Dear Kickstarter Community,

Leonardo Da Vinci once said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." So I'll get right to it. Here's the who, what, when, where, and why.

Who are you?

I'm Matt Phillips. I'm 20. I play with a band called Matt Phillips & the Philharmonic out of Greenville, NC. The band is Gregory Williams, Tre Harrison, Travis Huff, and Connor Mangold - all current/former ECU music majors I met when I went to school there.

What are you doing?

We're making a 10 song album of original music, written by me, arranged with the help of the band, and produced by Ian Schreier. Our music resembles pop, but it touches on jazz, blues, funk, and folk. And, after making my first record with Ian, it became clear to us both that my music would sound better with the full band arrangement. So, after months of planning, rehearsal, and pre-production, we're going into the studio to record our first album. We're tracking the bulk of it live and hoping to become a better band in the process.

When does this go down?

Rehearse through late March. Record in early April. Once it's mixed, we do several months worth of paperwork. We want it in your hands by summer.

Where are you recording?

Manifold Recording - it's where I recorded, Bones, my solo EP. After interning there after high school graduation, I can't imagine a better place to make our first group record. Beautiful and incredibly versatile, Manifold is a place that inspires great performances and captures them unlike any other.

Why?

During my internship, I watched Ian work with a huge range of musicians. Classical, choral, jazz, prog, and pop. And after he made Bones with me, I understood why people came to him from all genres. Put simply, Ian knows what sounds good. As we agreed to move forward on the band record, he decided that he wanted us to record our parts together, "live in studio."

As we began to rehearse the songs with him, soaking up production knowledge one eight-hour practice at a time, we remembered why we had never been in a rush to get into the studio before. If our study of music had taught us anything, the only way to get better is to practice. We didn't feel like we were ready to make a great record, so we put our noses to the grind stone and did our homework. And because of the effort of the whole team, we're ready to deliver a performance worth recording.

We couldn't be more excited to make this music for you.





Special thanks to:

Jake Hollander of Lazy Mode Comics for the awesome heart logo! (facebook.com/lazymodecomics)



Brian DeContrerras for directing the promo video (deconfilms.com) (Also Mady Noel Tompkins, Logan Bennett, and Samuel Myers for extra footage.)

Matt Bigelow for helping us get the project up and running.

and Ian Schreier for being our producer, life coach, and our friend.