Short summary
I am Oganalp Canatan, creator of the power-progressive metal project Maegi and singer of the bands Dreamtone and Dreamtone & Iris Mavraki's Neverland. For over a decade, I have been active in metal music scene. With my bands, I released 8 studio albums and singles and had the chance to tour Europe, share the stage with names like Blind Guardian, Dream Theater, Anathema, Opeth and more. And I had the chance to work with talented musicians from different bands like Hansi Kürsch (of Blind Guardian), Tim Ripper Owens (of ex. Judas Priest and Iced Earth), Jon Oliva (of Savatage, JoP and Trans Siberian Orchestra) and many more.
I am not a touring artist and album sales are never enough to compensate the album expenses, set aside make a living. In the past, I was able to juggle my finances, even if at a bare minimum, and produce albums on my own by doing everything on my own (from design to accounting, engineering to playing and singing, sending packages to PR). However, because of economic instability of my country - I live in Turkey - against Euro and USD currencies, it became impossible to sustain this balance even if I do everything on my own. Therefore, I am in need of your help to be able to complete the second Maegi album; Tales from the King's Court.
Where does the money go?
Here is a short list of expenses and why they are needed to be able to complete the project.
- The average cost of recording an album in a good studio environment takes around 5.000 USD. This includes studio rates, session player expenses and equipment. I am willing to work with a rather well known drummer for progressive metal fans and to be able to achieve this, I need to be able to pay the studio.
- About 2.000 USD is needed for an album with 11 tracks to be mastered with quality. I am hoping to work with Sterling Sound NY as I did in the past in order to be able to present you the best possible outcome.
- And another 3.000 USD is needed to be able to manufacture the albums, including the legal paperwork and expenses regarding the pressing of the CDs as well as the booklets and artwork.
- A certain amount from these sums (around 15 - 20%) will be deducted as tax and campaign expenses of IndieGoGo.
I will also try and add as much as I can to the pool and raise the necessary sums.
What if you exceed these amounts as income?
Here are some tiers to be added if we exceed the necessary amounts. These expenses are rough (but educated) estimates.
- 12.000 USD -> better mixing with an industry
known sound engineer.
- 16.000 USD -> a music video for one of the
songs of you, the listeners' pick!
- 25.000 USD -> a big choir company added to
the album
- 35.000 USD -> a vinyl version of the album
If things go way uber and we manage to raise even more, I am sure we can find an artistic way to best spend these funds like a 3rd Maegi album or more production values, etc.
Why your help matters more than worlds?
I was involved in music all my life and I always wanted to present people my music as an album they can listen to and discover long after its production date. Nowadays, it is mostly about making home-made music videos and going online. I respect that, but it is not who I am. I want to create an album, a story or stories to tell you and share them with you. With your help, this can happen.
I work as a graphical designer and the money I make is not even enough to keep the house afloat if we didn't work together with my SO. In the past, I was able to produce my albums with some careful financial planning and lots, LOTS of hardwork. The planning and hard working traits are still there, but since our currency lost almost 40% of its value against USD in the last few years, it is no longer an option to fight everything on my own. Together, we can win this battle.
For those who are not familiar with my name, here are some artists who appeared on my previous albums as guests, helping me tell my stories;
- Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian)
- Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger)
- Tim Ripper Owens (ex. Judas Priest, ex. Iced Earth)
- Zak Stevens (Savatage, Circle II Circle)
- Jon Oliva (Savatage, Jon Oliva's Pain, Trans Siberian Orchestra)
- Jerry Outlaw (ex. Jon Oliva's Pain, Bogus Pomp)
- Tom Englund (Evergrey)
- Mike Baker (Shadow Gallery)
- Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery)
- Edu Falaschi (ex. Angra)
- Urban breed (ex. Tad Morose, Serious Black)
I was also a member of AFM Records family with my band Dreamtone & Iris Mavraki's Neverland. As a musician, with my bands, I had the privilege of sharing stage with Opeth, Dream Theater, Blind Guardian, Anathema, Evergrey, Haggard, UDO, Megadeth, Destruction, Jon Oliva's Pain and more.
Album guests
Maegi’s
Skies Fall had guests. I would be happy to feature new names with the second
disc but I am leaving this option outside of this campaign as the appearance of
a guest is highly dependent on the artists involved rather than me and it may
affect the production calendar. For example, when we were working with Hansi
Kürsch (Blind Guardian) for the first time back in 2007, he had to postpone his
recordings six times due to various reasons (even a tornado hit the studio he
was recording once!). Therefore, I am willing to reserve this “aspect” of the
album as a possible surprise. There may be guests or I may be the only artist
performing the album. In any case, I will try and present you the very best. (Hint: if we can pull this off, there are some names I am already talking to ;) )
Risks & challenges
The album production will be completed no matter what as I
am a seasoned producer and artist with already 8 releases under my belt and as
a musician who had worked with metal music’s important names in the past, near
to other contributions on different artists’ albums. I am also an endorsed Steinberg artist. The aim of this campaign
is to collect the funds necessary forehand to be able to create the artistic
freedom rather than doing more accounting than recording.
The majority of the recordings will be done in my own home
studio, therefore the accessibility and production time will be as productive
as possible. The album artwork is already being done by Yiğit Köroğlu, who also did the cover arts for Maegi's first album and my first book. Certain preliminary dialogues with other studios for the
“better mixing option” milestone was already underway long before this campaign and as I stated earlier, I already have one hell of a drummer to work with if things go well. Therefore, this album is
happening.
The only risk is that, people may not like my music and
there is nothing I can do about it as it is a matter of taste. However, as this
is neither Maegi’s nor my first album, the listeners can have an insight about
how the album will sound. There are also demo-session videos available to better
judge the process and I will upload more following the campaign.
Oh, it is a possibility that I may be ran over by a car or killed by some freak accident. If that is the case, well, thank you for reading this wall of text and supporting my dream =).
Release Date
This may be a challenge with lots of production values
added. However, the last time for Maegi’s first album and the collector’s
edition box (with a novella as well), without any funds raised, I was able to
release the album with two months delay, which was announced way forehand as a
possibility due to the calendar hitting the holiday season and certain third
party organizations and services were unavailable due to holidays (like the Ministry of Culture's Copyright department, which is responsible for authorizing the necessary legal certificate of printing an audio CD)
You cannot contribute financially but want to help?
You can share the campaign, tell people about it. Share its videos, news, music and reach out to new listeners that I cannot. This is not a piggy bank campaign, we are making an album together and every effor counts!
