Vincent Hayes Project uses Kickstarter to Produce Follow-up to Initial Success

In the past two years, the Vincent Hayes Project has moved from a virtually unknown blues band to garnering nominations for three international music awards, including a 2011 Blues Music award Nomination for “Best New Artist Debut”, as well as two Blues Blast Awards (Best New Artist Debut, Sean Costello Rising Star Award). They also were the recipients of four 2011 WYCE Jammie awards for “Album of The Year, Best Blues Album, Best Group, and Producer of The Year (Glenn Brown)”, as well as an additional nomination for “Song of The Year”.

According to band leader Vincent Hayes, “We’re using Kickstarter to both raise the money we need for our new recording and to provide our friends and fans with a fun way to become part of the interactive process of creating this new CD.” The band needs to raise $20,000 by the end of February 2012 at 3:29 pm EST.

For those not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a new and very popular online funding platform where people pledge money to help artists, musicians and even inventors to fund their projects by way of interacting directly with their fans. A project must reach its funding goal to the dollar before time runs out or the artist receives nothing and pledges are not charged to supporters. No ownership or control of the project is given up because funders receive incentives to give, not “stock.”

The Vincent Hayes Project is offering a number of premiums including MP3s, signed copies of the new CD, limited edition T-shirts, and VIP passes to performances. One of the more unusual incentives is an entire set of guitar strings from Hayes’ Fender Telecaster “used in the studio during the recording of the new CD.”

Planning to continue their success, the band soon returns to the studio with world class producer/engineer, Glenn Brown. They plan to release the new CD of original blues/roots on Hayes’ independent label, North 61 Records, by early summer of 2012. As it is with many independent artists, The Vincent Hayes Project will cover all of the expenses independently, including paying for studio time, mixing, mastering, production, manufacturing, advertising, graphic designers, photography, and distribution, which can run as high as $30,000 for a successful independent CD in the world market, though the band is only asking for $20,000 on Kickstarter, to keep the goal more reachable.

The band has proven extremely successful with their debut release, and now, with the help of fans and Kickstarter’s services, they plan on to outdo themselves on their follow up, and a successful Kickstarter campaign will insure that they will have the capital to cover all necessary expenses and insure their continued success. Hayes says, “We're going to use the momentum from the success of “Reclamation” to help us open even more doors in the worldwide blues and roots markets, and we want you to believe in our new project as much as we do!”

To help the band reach its goal by the end of February, go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1270461750/the-vincent-hayes-project-wants-you-to-be-part-of