloon/skybound?
