Wednesday
Sep282005
the Lord provides...
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 10:54PM
Man, it has been a couple crazy days since I wrote last. I got an absolutely incredible response from my last post. Everybody's willingness to step alongside me and this project has just been overwhelming. I'm going to institute a couple of the ideas that came about over the course of the week.
First of all, I have decided to go ahead and offer pre-orders. Basically, I'll have a paypal link setup through my store, and I'll have your name and address and all pre-orders will be shipped a week before actual release. Even selling a hundred or two of these will cover a lot of the upfront costs for the next couple steps I need to take to get the project finished. I'll be offering a few other "goodies" along with the pre-order as well, but I'm still figuring that out, so I'll let you know when that portion of the site is ready and up.
Secondly, a number of people wrote and said they would love to just send me a few bucks here and there to help out, no strings attached. Honestly, I couldn't believe people's generosity, and it's been so much that I haven't been able to respond to it all yet. Due to so many people wanting to help out in that way, I'm also going to put a place up on the site where you can just send a couple bucks via paypal if you want to. That feels kind of weird, but a lot of you asked me to do it, and I'm not going to say no!
A few other random options have been presented to me, as well, and I'm going to spend a few days thinking and praying through them. It really feels like God just woke me up Monday morning and said, "All right, Andy, time to make this record. I'm going to go ahead and get things rolling for you." Honestly, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to so many of you who sent me ideas, encouragement, and have shared with me your desire to help support my music and my family. It really is an artist's dream to have a community of people take such an ownership of them and their creations. Now I just have to make a killer record!!!
It's going to take a couple days to get all these initial options up and running, so thanks for your patience.
Your encouragement really gave me the courage to start calling around and taking steps forward in a lot of directions this week. I've got a great engineer set to mix now. A guy so brilliant I can't believe he said "yes". I've had conversations with my friend Mark, who'll take the photos, and the guys at Portland Studios, who are going to help with the art and layout. Not only is Chip going to make the changes to the site to help bring in some capital, but his company was very generous in helping provide some much-needed ProTools gear for the process. My next step is lining up some musicians for my next session. I'll keep you posted on all of that. Cason and I are going to meet tomorrow and try to pick out the final list of songs. I've got about 20 or so to choose from. I can guarantee that a few of those not chosen will live on in pre-order world. Again, all of this has happened since Monday morning. Really a breath-taking couple of days. Oh, and a few little album production gigs also came around this week, helping to pay the bills while I'm spending what I raise over here on the record.
My life these last eight years of being a "professional" musician have provided overwhelming evidence for God's being a provider. There have been miracle checks, last-minute gigs, and any number of "there's still a little oil in the pitcher" moments, and this week will rank high in that list.
So thank you so much for your prayer, your support, and really, just your excitement for this project. I can't tell you how much it means to me when I get e-mails from people so jazzed about a new record. I'm humbled and honored, and will keep you all posted. Thanks again, and if you get any more crazy ideas in the middle of the night, feel free to share 'em!
Good night.
First of all, I have decided to go ahead and offer pre-orders. Basically, I'll have a paypal link setup through my store, and I'll have your name and address and all pre-orders will be shipped a week before actual release. Even selling a hundred or two of these will cover a lot of the upfront costs for the next couple steps I need to take to get the project finished. I'll be offering a few other "goodies" along with the pre-order as well, but I'm still figuring that out, so I'll let you know when that portion of the site is ready and up.
Secondly, a number of people wrote and said they would love to just send me a few bucks here and there to help out, no strings attached. Honestly, I couldn't believe people's generosity, and it's been so much that I haven't been able to respond to it all yet. Due to so many people wanting to help out in that way, I'm also going to put a place up on the site where you can just send a couple bucks via paypal if you want to. That feels kind of weird, but a lot of you asked me to do it, and I'm not going to say no!
A few other random options have been presented to me, as well, and I'm going to spend a few days thinking and praying through them. It really feels like God just woke me up Monday morning and said, "All right, Andy, time to make this record. I'm going to go ahead and get things rolling for you." Honestly, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to so many of you who sent me ideas, encouragement, and have shared with me your desire to help support my music and my family. It really is an artist's dream to have a community of people take such an ownership of them and their creations. Now I just have to make a killer record!!!
