Kickstarter Launch!

My babies! It’s here! It’s queer! It’s my Kickstarter!
(Check the link here to bypass my long-winded newsletter)

For the last year, I’ve been polishing this EP and getting it ready to release to the world, but hit a financial roadblock, and had to put moving forward on hold. I briefly considered signing to a record label, but ultimately felt that a partnership with a company would not be in my best interest, creatively and logistically. So I have decided to come to you, dear reader! I believe that YOU are the record label I have been looking for. I am so grateful to be an independent artist, and to have the anxieties of making music solely for-profit out of my life, but realistically, I need some capital to get this project out of my room and into the world.  

I posted a blog this last weekend about the peculiarity of promoting a pop record in the state our country is in, and feeling strange about it. Someone on my Facebook posted that they were doing intensive activism work in support of the resistance, and played my music while doing grueling paperwork, and that made me hopeful and less anxious about the prospect of promoting my music in this climate. My contribution to the good fight might not look like other’s activism, but maybe being unashamed and proud of who I am and what I create is it’s own resistance.

It occurred to me that the whole point of all of this- sharing music, touring, even promotion- is about connection. It is about facilitating something beyond the traditional artist-to-fan relationship. It’s not about “collecting fans” or facebook likes, it’s about expression as a conduit to create something unquantifiable and dismantling the commodification of performers and artists. My intention is for the art to be a catalyst in someone else’s healing, to be a friend, and to be an harbinger of kindness. As a creator, I deeply value that connection, and when I start to feel inadequate or that my contributions might not be valuable or “enough”, I think of your stories. I remember the people that came to the first shows I had and cheered me on even though I thought it may not have mattered, I remember the poetry slams and snaps, I remember the emails from girls in rehab for eating disorders when I released “Body Love”, I think about the couples who used “She Keeps Me Warm” as their first dance, the gay Christians who felt a friend on the radio, those with a mental disorder feeling a little less crazy hearing a pop song reclaiming bipolar disorder, I remember the plus-size girls who wore a crop top for the first time and owned that shit. It moves me. It makes this journey feel so much more than vanity or ego. And maybe the whole point of vulnerability, at it’s core, is about humanity.

I know this newsletter has been a rambling stream of consciousness and not even filled with one kitten photo (here’s one! Phew!),

meow meow meow happy happy

So here’s the meat and potatoes:

My kickstarter will run for 31 days, and the money will go towards mixing, mastering, designing, printing, duplicating, and promoting the EP. There are some AMAZING rewards that I am so so so excited about fulfilling: obviously the physical EP, and a download before anyone else gets it, but there are also exclusive rewards that I’ve never done before. At a high reward tier, you can get a fancy dinner with you and a friend and me and probably at least one serving of pasta. Because, pasta. There’s also a reward I am super giddy to ship out (and shop for): Femme Magic- which has some of my favorite things: Lipstick, books, albums, scarves, and snacks. And if you are in need of some ML merchandise, there’s the superfan bundle which has literally every piece of media I’ve created.

I also wanted to give you a track list of the super gay super fun EP so you can be as stoked as I am! There’s even a song my mom wrote and sang on!! WHAT?! YES! There’s also a fun pop song where I say “lady” a bunch of times, and an older song called “I’d Be Your Wife”. Ugh, I’m so pumped for this release and to dance around! Just in general! I love dancing! I’ll be touring this EP in the fall and we can all hang out together and WHEEEEEEE I CANNOT WAIT

Bold

1. Do Anything
2. Lay Your Head Down
3. Hang Out With You
4. Know Your Name
5. I’d Be Your Wife
6. Love is Love (ft. Mary Kay Lambert) (MY EFFING MOM)
7. Know Your Name (The Reverb Junkie Remix)

I love you all so so much and I wish I could hug every single person and bring each one of you a donut. Or a vegan donut. Or a carrot. If you are staying away from refined sugar.

xoxo forever and ever amen,
Mary