A group of musicians from Stevens Point is using the power of the internet to encourage fans to help them record a new album.
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is often compared to Grammy award-winning acts like Mumford and Sons. But this bluegrass-folk band says their music is one of a kind.
"A lot of people have said they're not exactly sure what it is, but they like it," said band member Adam Greuel. "You know, being that we all kind of came from diverse musical backgrounds, it has kind of created its own thing."
David Lynch plays harmonica and accordion. Adam Greuel sings and plays guitar. Sam Odin plays bass. Russell Pedersen also sings and plays the banjo. And Collin Mettelka plays the mandolin and fiddle.
"Whatever you want to call it, we're having fun doing it," Greuel said.
The group has recorded four albums since 2010. They're in the process of working on a fifth.
"A lot of the songs are about right here in Wisconsin," Sam Odin said.
Yet as poor UWSP college students and recent graduates, finding the money to do so has been a challenge.
They turned to the fundraising website, kickstarter.com to promote their work and get at least $3,200 to complete the album.
"To our surprise, it's been just incredible amounts of support," Greuel said.
Kickstarter.com was launched in 2009 and has been gaining popularity ever since. More than $500 million has been pledged, helping fund 35,000 projects. Each project's page is created by the person or group behind it. They set a goal and a deadline. People who like what they see, pledge money via Amazon Payments. If the project meets the goal within the time allotted, it's given the money. If not, it doesn't see a penny. Kickstarter's motto is "all-or-nothing."
"There's various incentives for donating a certain amount," Greuel said. "So for us, if you donate $25, you get our last studio album, and the one we're about to record. Which is pretty cool. So essentially you're paying for the album before we record it, and you're helping us record it."
The members gave themselves about a month to reach their goal. In just 11 days, they had already surpassed it. With seven days still to go, fundraising has never looked so easy.
"Who knows if we could have gotten it out or not," Greuel said. "I s'pose we could have taken to the cookies and pizza sales and you know opened guitar cases downtown. But that would have taken a heck of a long time."
The album will come out sometime in April. If you'd like to support the Band's new album on Kickstarter, click here.
Band Uses Internet To Raise Money