Hello! Thank you for watching my film. There’s a bit more information on me, Beccy Owen, and my forthcoming album here…

 

As a solo artist I have released three critically acclaimed albums to date. IMAGO is my first full-length offering since "Down With Gravity" (2008).

The last thing I released was the digital-only DRINK EP earlier this year. This was a 5-track EP that I wrote and home-recorded over the space of five days during an experimental month of writing a song-a-day (you can read more about this process and a review of the results here and here.

What is IMAGO?

IMAGO is a record of twelve intensely personal songs that I've been working on for the past year or so. It's an intimate, performance-based portrayal of  a love affair as it begins and unfolds.

In biology, IMAGO refers to the final stage of a creatures' metamophosis into the 'mature' stage. For many insects, it is during IMAGO that they they get their wings (educational moment!)

In psychology, IMAGO refers to the idealized image of another person that forms, often in childhood, and persists unconsciously into adulthood (every day's a school day! www.answers.com/topic/imago)

I chose a 'one take' approach to the record, playing piano and singing live for each song and keeping the whole take as it came out, warts-n-all.  I'm proud of this unapologetic aesthetic. IMAGO has an immediacy and a dynamism that I like to think has become a staple trait of my live shows.  

This feels like a return to the minimalistic sensibilities of my debut release 'The Sweetest of Tales from the Bitterest Edge'.

 

WHY I NEED YOUR HELP...

IMAGO is very almost finished!!! We go into mixing in a few weeks and then it's time for mastering and manufacture. After a hiatus due to ill-health and a geographical relocation I'm preparing to re-emerge from my crysalis (see what I did there?).

I'd like to build and engage with an audience and a community of people who want to hear my music, help me to raise it's profile, are interested in putting on unique gigs, and help to raise funds to make it possible to release the new record to a very high quality and share it live with people. Sometimes live in their very homes! (Real pianos).

To release iIMAGO as a physical 'product' takes a bit of dosh, because the upfront costs of mastering and manufacturing music (even digitally) can be rather expensive and a little beyond my current income as a music leader and independent songwriter. I'd like to get the songs mastered at Abbey Road studios, who did a great job with my band's last album.

I'd also like to put out a CD and vinyl version of the record. Plenty of people still enjoy a physical copy of albums, despite the digital revolution. I'm one of them.
 

WHY NOT A RECORD DEAL?

I've been doing this without the fat-cat machine of the industry for 14 years, and have only got this far with the amazing support of other people - both financially and in all kinds of other ways. For example, my current producers on IMAGO are my good friends - the true King of the North Alex Ross and the super-talented Jonathan Bidgood - and they're giving their expertise and time for free (although I have fed them beer and dal.)

I've had offers with huge advances on the table numerous times over the years, but nothing has felt quite as right as the DIY approach. Maybe I'm just a control freak.

I have some awesome people collaborating with me on various oher aspects of this record for the sheer love of it or for a very reduced mate-rate; from the artwork, to the accompanying website, to the launch event itself. The list goes on. Maybe you could be added to it!?

 

WHAT YOUR PLEDGES WILL MEAN... 

Anything you can spare will be greatly appreciated. There are some lovely rewards on here too (personally, I'm most excited about the Oven Glove and the House Concerts), so take a look, decide what you can afford and I will do my best to release the best record I have in me to make.

. THANK YOU .