The Spiritual and Bodily Healing of "They Are the Shield"

Hello everyone, there has been a fortunate turn of events recently regarding an important work of mine, "They Are the Shield." The presiding label, Blood Music, offered to sell the album's rights back to me and fully sever our relationship. I welcomed the news with open arms—my experience working with them was abysmal and actually traumatic, in the real sense of the word.

Their plan is to remove the album from streaming services, leaving it to me to redistribute it. Fantastic, in my opinion. It would be easy for me to just reupload the album at any time, but I'd like to seize this opportunity to give the album a new life, since its previous life was hindered in so many ways.

My primary intention here is to remove my ex's voice from the song, "Scaffold of Digital Snow," one of the greatest in my catalogue, and her presence from the album entirely. Without getting into it too deeply, she was a profoundly abusive and destructive force in my life. Her presence on the album is a sign of her abuse—she coerced me through threats of violence to include her on the album. She insisted that the song is about her, though it is not; it is about my Self. At the end of our relationship, she maliciously and vengefully sowed discord across many of my closest friendships. She caused me to lose myself in a deep hole and to isolate my soul from the world for a long time. She does not belong in this sacred song.

My plan is to re-record the vocals for "Scaffold of Digital Snow" myself, as was heard in live contexts many times. Following this, I would remix the entire album, once again with Marc Urselli at EastSide Sound so that we can get as close to the original sound of the album as possible. The previous versions of the songs will be removed from official distribution, and I would like to distribute the new version of the album as soon as possible, hopefully in late summer or early fall to coincide with my other forthcoming releases.

The fundraiser aims to raise at minimum:

$1500.00 to buy back the album rights

$1000.00 to remix at EastSide Sound

$650.00 to remaster for distribution

If we raise beyond that amount, 100% of the extra funds will go towards paying each of the performing musicians a bit more, as everyone involved worked on that album for very cheap.

"They Are the Shield" had quite a bit of bad luck and bad energy surrounding it throughout its life, and I'm hoping to repair some of that spiritual damage. I ask for your kind wishes, prayers, and energetic avatars to lift this music from its hole. If you can help in any way, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Love,

Toby