Video #2 - Bass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGgGIvMMJow

First video from the studio!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ketpWuatEYI


Dear friends!

Our special "Thank You!" page is open!

http://sunband.uz/en/friends/

We really do appreciate your help!

Our campaign is over, dear friends!

Thanks to all of you - contributors, viewers and visitors!
You helped us to reach our dream!
We didn't reach our goal - 3200$, but it's not a catastrophe!
We will start recording with 605$, and will keep fundraising for mixing and mastering during recording.
Everybody will get their perks on time!
Don't worry!
We love you!

Tears of the Sun

Short Summary

Hello! We are Tears of the Sun, a rock band from Uzbekistan! Some of you may wonder, where the hell is Uzbekistan, so let us answer that one first.

We are a sunny country located in the heart of Central Asia, with Afghanistan to the south and Kazakhstan (hello, Borat fans!) to the north. We are known mostly for gold mining and cotton production. As a matter of fact, if you are wearing anything made from cotton, you may have more of a connection to our homeland than you’ve previously thought!

The Tears of the Sun has been playing rock music in Uzbekistan for more than 10 years now. Unfortunately, our country has virtually no show business, especially when it comes to rock music. In fact, our government considers such music controversial at best, and does not encourage the development of local rock musicians.

We are big enthusiasts of international friendship: "Tears of the Sun" are the only rock band native to Central Asia that has toured in neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. We sing in Russian and English.

Listen to our songs and watch the videos at our website: http://sunband.uz/en (English version), or on Facebook.

Today, we have plans to record the most professional and high–quality sounding album in the history of Uzbek rock music!

We have tried making ends meet using our own personal funds, but as a doctor, a journalist, a schoolteacher, and a professional singer (we have no idea why were we so lucky to have her among us), our salaries are barely enough for survival, let alone for recording with any kind of quality.

So we are asking for your help!

 With our first studio quality album, we want to reach 3 goals:

1. To promote our music to the general public inside and outside of Uzbekistan, and to get a chance to find our way in the world of modern day rock music.

2. To complete the first crowd funding campaign in the history of Uzbekistan. I mean, nobody around here knows here what crowd funding is and how to properly use it. Ideally, we would like to make an impact big enough to attract the attention of local media in hopes that our experience will encourage other Uzbek musicians, artists, directors, and simply creative people to follow in our steps.

3. Today, the Uzbek rock community reminds us a quiet swamp. Although there is plenty of talent, few bands remain active long enough to record anything. And even those who manage to go on, by lack of funds and political freedom, they face real challenges developing musically and producing their records with commercial quality. With this album, we want to set a higher standard in music management and sound recording for the whole country. We are sure that this movement will shake our swamp, and, with some luck, it turns into a beautiful lake one day!

What We Need & What You Get

We need US $3200 to record this album. We plan to spend around $1000 on the recording process itself (will be done in Uzbekistan), $1000 on editing (we plan to do this in Russia, or somewhere else where the sound engineers are slightly more skillful than back home), $500 on mastering, burning and printing, $500 on your perks, and $200 on Indiegogo fees.

If, by some sudden strike of luck, we manage to raise more than that amount, we plan to spend the extra money on a tour of Central Asia, presenting our album and broadcasting our experience with crowd funding throughout the region.

As we’ve mentioned before, we plan to spend around $500 on perks for Indiegogo users. While this may seem somewhat high, it is important to note that postal service in Uzbekistan is extremely expensive, and if we want to send CDs abroad, we will need to get a special permission from the authorities for each CD, which is not cheap either.

Our minimum goal is $1500. At the least, that would allow us to record the album, albeit in lower quality and with much less exposure. We have set the deadline for finishing the album to April 2013.

Other Ways You Can Help

We would be delighted if you tell our story to your friends and neighbors. We have few international fans and we hope to fix this soon, so please share, like, retweet, +1, or do whatever else floats your boat.

In the end, as they say at home, a hundred friends is worth more than a hundred dollars, and trust us, a hundred dollars can take you a long way in Uzbekistan.