Background -- Who was Paul?

Like his life, Paul Cobb’s music was unrefined, uncompromising, and most importantly, unfinished. 

This project began soon after Paul’s death in October 2011.  Since then, his friends have coordinated the production and organization of hundreds of recordings.  These recordings will go through both engineering and creative processes. With continued support and respect for the Cobb family, the primary purpose of our group is to produce an album of Paul’s unfinished and unreleased songs on vinyl and cassette (Paul's preferred format).  These songs were left behind in a multitude of recorded mediums and places.  They are under the innocuous and somewhat whimsical name Hammer Screwdriver, (a moniker chosen by Paul for his works, which is derived from his older brother proclaiming upon his birth that "Hammer Screwdriver" would be a good idea for Paul's name).

We, as friends and musical companions of Paul for the past 8 years, feel it is our duty to make available the ideas, musical innovations, and unique spirit of an incredible person.  The members of our group are Adam Gross, Jason Hawes, James Furness, Ben Leslie, Joseph Kilbourn, Ben Bernthal, Steve Trowbridge, and David Strother. We collectively make up the bands Amo Joy and Accordions.  As well as being a founding member of Amo Joy, Paul played the roll of bassist and multi-instrumentalist in both bands.

We are truly doing this for Paul’s family and friends, but it may just turn out that the most important group of people will be the ones that didn’t know Paul at all. Your contribution will echo beyond the songs of Paul.  We realize that music, compared to one’s life and all that it encompasses, can be trivial.  This is our way of providing the ones that loved Paul, including ourselves, with an opportunity to help cope and preserve such a positive influence, and the ones that didn’t know Paul, a chance to discover something that is quite literally at this point, once in a lifetime.

We've also made the unfinished recordings available exactly as Paul left them. If you want to get an idea of the raw potential of these songs, just visit the Hammer Screwdriver bandcamp page to hear what we're working with. Some of the songs are in a rough state, but you'll understand why we want to finish and release this record when you hear them.

This project does not only focus on sharing Paul’s musical creations, but his artwork as well.  Paul was a fantastic artist who filled to capacity numerous sketch books throughout the years.  These sketches, which are more like masterpieces, will be published in a collection with the record.  Fittingly, the album art will be made up of Paul’s sketches. 

Project Details -- How will we do it?

Don Cobb, who is Paul’s Father, did the transferring and pre-production of these recordings in Nashville Tennessee.  The next step is to mix these tracks and record additional material for album cohesiveness.  Once that is complete, the audio will be sent back to Don Cobb in Nashville where he will master the album.  From there we will press the album on vinyl, learn all the songs (as a band), and tour.

The potential implications of this project have been collectively deliberated and contemplated.  To further the scope of this project we expect to tour in areas where Paul has left his previous imprint.  While touring we will coordinate with parks and recreation departments and volunteer in cities the band will play. We will be updating our progress frequently so please stay tuned!

Budget -- Why $10,000?

While meeting to discuss how Paul wanted to finish his songs, we've also been using our experience as DIY musicians to plan financially for how to make this happen in the best way possible.  Based on our extensive research, we came up with the following budget:

As you can see, this budget totals well over our goal of $10,000.  We recognize that our project has multiple aspects, thus priorities based on resources. Album pressing will happen first. Touring length and method may vary. Promotion could be donated and done DIY.  However, our budget is based on the quality that we believe will match the integrity of this creative work.  Therefore, the more money we make beyond our goal, the greater the scope and magnitude of the project will be!  If we should raise over 12,000 or if the album itslef should gross any money from sales, the profits will all either be put back into the album (promotion, more copies, etc,) or will be donated to a charity in coordination with the Cobb family.