Katagory V Indiegogo campaign

[Dustin]

Hey everyone,

I know there were a few people on this board that were interested in the progress (or updates) on the new album... which has been compelted since 2011.

Without going into the polotics of it all (which is expalined in the campaign already) We have launced this crowdsourcing campaign to try and get it financed and self-released. We did not want to have to go this route, but we had little choice.. otherwise the 5th album would never be released.

The campaign is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help ... t-released

Please drop by the campaign , spread the word to other Katagory V fans that might not know about it yet, and/or tell other true U.S. metal fans that might like Katagory V, to visit the campaign and contribute!

Hope everyone here is doing well - cheers!!!

Oh, and here is the press release for it:

Katagory V launches Indiegogo campaign for unreleased fifth album.

After a three-year hiatus, Salt Lake City, Utah's progressive/power metal veterans KATAGORY V have launched an Indiegogo campaign for their long-awaited fifth album, "Resurrect the Insurgence."

Commented bassist/songwriter and founding member Dustin Mitchell: "The rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated, albeit somewhat true just the same. It has been three years since we finished recording the fifth album. Back in 2011, we shared a few previews of the songs with updates concerning the album's release, and then….nothing. This album was slated to be released in the spring of 2012, but, ever so quietly, Katagory V AND the new album just disappeared from existence."

"It is a very long story as to why this happened, and we explain how this three-year hiatus came about in the bio of our Indiegogo campaign. What is important now is that we are proactively trying to get this album released before we die of old age (or untreated syphilis!)."

"We put a lot -- and I mean A LOT -- of our own money and time into creating what we feel is the best and most sonically powerful Katagory V album to date. It was a very expensive, long, and painstaking process, yet at the same time, an extremely fun experience and one of the best recording sessions for everyone involved. We certainly feel that it would be a total waste if we just shelved this album without giving it a chance to be released upon the world. We still have two full-length songs from 'Resurrect the Insurgence' available for preview on YouTube: [i]'Far Too Long' and 'I Am Change.' Feel free to check them out!"

"As for the future of Katagory V? Well, a lot has changed over the last three years, both within the band and the music industry, and we are taking it one step at a time. The first step is getting this album out. If we can do that…we shall see about taking the next step."

"So without further delay, we present to you the 'Resurrect the Album' campaign! This album is done -- recorded, mixed, and mastered; it just needs to be tagged and bagged. We are finally blowing the dust off of it, and it just needs that extra financial kick to get the minor details of graphics, artwork, pressing, and distribution costs worked out. We have a lot of great perks, including pre-orders of the album, Skype lessons with Kris and Bizzaro, even Albert coming to your house and cooking you chicken parmigian while singing classic Italian love songs…well, maybe not that last one, but we really do have cool perks. So please drop by the campaign, check it out, and help us 'Resurrect the Album!'"[/i]

Click the link to view campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help ... t-released

"Resurrect the Insurgence" was produced and engineered by long-time bassist and songwriter Dustin Mitchell and mixed and mastered by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Unisonic, Primal Fear) in 2011.

[Ulle]

Hey Dustin!
I think we already have some supporters here:
http://www.board.sacredmetal.de/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6849&p=463351&hilit=katagory#p463261

Thumbs up

[Dustin]

Hey Dustin!
I think we already have some supporters here:
http://www.board.sacredmetal.de/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6849&p=463351&hilit=katagory#p463261

Thumbs up

Excellent!!! Thanks Ulle

Here is the latest news -


KATAGORY V: 40 days left – new campaign perks added! Own a piece of the band… literally!

Hello everyone,

Just an update to let you know that there are only 40 days left on the bands Indiegogo campaign, and we are only at 13% of our goal. To sweeten the deal, we have added several new perks, including the return of the bootleg DVD included in the new honorary, silver and gold packages, (one of which even includes a rare original copy of the out-of-print debut album “Present Day”!) and there is also a WTF!? Perk… Yes, the name says it all. It’s strange, funny, stupid, disgusting and mildly morbid. Who out there dares take the WTF!? Perk? Probably no one in their right mind, but it’s there and for real!

Stop by the indiegogo campaign and see what it’s all about!

For all our fans outside of the U.S. – you can still contribute as we accept all forms of currency for this campaign. Any perk you pick also includes shipping to anywhere in the world!

For those that have already contributed, THANK YOU!!!!!

We are calling on our fans to help us make this happen – please contribute if you would like to see the 5th album “Resurrect the Insurgence” released – If you cannot contribute, or already have, be sure to share our campaign, our YouTube videos or our message with all the other metal fans out there – via email, twitter, or facebook!

