SAINT CLAIR - A local band recently turned to a popular crowdsourcing website to fund a new music video and complete their debut album.
Gas Station Disco, which has been a band for about a year and a half and was trying to raise money to produce a music video for their first single called "Dancefloor," found success through Kickstarter, also known as the "world's largest funding platform for creative projects."
Kickstarter has helped raise millions of dollars in cash for U.S. innovators and allows investors to influence the products they fund.
The band, made up of Rob Hampton, Saint Clair, drums; Jason Dumm, Lock Haven, guitar and vocals; Michael Reed, Llewellyn, guitar; and Jonathan "Bug" Price, Sugarloaf, bass, needed to raise at least $1,500.
"There's been a lot of success stories on Kickstarter," Hampton said during an interview with the band Oct. 4.
Hampton said the band started out playing cover songs, then eventually was making money from the cover songs and decided to start writing music about a year ago.
"We got to a point where we had six or eight songs and we started going to the studio once a month and recording," Hampton said. "It got to a point where we wanted to put the CD out and do a small music video to promote the original stuff but we didn't have quite as much money."
He said they were using a credit card for the studio then paying on it, which wasn't the best option.
"We started seeing all these things online with Kickstarter since April 2009," Hampton said. "I thought we're only a year and a half old, do we have enough of a fan base to come together and actually pony up all that kind of money."
While the band had some money, they figured out they only needed about $1,500 to $2,000 to accomplish what they wanted and went with a smaller amount, since if a goal isn't reached on Kickstarter, it isn't funded.
Hampton said that in the first week of the month-long campaign, people heavily donated but then it calmed down.
From Sept. 11 on, donations picked up and on Sept. 27, Gas Station Disco's project was funded with 37 backers and raising $1,670.
While only about $300 short, they said it wasn't a big deal and worked it out with the producer of the music video, Wade Spencer, Wellsboro, who does many videos for bands with Imagen Records, a full service Indie label based in the Washington, D.C. area.
"We basically got enough money to do what we want to do," Hampton said. "To reach our goal, we were thrilled that there were enough people out there."
"We have a lot of generous fans," Price said.
More than half of the people who donated recognized the band either at shows or from posts on their Facebook page, but there were even about three or four donations from overseas, with Hampton saying a man from Italy donated $75.
"Even if they were not donating, people would share it on Facebook as well whenever we would post about it," Hampton said. "It was basically a group effort."
With 10 different funding tiers, some of the tiers included backers who pledged $5 or more receiving a digital copy of the album before it hits iTunes, backers who pledged $10 or more receiving tier one rewards and a free download of an unreleased song that won't be on the album, and backers who pledged $20 or more receiving tier one and two rewards and a signed photo, all the way up to the highest pledges of $250 or more, with two backers receiving tier one through eight rewards and a special role in the music video.
With enough funding for the EP, being recorded at SI Studios, Old Forge, the band will be able to finish it and start recording their music video.
Both are expected to be completed by November.
Although the video will be shot in a couple of locations, the live band footage was hosted Thursday at Goodfellas bar in Pottsville.
It was open to the public for anyone who wanted to be in the crowd in the video, but people had be at least 18 years old to get in.
In the video, Hampton said there will be a guy who is nerdy, but sees himself differently. He sneaks into the club since the bouncers won't help him in.
The video will show how he sees himself in his eyes, "as a suave guy with lots of women around him," while it will also show the reality.
For more information about the band, including upcoming shows and the Kickstarter project, visit www.gasstationdisco.com.