Ghosts & Shadows – She Makes War Music, ramblings and recommendations

SMW to win £20K? Why You Should Vote Now…

It's a crucial week for She Makes War. I have a very real shot at a very big prize, a sum of money that would pay for the album recording, videos, European tour, CD manufacturing, artwork printing and the next EP recording, loosely planned for October.

I need your help!

To get in to the next stage of the Max It Challenges competition to win £20,000 I need you to vote as many times as you can until 11th July. You can vote every day from your Twitter / MySpace / YouTube / Facebook account, which means if you hold all four accounts you can actually vote four times per day. The awesome "Scared To Capsize" video, a collaboration between myself and Judy Jacob, starring my friends Bennycrime, Bass and Kat Bax, currently stands in third position and I truly believe it deserves to win!

Here is what I plan to do with the winnings:

TOTAL SUM: £20,000

£1000 = split between two charities - Red Cross and Madre
£3000 = pay off part of album recording and associated costs
£2000 = bump up the pay for all video cast and crew so far, who have all worked for free or low pay because they're lovely and supportive and like what I'm trying to do
£3000 = travel costs, food and lodging for my planned European tour in September (two of us are travelling on InterRail)
£5000 = in the pot for future recording, the plan is to do a series of EPs starting with one in October / November

That leaves £6000 left over to use on the remaining ten videos to accompany the album tracks plus to pay for duplication and printing of approximately 200 copies of the album and associated videos on CDs/DVDs with fancy artwork to be given away for FREEEEEE along with other expressions of my gratitude including a series of webcasts, posters, photographs and other goodies.

Independent artists rarely get the opportunity to work with sums like this, and it's tantalisingly in my reach. I would be soooo grateful if you gave me that chance. I do my very best to continue to produce quality content for everyone interested in my music to enjoy for free and will continue to do so regardless of whether I win this competition or not, but it would be so much easier with a bit of capital behind me.

So please…vote now!