Webzines, magazines, news outlets and media – please contact the band at katagory5 (at) msn (dot) com for interview inquiries, or for more information concerning the ‘Resurrect the Album’ campaign.

[Hugin]

Maybe this will help gathering a few more people joining the campaign or spreading the news:
http://powermetal.de/news/news-KATAGORY ... 34694.html

[Acurus-Heiko]

Hoffentlich klappt das mit dem Album. Richtig gut sieht es nicht aus. Hier die neusten Infos:

New perks added!!!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help ... t-released

Less than 40 days left and we are still not even half way to our goal… now is the time to get in and make it happen before time runs out! Remember to share the campaign with everyone you know and get the word out!

$100 - Vocal lessons with Albert: Yes, you get Albert all to yourself for pointers, tips and tricks on how to develop a golden voice, all via Skype. If you are in the Chicago area, he will come to you for a lesson in person! You also get your name in the album, pre-order for the CD, the Bootleg DVD… and Albert!

$100 - Hathanbruck Photography: Our new sponsor, the very talented Mike Hathanbruck, is donating 8x10 prints of you choice. You also get your name in the album, pre-order for the CD, the Bootleg DVD and a Hathenbruck Photo for your wall! Please stop by his gallery and look a t his fantastic work, and take your pick! https://www.facebook.com/mhathenbruck

$100 - Studio Session with Dustin: Want some bass lines laid down to one of your songs? With this perk you can have Dustin track bass to one of your songs! Or, do want to have him play on your whole album? Then buy up all 10 perks! You get your name in the album, pre-order for the CD, Bootleg DVD and Dustin throwing down some bass to YOUR music… winning! *must have your music quantized, prepared and sent in a Pro Tools session or separate tracks quantized and submitted in WAV. format if not recorded in Pro Tools. Must be submitted via hightail or dropbox. Also,

The $350 Holy F'n Grail perk has already been claimed!!! Now THAT is dedication - If this campaign succeeds, this individual will get the ultimate swag bundle which includes the VERY rare, out-of-print and original copy of the "Present Day" album!

…anyon e think they can top that and get the WTF!? perk??? \m/

[birdrich]

Mal ganz neutral. Die band jammert und bittet um Geld. Haben die auch mal darüber nachgedacht, selbst die Kohle zu organisieren?
Es gibt 1000 Möglichkeiten, wenn man sich nicht zu fein dafür ist.
Ich finde das einfach nur peinlich.
Zurück zum thread: Ich besitze und liebe alle Alben der band. Ein neues Album wäre geil...aber allein der Kauf sollte reichen. Da muss ich mich doch nicht selbst finanzieren.
Das war es auch zum Thema...und bitte keine Kommentare...bitte!!!

[Dustin]

Hey guys - Here is a quick update.

Time remaining until Katagory V's indiegogo campaign ends - Less than three days

We only have met 49% of our goal amount as of now. We need a minimum of over 190+ people to pitch in $15 for a pre-order of the album to make our goal in these THREE DAYS!!!

It is highly unlikely we will meet our goal in such a short time frame... so, it has now become a countdown to the official END of Katagory V and the 5th album. There is still time - but it will take a miracle at this point.

We want to thank everyone who has pitched in and supported us thus far over the 60 day campaign! Thank you so much for trying to help get the new album released!

...now, we wait for our end to come.

[Hugin]

Dear Dustin,

with all due respect, I think you should not link the fate of the album or even the fate of your whole band to the result of that crowdfunding project.

Throughout the history of music there have been artists who had to struggle hard to raise the funds for their musical aims, without the possibility of starting a crowdfunding project online. Hundreds of bands have saved their salary from dayjobs over several years to finally get the stuff done. And I remember a quite prominent guy who recently borrowed 10K from his sister to get the producer paid.

You've said the album is already recorded and completed. Why would the $ 3K not be enough to get an album released, that's already finished? And even if you demand high standards concerning production, mix, layout, artwork, whatever... is it impossible to give the baby some more time, until the funds are there to get the thing started?

You've already got 90 people willing to pre-pay for your project. That's quite a lot, these days, I'd say. 3.000 bucks within 2 months? Hey! That actually IS something, and it MEANS something. Statistically speaking 33,33 US$ per supporter. In advance. For one album! Just for the sake of supporting your band! And we're talking about an age and time, where you could order 6 classics from Maiden or Priest via Amazon altogether for the same price, postage paid?

