Paul Moak And Picking Out Songs

By on May 9, 2012 in Inside The Tent

The process of making a new record continues in the world of Big Tent. This past week Paul Moak signed on as our producer and we couldn’t be more excited.

Paul is a great guy, a great musician and a great producer…. And he has really cool hair. What more do you need?

Oh… he has a killer studio called The Smoakstack and the kind of vintage gear this band loves to record music with. Perfect!!!

Check out Paul’s site here. Once you read through his credits, you will see why we are excited to be working with such a talented guy.

As for the songs we are going to record?

We are filtering through about 20 songs right now. Each member of the band is making his own list of which songs have higher priority than others… sound like a hit… will provided a great moment on the record…

We want to make a record that makes you want to listen to all of it… not just some of it.

So over the next two months we will be working through these songs and prepping them for July which is when we will start recording.

Can you believe it? July… it’s going to be a fun month!

Comments { 1 }

The Next Steps….

By on April 24, 2012 in Inside The Tent

Well, you did it! You helped us fund our kickstarter campaign. Now that the campaign is over we are off and running into the next steps in the process.

Last week we met about those next steps and it looks like this.

Currently we are looking at different studios around Nashville and Franklin and narrowing down a producer for the new music. Finding the right producer can always be a challenging. In the past we had some say in who are producers were and we loved working with all of them. But this time, since we are doing all of this on our own, it’s just the five of us talking through pros and cons of what we are really looking for in a producer. I think the difficult part of the decision making is we are friends with most of the producers we are considering and no one ever wants to turn down a friend.

However, all of these producers are pros and can handle whatever decision we make.

As we are talking through studios and producers we are also walking through some song selection again. Steve Wiggins has been writing some great songs again and I think there might be a couple of fun surprises thrown in before it’s all released.

Needless to say… the whole process has us getting more excited about it all with every step we take.

So… If you wouldn’t mind, we could use some prayer as we make these decisions together and walk out what we feel like is going to be an important part of our story as a band and as friends.

Comments { 3 }

Thank You!! We Have One More Week!!

By on April 12, 2012 in Inside The Tent

You… our friends… were responsible for meeting our fundraising goal and then some!

Big Tent didn’t do this… YOU DID!

And we couldn’t be more thankful for your donations.

By the way, we want to show you a mock up of the T-Shirt we are sending some of our backers. Those of you that opted to for the $75 donation and higher will get a “I helped put the tent back up!’ t-shirt. It will be a short run of shirts so if you haven’t donated or want to increase your donation… You still have time.

For the rest of this week, we are still going to push for more donations. The more money we raise, the more we can spend on the little extras to make this recording that much better. It’s that simple.

We honestly can’t believe it. For the first time in 13 years we are going to record new music, but this time, YOU are part of the process.

At this point, this band of 5 feels like a band of 300. You all have played your role in the Big Tent Family and it’s about to be our turn to do our part in this effort we’ve been able to do together… with you. When we get into the studio in the next couple of months, we will be bringing you lots of updates and behind the scenes photos, videos and info so you don’t miss a thing.

We want you with us every step of the way.

Again thank you and let’s keep going until the campaign closes April 20, 2012 at 2:00pm Central!!

Comments { 0 }

Come Help Us Put The Tent Back Up!

By on March 15, 2012 in Inside The Tent

Where to begin?

Let’s start two years ago in Franklin, Tenn. We were rehearsing for a 10 year reunion show at a worship conference. Very soon after playing through a few songs, we starting talking about how fun it would be to record again but couldn’t figure out how to pay for it. The answer to our quandary came with Kickstarter. We LOVE Kickstarter because the fans get to participate in the process and we don’t owe a thing to a record label. Instead, we owe YOU, our fans and supporters…to whom we’ve always owed a great deal of gratitude. (awww…single tear)

There’s literally NO PRESSURE on us. We have no obligations to labels, publishers, managers, booking agents…no one. Our only obligation is to YOU. With that in mind, our goal is to simply enjoy ourselves and make you proud.

So you’re asking “Sheesh, $28,000 is a LOT of money.” Yes it is. And we don’t have it. But, if a lot of you give a little bit, we’ll be ready to rock.

The money we raise will be spent wisely, but it has to go a L-O-N-G way. Beyond things like recording studio rentals, producer and engineer fees, other musicians, mixing and mastering, we’re also going to need funding to create artwork, do a photo shoot, duplicate the CD, fly Spence and Steve to Nashville, etc. We can assure you, this is a shoestring budget and we promise no caviar lunch jet rides.

We’ve tried to come up with what we think are some fun awards for our backers, but mainly we wanted to make sure that you get your money’s worth in downloads, t-shirts, Skype calls…even private concerts.

NOTE: In any particular level, you can donate more dollars. For instance, if you want the awards at the $50 level, but really want to give $1,000…you can do that.  We see no problem with that whatsoever. Honestly.

BUT…there’s good news and not-so-good news. The good news is that if we raise OVER our goal, we get to keep the extra funds. That means higher quality everything, plus the ability to hire a publicist, maybe hire a radio promoter, print up some new merchandise, revamp our old touring gear, etc. Now, the not-so-good part: If we don’t raise the TOTAL amount of our goal, we get ZERO. Nada, zilch, nothing. No CD, no reunion shows, no caviar lunches on private jets. That’s a sad thing, right? Right.

Also, no money will be collected (your card will not be charged) until the campaign ends at 2 p.m. CST, Friday April 20 and ONLY if we meet our goal of $28,000.

So, what can YOU do? “LIKE” this on Facebook. Click to Tweet the heck out of this campaign! Post a link on your Facebook page. Post a link on your friends’ walls, make an announcement at church, pass out flyers at political rallies. Whatever you have to do to get the word out, we need you to do that for us.

Thanks so much for supporting this new record and be sure to go to check back here for more updates, news, and schedules.

Yours and HIS,

Steve W, Spence, Dave, Steve D, and Randy.

Comments { 8 }