It's going to take a couple days to get all these initial options up and running, so thanks for your patience.
Your encouragement really gave me the courage to start calling around and taking steps forward in a lot of directions this week. I've got a great engineer set to mix now. A guy so brilliant I can't believe he said "yes". I've had conversations with my friend Mark, who'll take the photos, and the guys at Portland Studios, who are going to help with the art and layout. Not only is Chip going to make the changes to the site to help bring in some capital, but his company was very generous in helping provide some much-needed ProTools gear for the process. My next step is lining up some musicians for my next session. I'll keep you posted on all of that. Cason and I are going to meet tomorrow and try to pick out the final list of songs. I've got about 20 or so to choose from. I can guarantee that a few of those not chosen will live on in pre-order world. Again, all of this has happened since Monday morning. Really a breath-taking couple of days. Oh, and a few little album production gigs also came around this week, helping to pay the bills while I'm spending what I raise over here on the record.
My life these last eight years of being a "professional" musician have provided overwhelming evidence for God's being a provider. There have been miracle checks, last-minute gigs, and any number of "there's still a little oil in the pitcher" moments, and this week will rank high in that list.
So thank you so much for your prayer, your support, and really, just your excitement for this project. I can't tell you how much it means to me when I get e-mails from people so jazzed about a new record. I'm humbled and honored, and will keep you all posted. Thanks again, and if you get any more crazy ideas in the middle of the night, feel free to share 'em!
Good night.
Reader Comments (14)
I'm glad things are moving ahead for you. I look forward to hearing what you come up with!
Excellent. I was actually listening to "Souveniers & Postcards" tonight. Such a great fall album. (But I'm not ready to "let October die" just yet ... some great football waiting to be played before we get to November.)
I'm still interested in that cousin thing, though. teehee.
God is good. It's cool that He can use each of us to do our little part to encourage you.... Now I'm looking forward to a killer record!
God knows just what we need, when we need it. Praise God that He is blessing you with exactly what you needed to get you going!
This is the Body (not the body, but the Body), how it's supposed to work. The older (and supposedly more manure, er, mature ) I get, the more I realize the need, the REQUIREMENT, for each other, for diversity, for "doing life together," not apart, and for togetherness. I don't reallly know you at all (I did meet you in Gardendale), and I still haven't heard much of your music. But the Jesus in me sees and relates to the Jesus in you, and BAM! we're bonded (Col. 3:14 - "Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity").
You are working out God's call on your life. Obviously there are many who are being blessed by it. So keep doing what you're doing, charge full speed ahead when God shows you an opening, and remember that "your labor in the Lord is not in van."
gdale777, I totally agree. Except for your last statement. I've labored in the Lord for many years in a van, and will probably continue to for quite some time...
Andrew,
Great. I'm excited about what has happened over the last few days. For some reason, when I stumbled across your "serious inquiry," I thought you might need some prayer to go with the money needs. Seems that God has things under control more than we choose to know sometimes.
Kevin Schaub
Humility - it's a good thing (I keep telling myself).
This is why I'm in Marketing and not writing.
God bless Andy Osenga
good music *will* be heard.
be encouraged...
Hey, I should set up a three-way phone conversation with you and Allain on this score...
y'all know how to reach me...
awesome. my girl is getting both of your cd's for her birthday to go along with the normals records she already has.
Here at www.wtsbooks.com we're working hard to get Andy's CDs into our store to do our part. Negotiations are ongoing night and day (i.e. Andy and I exchanged one email). Power lunch meetings are being held (i.e. one trip to Denny's, that Andy stood us up on). My people (me) are talking to his people (him)!
God, I love the excitement and adrenaline rush of the high powered worlds of indy music and indy bookselling! Was that my beeper? Gotta go! Chow!
another idea...you could take El Toro around the neighborhood and mow some lawns for some extra cash. watch those hills though...