All of the above is not meant to put you down. Rather quite the opposite is the case. I'd love to see the band go on, and I'd love to see you get your album released the way you would want it to sound and look like. But I don't think it should depend on the amount of crowdfunding support alone, whether the album and the band may live or will die.

So I hope you might reconsider and find another way to achieve your aim to get your album out to the fans!

All the best,
Rüdiger.

[Dustin]

Thank you for the advice and support Rüdiger, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Katagory V closing it's doors wasn't entirely due to the campaign failing by itself… it was due to the band no longer being financially sustainable to operate looking forward. The point of the campaign was to see if the band was still relevant and if we had a large enough fan base to support us and continue on. We are not doing this to make money, however, it still costs money to create our music, and even though it does not cost much money to do it… it still is expensive enough to make it difficult for the band to continue.

Here is the "behind the scene" story - Maybe it will shed some light on the decision to why I put Katagory V to rest:

The band actually broke up about 3 years ago… it was never officially announced, we just quietly passed on. This happened due to becoming disappointed with shopping the new album for over a year, and having no label interest, then the economy going to shit, and no one in the band being able to afford to even buy drums heads or guitar strings, let alone have the money to release the album ourselves and compete on the level of our past albums or among our peers. Thus, why there was no news for a very long time before the campaign started.

Earlier this year, all the band members in Katagory V started talking about wanting to release the 5th album somehow, and felt a crowd sourcing campaign would be the best and only option. We honestly thought that because we had sold between 500-1000 units each of our past albums (not including digital sales), that getting about 300+ of those fans to contribute the bare minimum of $15 would be no problem. If the campaign succeeded, we would continue on… if it failed, we would then officially disband.

So as you can see, we only had 90 people contribute… granted, that si still good, and some of them were die-hard and contributed a lot more than others, but it just wasn't enough. This showed us that we are no longer relevant, that we have lost touch with our fan base and that heavy metal fans were no longer interested in Katagory V.

It also did not help that most of the usual media outlets refused to post any news on the campaign. Only a few places did so when there was three days left, but by then it was almost too late. We had to rely on our mailing list, Social media and our fans to spread the word.

What we found the most interesting in the end, was that over the years, a majority of our past albums sales and fans were always located in Europe - Germany and Greece to be specific. Yet, this is how the contributions broke down at the end -

78% - United States
11% - Mexico/South America
4% - Germany
3% - Greece
2% - Scandinavia
2% - other

…this totally surprised us. It was a total contradiction to what we had known. The only thing we can think of was that there was a possible language barrier for our non-english speaking fans, and they didn't understand or know what was going on.

Anyway, yes since the album is indeed recorded, mixed and mastered, we are currently discussing (or rather, the other band members are trying to convince me) about releasing the 5th album as digital-only. I am looking at the options on this and will think about it over the next few weeks. If I do allow this, I might even allow the ofical release the 1st album "Present Day" as a digital only re-release as well, which has not happened yet… so that could be good. :-)

In the meantime, I am taking a small vacation and will being working on two new studio projects with some of the former members of Katagory V at the beginning of 2015. Hopefully there will also be some new music/news from Tramontane (with former members of Kat V and Imagika). So, it's not really the end… just a new beginning. :-)

Cheers!
Dustin

[Hugin]

Hi Dustin,

thanks for your detailed reply and sorry for the very late answer. I somehow seem to have missed your entry.

However, I hope that some day the album will become available to your loyal fans.

As far as the reason for the rather small support of your campaign over here in Europe is concerned, I don't really have an explanation. I don't think it's the language barrier. At least here in Germany, most people should know English well enough to participate in such an enterprise. However, crowd-funding in general might not be as popular over here, yet, as it is States-sides. And well, yes, I actually think that finding 300 pre-paying fans for such a campaign is a pretty hard task anyways.

If we get that stripped down to relevance, I don't think you really can measure the relevance of a band by the fans' participation in such a campaign. Many people might have or would've bought your album once they see it in the shelves or mailorder lists, but pre-paying is still a different thing for many people. And it's always doubtful, whether all potential fans really notice that there's such a campaign running. There's so much information flooding metal fans these days, with all those bands, releases, facebook-pages, labels etc... that a smaller band can get overlooked way too easily. That's sad, but it's an inevitable side effect of the immense growth of the scene in terms of recording and releasing artists.

Anyways, your reasons for putting the band to rest, are in a way understandable, if it's that hard to keep it going, especially financially.

So I want to close with the best wishes for the future, and maybe, if times might seem better economically, there's another chance for KATAGORY V.

