Telling on Trixie
“There's nothing easy about it. If you want easy, this is not the way to go. Frankly, if you want easy, you're probably in the wrong business anyway.”
- Telling on Trixie frontman Derek Nicoletto recaps on his experience calling upon fans to fund the band’s latest album.
New York-based Indie Rock quintet, Telling on Trixie, is proof that taking your career into your own hands can lead to success. The band funded its March ‘09 release, Ugly, Broke & Sober, entirely on donations and its promotional campaign has inspired other Indies to ditch traditional methods of recording and distribution and rely solely on the power of fans. Here, vocalist Derek Nicoletto fills Atlas Plugged in on how he and his bandmates (Brad Small- guitar, Tommy Kessler – guitars & keys , Andrew Frawley - drums & percussion, Tom Welsch – bass) raised over $20,000 through online promotion directed towards their Band With A Plan site and various levels of donation opportunities and rewards.
ATLAS PLUGGED: Why did you decide to launch a dedicated Web site (abandwithaplan.com) in an effort to raise funds (as opposed to doing it just on your MySpace or official site?)
TELLING ON TRIXIE: A key aspect of A Band with a Plan was the exclusivity of membership. We needed a separate website with password protected areas for the behind-the-scenes blog and news. Our site had voting poll modules and a forum where members could express their opinions. Right before the release, we posted all the songs so all the members could have a private sneak peek. The operation of A Band with a Plan was intense and totally its own beast from the day-to-day of Telling on Trixie. As you can quickly see from the site, there was a lot involved to our program and I think that's one of the reasons it succeeded.
ATLAS PLUGGED: This project began last May 12st. Was it slow to start off? When do you expect to meet your $50,000 goal?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: This project began in beta in May 2008, and in June, we launched it properly. At first, we thought we would spend a year trying to raise $50,000 to support and promote an album and a video. After some discussion amongst ourselves, we realized we didn't want to spend a year fundraising. So, we decided that September 30th 2008 would be the last day of the fundraising and membership portion of a Band with a Plan. We hoped to raise $20,000 by then, and we did. The actual musical creation of an album is so all-consuming, there's no way I could have had the fundraising and membership drive running entirely concurrently. There was some overlap, but by October 1st, we needed to concentrate fully on the music. I'm so glad we did.
ATLAS PLUGGED: What was the biggest donation you received?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: $5,000
ATLAS PLUGGED: The Lowest?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: $10
ATLAS PLUGGED: The Average amount & tier level?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Most people donated at the $50 "Groupie" level, probably because it included the most bang for your buck. A $50 level member got a private username and password for the site, an autographed CD and a T-Shirt. The T-Shirts are still in the making, because the first batch we got were totally ugly when they arrived. After all our fans and Band with a Plan members have done for us, I'm not giving them ugly fashion.
ATLAS PLUGGED: “Band Managers” who donated more than $500 received a personal 1-2 minute instrumental jingle for their MySpace page. How many of these did you have to compose?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Well, we offered five people this option and actually, none of them wanted the jingle. But they did want to be in the video for "Crash Me Up," so they all make appearances. In many cases, people wanted to participate on their own terms. One couple offered us an extra $100 if they could be the first to hear the rough cut of "Mad About You." We obliged.
ATLAS PLUGGED: How many people did you write 3-4 minute private songs for?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Two songs have been written. One song is completed and was delivered privately. For the second song, our member asked if she could write a song with me, which I think is really cool. She created her own experience out of it, which is awesome. Also, you can see both of the people who donated $1,000 and more in the “Crash Me Up” video. Actually, many of those people in the video are members of A Band with a Plan.
ATLAS PLUGGED: What was it like working with producer Jamie Siegel (Lauryn Hill, Taking Back Sunday, Joss Stone) on select tracks?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Jamie produced our first album, Telling on Trixie. Since he knows us really well, we knew we could show him what we had done with the first seven tracks and trust him with the last three. We had a lot of responsibility to get it right with this album. There's no one else I wanted to mix the album or produce those tracks but Jamie.
ATLAS PLUGGED: You included your fans from around the world in the music video for “Crash Me Up.” How did you film those from Italy, Orlando & Germany? Was it really the same red ball?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: I ordered about 20 of the same ball and sent them around the world. But in many of the shots, it's the exact same ball.
ATLAS PLUGGED: How did you team up with Project Runway star Jack Mackenroth to design you an article of clothing for the $10000.00 donation? Has anyone gotten this yet?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Jack was in our video for "Orion's Light." We filmed portions of it in Shanghai, China and the rest of it in Brooklyn, New York. If you're a Jack fan, I suggest you check out the Director's Cut of "Orion's Light" which is only up on You Tube, next to its softer sister version. The original version was a little too racy for broadcast because of the heavy S&M vibe. I'm a fan of Jack's clothes; he's a fan of Telling on Trixie, so he was kind enough to offer our fans a personal design for Band with a Plan. But since no one donated $10,000, he didn't design the article. Of course, if someone would still like to donate that money, I'm sure we could still work something out.
ATLAS PLUGGED: From what states & countries have you received most of your donations?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Almost 100 from five continents participated. We personally know about sixty percent of the people who took part.
ATLAS PLUGGED: Is your ultimate goal to sign to a label?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Our ultimate goal is to be a self-sustaining musical project.
ATLAS PLUGGED: Will you do something like this again?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Only time will tell, but we've just begun to ride the "Ugly, Broke & Sober" wave, so it will be a while.
ATLAS PLUGGED: Do you see this as something more bands could/should easily do?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: There's nothing easy about it. If you want easy, this is not the way to go. Frankly, if you want easy, you're probably in the wrong business anyway.
ATLAS PLUGGED: What is your advice for artists who are reading this and are thinking of launching their own fund-raising rather than joining companies like Sellaband?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: It really depends on what the artist wants out of the program. Sellaband serves a purpose, but was not for us. Many bands, such as Comandante Zero and Diablo Royale have contacted us and now have programs somewhat similar to ours in effect. If bands like our program I suggest they look at abandwithaplan.com and study its structure. My advice is to tailor any program to your fans, though. What worked for Jill Sobule would not work for us, and vice versa.
ATLAS PLUGGED: "Ugly, Broke & Sober" is now playing on 168 college stations and and "Crash Me Up" on few hundred more Internet, HOT AC, AAA and Underground stations. Did you hire a radio promotions company or have band members taken on the task?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: We have professionals who bring our music to radio, but we have also built personal relationships with many individual terrestrial or internet stations worldwide.
ATLAS PLUGGED: You teamed up with the American Cancer Society as a charity partner… How does this work?
TELLING ON TRIXIE: Two years ago, we approached the American Cancer Society about becoming our charitable partner after some personal experiences with cancer. The ACS had us to their offices in NYC. We shared our stories with them; they shared their mission with us. As a result, this year we performed for a second year in a row at the NYU fundraiser. We dedicated our song, "The Deepest Dive" to the Luminaria March. In April, for every download of that song, we pledged $1. We will be donating several hundred dollars to the ACS at the end of this month as a result of the download program.
TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS: Check out the band atwww.myspace.com/tellingontrixie
Joelle Batelli spends her days at Music Resource Group editing for
The Musician’s Atlas and coordinating sponsorships for The Independent Music Awards. As music naturally consumes her life, she spends her “downtime” producing/hosting a Web-TV show, On the Verge, for Ambush.tv. You can watch her interview Butch Walker, Hanson, the Matches, Sohodolls and more at www.planetverge.com.
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