The window · august → 11 / 11

Two studios opened their doors.

Free of charge. Neither one can cover the only thing standing between these songs and a finished record :: my time.

Every song and film on this site was made without ever setting foot in a professional room. That ends this year, if I can buy the months to walk into one.

Become a Founding Patron Hear It Unproduced

In plain words

This is the page with no costume on.

Everywhere else on this site, the circus tells the story its own way. Not here. Here is what actually happened this month, in the order it happened, with nothing dressed up.

I met a booking agent at a party. He heard the music, and instead of asking for a demo he offered me studio time and a place in his roster. Then, this month, I called an old friend to tell him I had finally stopped calling myself a guy with businesses and started calling myself an artist. He owns a recording facility worth more than every project I have ever built put together. He listened, and then he told me to send him the songs.

He called back. What he said was roughly this :: get enough people behind you to cover your own time, and the room up here is yours. I will record you myself. I will help you produce it. Come up for a couple of weeks and we will knock it out.

So the rooms are free. The engineering is free. The producing is free. Two people with real gear and real reputations have decided this music is worth their weeks, and they are not asking me for a dollar.

The one thing nobody can donate is the two or three months of my life it takes to walk in and do it properly. That is the whole gap. That is the only thing I am asking anyone to help with.

What the money is actually for

Not the studio :: that is covered. Not gear, not travel, not marketing, not a campaign. Patronage buys me the months. Rent paid, lights on, nothing else I am forced to say yes to between now and November. That is the entire mechanism, and there is nothing else behind it.

The window

Both doors are open on someone else's calendar.

Neither offer is open-ended. Studios book out. Friends have seasons. I am not going to pretend a deadline exists where one does not, so here is the actual shape of the year as it stands today.

Recording schedule · as it stands

Late Aug → early Sept Bulk recording. The body of the record tracked in one sustained push. Prescott, Arizona

Sept → Oct Final recording, production, and mastering. Two weeks in residence, working daily. A million dollar facility near Casper, Wyoming

Along the way Singles released as they finish. Nothing held hostage to the album date. Wherever you already listen

11 / 11 The first official IMP Circus album. Everywhere at once

8/8 broke the seal. 11/11 is when the first record lands.

If the window moves

Then it moves, and I will say so plainly. Patronage will still have done its job :: it bought time, and time is the only thing work has ever been made out of. But the window is what makes now the moment instead of someday.

Why this record matters to me

Everything you can hear on this site was made at the edge of what a room, a phone, and stubbornness can do. I have never once heard what this music sounds like with real production behind it. Neither have you.

Door one · the fire

Fifty fires before the window opens.

Fifty founding patrons is the number that gets me in the room. Not fifty thousand dollars, not a viral moment, not a label :: fifty people who decide a month of coffee is worth what comes out of it. If you are reading this page, it is because I suspect you might be one of them.

In plain human words

Patrons fund this world with a monthly amount they choose. Every tier receives exactly the same things :: the tiers are sizes of generosity, not levels of access. You can change or end your patronage at any time, in one click, no questions, no hunting for the cancel button.

V,ril Sk’ii

The ember · fire carried in one hand

$8/ MONTH

Small, glowing, stubborn. An ember is how every fire survives the road between camps.

Carry an ember

T’nor Mo

The torch · fire that travels

$28/ MONTH

A torch throws light ahead of the troupe. Most keepers carry this one.

Raise a torch

Gro’vahn

The bonfire · fire the whole camp sees

$48/ MONTH

A bonfire changes what a night can hold. Whole manifestations get planned beside one.

Light a bonfire

What you are not buying

This is not a pre-order and not a crowdfunder. You are not buying the album. When the record exists it goes out to the whole world, patron or not, exactly the way the four films did. Nobody is owed a package, and nobody is waiting on a reward tier.

What finds you anyway

Dispatches from the studio and the road :: rough mixes escaping early, singles before they are anywhere else, canon leaking. And the monthly Gathering, one live call where the circus talks back.

This bargain binds nothing. Unlike the last one, you may end it whenever you choose.

Patrons can change or end their patronage here at any time. Lighting any fire means you agree to our terms and privacy policy. For larger bargains or one-time gifts, write plainly: booking@impcircus.com.

Door two · the troupe

Some of you should be on this record.

The Wyoming half of this comes with a producer's hands on it, and there is room in these songs for players who are not me. Horns. Strings. Percussion that hits like a building coming down. Voices willing to hold a language they have never heard before. And off the record entirely :: sets, costumes, creatures, film, hands. If something just leaned forward in you, announce yourself.

Announcing yourself binds you to nothing. It only tells the circus that another imp is stirring.

Would rather just talk it through? Write to theimpcircus@gmail.com or call 480-960-6984. A real person answers, which is most of the point.

Here to book a performance instead? The office behind the curtain →

Want the whole story first? Start at the beginning →