All the best,
Rüdiger.

[Dustin]

Thank you so much for your kind words Rüdiger :-)

I totally agree with you and feel that those are very likely scenarios as well.

We shall see how things go over the next few months. Now that it is 2015 and I have had time to reflect on how to proceed, I am confident that the new album will be released in Digital format this year, possibly on Bandcamp exclusively.

This will more or less be done for the fans that really wanted to hear the new album no matter what the outcome was. I am aware that there are many (including myself) who would like to see a proper CD or Vinyl release, but it would be years for that to financally happen without label support. so... the digital release will at least be done to offically close the final chapter of Katagory V.

Aside from the 5th album, I am currently working on the publishing and licensing rights to the back-catalauge so that I have more control over the distribution and licensing for the albums online. With that said, if there is a change in the music industry to where it is financially viable to continue, if there areinterests from prospective label partners, and there is a strong demand by Katagory V fans to release more music and/or play live, then there is always a chance that the band will return. However, it appears none of those things are going to happen right now, so it will be a very long time before Katagory V can continue on. :-)

[Siebi]

He's alive, welcome back, Dustin. You were deeply missed. Your music too.
Hopefully we're able to hear the forthcoming album in spite of Download version only. The debut is still long awaited on a physically medium as well. Hope to hearing good news from Katagory V in the near future.

There's always a chance to return no matter what the industry does or the next big thing will be. Is it all about money and financial aspects? Trust in yourself and the music not the business. There are much more musicians with dayjobs and familiy issues, so do not hesitate to carry on. By the way, all the best so far, my support won't last and will stay forever, cheers!

[Loomis]

Dustin, may I ask, how many discs you would do or how much money you think it would cost?
I'm not an expert here, but I know many bands who did an edition of 500 or 1000 CDs on their own, without a label.
Just last week I got a CD of a young band, all in their early 20s and they released a real silver pressed CD with 12 page full colored booklet, so I can't imagine that it costs a fortune, when the music itself is already completely done and mixed...?

[Dustin]

He's alive, welcome back, Dustin. You were deeply missed. Your music too.
Hopefully we're able to hear the forthcoming album in spite of Download version only. The debut is still long awaited on a physically medium as well. Hope to hearing good news from Katagory V in the near future.

There's always a chance to return no matter what the industry does or the next big thing will be. Is it all about money and financial aspects? Trust in yourself and the music not the business. There are much more musicians with dayjobs and familiy issues, so do not hesitate to carry on. By the way, all the best so far, my support won't last and will stay forever, cheers!

Yes, I am Alive!
Thank you for the words of support!

I am one that believes in the motto "never say never" - However, I just turned 39 years old, so hopefully it doesnt' take 10 years as I will be in my 50's when the band reforms LOL! Yes, it is more based on the financial aspect, but also about having the time to commit to it, along with changes in real life with added responsibilities. As a single father living on a single income with a child, I cannot afford to put money into the music if it is not going to pay itself back relativley quick. I have to take care of being a responsible father first, which has been far more rewarding. I don't regret having to make this decision at all... although I admit that I really miss writing and playing music with my metal brothers.

speaking of the debute album... I am looking at a legal and offical release of it digitally along with the 5th album this year. However, I am also considering a limited Edition vinyl version for 2016 if I can financailly make it happen. If a label were to contact me to licence the debute album for vinyl release before I do it myself, I would be game for that as well.

[Dustin]

Dustin, may I ask, how many discs you would do or how much money you think it would cost?
I'm not an expert here, but I know many bands who did an edition of 500 or 1000 CDs on their own, without a label.
Just last week I got a CD of a young band, all in their early 20s and they released a real silver pressed CD with 12 page full colored booklet, so I can't imagine that it costs a fortune, when the music itself is already completely done and mixed...?

We were going to do a run of 1,000. There are not many places here in the U.S. that will do less than a 1,000 run for replication without it becoming very expensive. For a 1,000 run with 12 page color booklet it ranges from $1,800-$2,200 depending on the manufacturing plant, including shipping charges. Plus, we still do not have the artwork/graphics layout... which can cost between another $800-$1500 depending on who is hired out to do it properly.

So... it's an easy $3,000-$3500+ which is actually a lot of money to come up with for one person. None of the current band members are obligated to contribute nor have the finances to do so; I am the sole propritor of the Katagory V band, thus the financial responsibilites falls soley on myself.

This is why we had to run a campaign to raise the money, and why the band was put to rest when it failed. :-)