Marissa Nadler Turns to Kickstarter to Fund Fifth Album

Like Gang of Four, Public Enemy and Jenny Owen Youngs, charming goth-folk singer Marissa Nadler is turning to project-donation site Kickstarter to fund her next record. Nadler was recently dropped from Kemado Records after 2009's 'Little Hells,' and rather than recording demos for a new label, she's looking to raise $11,000 by Dec. 9. So far, over $4,000 has been donated towards studio time and tapes.

"I wanted to try something new in terms of getting the recording made," Nadler tells Spinner. "I had been waiting for a while already for a number of reasons and I didn't want to wait anymore or keep people that have been longtime supporters from getting to hear the new songs. I didn't want to wallow in stasis waiting for things to fall out of the sky in order to make a new full-length record. Idle hands are indeed the devil's plaything."

Like all other Kickstarter projects, different levels of donations come with different levels of incentives for would-be backers. At the basic $10 level, you get a download of the new record a month before street date, and at the $5,000 level, Nadler will give you a whole host of goodies, plus write a song for you and play a private house show for you, as long as you live in the continental United States.

"Technological advances in the music industry have many good sides and many bad sides," she says. "One of the positives is that the internet is putting some control back in the hands of the artist. I am not opposed to a label jumping on board, but I wanted the recording to be funded this way. I wanted to try this time to actually own my master recordings. I was really not well-schooled on certain things when I was younger."

Nadler has achieved heaps of critical praise over the years for her first four albums. At the beginning of her career, there was a noticeable lo-fi quality about the sound, but with 'Little Hells,' Nadler found herself exploring dreamy, melodic layering. She expects her new album to stem from that a bit, with intimacy playing a central part this time. "The new songs are more melodically complex and also more spacious," she says. "The lyrics are more personal, and many of the songs have to do with a grand concept. The songs are very vocally centric but a major difference I anticipate between this record and 'Little Hells' is that it will be more intimate."