Simeon Davis Group's Album Funding

Hello family, fans, and future friends! My name is Simeon Nathanael Davis, and I am the bandleader of the Simeon Davis Group, a cross-genre collective playing original music with a focus on storytelling. On June 24th, 2022 the SDG will be releasing “Of Narratives & Nocturnes,” an album of 8 original compositions drawing on elements of Jazz, South African, European folk, Neo-Soul, and Classical music to create through-composed sonic worlds that follow linear narratives. These programmatic pieces draw on true experiences, mythology, thought experiments, and religious texts as inspiration and use themes, motifs, and musical conflicts to tell these tales. Even more exciting, we’ve partnered with Heather MacLeod of Studio Celeste, a Vancouver-based designer, to bring these stories to life visually through her artwork. These images are accompanied by evocative short poetic prose to allow an audience to truly become enraptured in these Narratives & Nocturnes.

 

We as a band have already recorded, mixed, and mastered the album. All that’s left is promotion and distribution – in other words, printing the albums and merchandise and having them shipped to YOU, the donors!

More than just hearing the finished product, we would like to reward you for your donations with exclusive merchandise and unreleased live and alternate takes that will not be available on streaming services. These rewards are based on a tiered system, as follows:

• $10+: once the album is released, receive a digital copy of the album in Master quality audio, with an exclusive alternate take that will not be available on streaming services.

• $25+: once the album is released, receive a physical copy of the album with 3 exclusive art prints featuring Heather MacLeod’s original artwork and Simeon Davis’s original prose put together in a tarot style. Also receive all the previous tier's rewards.

• $35+: once the album is released, digitally receive an exclusive-to-donors Live version of the album recorded in 2019 with two unreleased compositions, “Mills Lake” (Holly Holt) and “Máscaras” (Ricardo Urbina). Also receive all previous tiers' rewards.

• $50+: once the album is released, receive four exclusive die-cut acrylic pins, a signed poster, and a tote bag featuring Heather MacLeod’s artwork. Also receive all previous tiers' rewards.

 

All tiers have shipping for US, Canada, and Mexico already included.

 

This album in every step was a team effort! The personnel (in score order) are:

Tyler Thomas: Vocals

Jonathan Shier: Trumpet and Flugelhorn

Mario Wellman: Electric Guitar

Holly Holt: Piano and Keyboards

Jake Chaffee: Electric Bass

Josh Parker: Drum Set

Simeon Nathanael Davis: Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, and Composer

with

Rachel Azbell: Vocals

Maximo Santana: Trombone

Jess Meador: Violin

Alex Hand: Electric Guitar and Acoustic Guitar

Aramis Fernandez: Congas

 

All tracks recorded on May 11th, June 7th, and June 14th, 2021 at JEC Studios in Denton, TX, engineered by Jake Chaffee and Austin Martinez. Video recorded live in-studio by Stingray Collective. Mixed and Mastered by Jake Chafee. Produced by Jake Chaffee and Simeon Nathanael Davis.

 

So that you know where your donations are going, what follows is the budget for the promotion and distribution of the album:

 

• Printing CDs: $1,450 - UPDATE: since it's now 2 CDs, printing and artwork edits bring this to $2, 600

• Distribution to radio, press, and web outlets: $450

• Printing merchandise: $900 

• Shipping CDs and merchandise to donors: $500

 

From myself and the band, thank you all for your support in bringing this project to life! I cannot wait for you to experience the worlds in Of Narratives & Nocturnes with us!