NEW ALBUM – Order it now! + Loads of exclusive CM & MHS archive offers

                      

Dear All,

I’m about to record my new (6th) album. The songs are feeling good! Read on to find out more about how to get involved with exclusive offers (fancy a gig in your house?) - or you can steam ahead and order your own pre-release advance copy of the finished album now.

I want to try something different with this one. I’ve often felt that the way the music industry is changing eventually musicians will provide their music directly to their fanbase. To some extent that has always happened – but not like this. I’m excited to be working with a new manager and we’ve teamed up with the good people at PledgeMusic to begin the album process and to offer you the chance to be directly involved in the project. You can book - pledge - your own personalised signed copy before anyone else can get it, along with other exclusive goodies – including Mull Historical Society stuff – only available through PledgeMusic. You’ll be able to come into my world (nothing too frightening) and see the album develop from conception to creation.

I feel that you have always been very close to what I do. The process reminds me of the way I operated back when my Mull Historical Society material was beginning to get noticed and I started a fan ‘Hotmail’ database (which became this one) without even knowing I was doing it. Also, on the ‘This Is Hope’ album, I loved it when fans had the opportunity to have their names in the artwork (“The Society!”), and I still have people come up to me whose names are on the album. It’s with that sense of community that I want to begin my new album. This is my follow-up to 2008's 'The Water': some of the songs are breezy pop, some are widescreen things, and some are more minimalist, punchy nuggets. (You can tell I prefer making music than describing it). The theme is the city and cities – leaving them, arriving in them, burning them, living in them, and what it’s like for a child to see one of them for the first time. So this is how we do it…

If you pledge an item then you’ll be the first to hear these new songs. If you also fancy something extra, like a signed copy of my lyric sheets, or the chance to attend my secret pledger's-only special gigs and album playback events, or even your own private gig – it's on PledgeMusic. There’s also signed MHS vinyl and other items, and unique album-associated artwork / exclusive short stories I’ve written, which you can discover and own. Take a look at the list of offers and if you want to get involved then get stuck in. Basically, when you pledge you are investing in the album. When it reaches 100% then it's all go! Oh – and there's a limited number of places to come and stay the night, have dinner with me, and hear the album played back at my Mum's hotel, which is just about staggering distance from the T in the Park site.

Anyone who Pledges – or who pledges for someone else as a gift - automatically gets a download of the album, as well as free backstage access via the Pledger's only page – the bit where all the good stuff is. In there you can be part of the community that follows the project unfolding, I’ll keep you updated with rough mixes and I’m also making some previously unreleased MHS material available there too. 

Lastly, PledgeMusic has a built-in charitable function…some of you might be aware that I recently helped organise a concert in Glasgow for the charity Mary’s Meals. They currently feed 420,000 children around the world and have their base in Argyll, Scotland. In order to get a daily meal these children must attend their school, so it is educational as well as keeping them alive. I visited Mary’s Meals’ biggest project in Malawi in October Malawi Photoblog. A portion of the profits from your pledges will go to providing these children with Mary’s Meals. 

It's all here: PledgeMusic.

Cheers!

Colin