Big Weckl announcement?

[Paul Marangoni]

True. If you want to tap into the crowd funding approach, you need to be a bit of a social media whore, which Dave most definitely is not (thank God).

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah its a tough one.
Dave seems to be kind of dismissive of the internet thing, which is a personal decision and respected. In his chosen career there maybe consequences to that. Steve-O I assume you do the managing of this stuff and are doing a good job. There's a difference between the official tweet that just plugs something, and a say something that Josh Freeze tweets which is more personal. What he's up to, etc. Dave doesn't have to take pics of food, but some impromptu shots from the road or studio, or whatever. The novelty of social media is a direct line to person, having it appear as info presented from a PR company removes that novelty and makes it seem impersonal.
So if that's Dave's approach, then he asks for money, then this is what happens.
As always, I really want Dave to succeed, just sharing observations.

[Rhythmatist]

It's not a musical problem predominantly. In any case it's also a social media management issue.
Weckl has not been nursing his YouTube channel and keeping in touch with fans. So when announcing a monstrous project
like this one, he would've needed a dedicated following to pull it off.

And while he has a ton of Facebook Fans, they aren't animated on a regular basis, so they aren't ready to back a project
like this at the level it needs.

I am though quite surprised that only some 760 backers haven donated. Hard times indeed.

@Rhythmatist: I don't think people expected Dave and Jay to totally re-invent themselves. I know that I personally had hoped that
Dave wouldn't go back to Jay, because I think they have worked from a very limited artistic palate, thus falling into the same patterns
again and again, musically. This can be said of many artists btw.

I absolutely am in awe of Dave's abilities and would love to see him succeed
on a big scale again, but I also totally get why people aren't backing this project. It sounds dated and corny and the nursing and animation of fans leading up to
such a funding process simply has been lacking disastrously.

I'm thinking absolute horrible timing on top of everything else folks have said. Just before Christmas is not exactly the best time...yeah, they're hawking giving pledges as Christmas gifts but...If the quota isn't met as it appears it won't be, it wouldn't be a very good gift in the long run with no product. Add to that the fact that the 2 major political parties are playing money games immediately following a hotly contested election isn't helping matters any. Maybe if he tries again at a later date lessons learned will be of particular value. Maybe Letterman will do another drum solo week, a great opportunity to showcase to many who wouldn't ordinarily hear him. The key might be in going beyond the fan base. As someone else pointed out, that consists of a lot of struggling musicians.

[Rodge]

Yeah, why Dave did not do the Letterman Drum Solo Week ? He's a real drum hero !!!

I agree that Dave should be more active online, speciay if he has a crew for doing it.
See Gavin, I think that he does it very well.

[Steven Orkin]

Anyone who knows Dave knows that he is a very real person. He's honest, to the point, and is not interested in the idea of "selling" or using social media for anything that may seem frivolous.

He has social media pages because I urged him to have them during the MySpace era. We have branched out to Facebook and Twitter and both have a lot of followers. He also has an enormous e-mail list. I send e-mails and I post to his pages in 3rd person so that no one mistakes what is being said as being his words. I do this out of respect for him and those reading the posts. We have kept all posting relevant and within the framework of what works best for Dave. I'm totally fine with that, even if it is not the kind of agressive communications strategy I employed during my 10 years in advertising agencies.

Dave does do Facebook in spurts. If you pay close attention, he has posted quite a few things; some photos, a hang at the racetrack, and so on. I am hoping he will do more of this and, of course, will encourage it. But, ultimately, it's up to him. I want him to be comfortable with the way he represents himself.

The timing of the Pledge Music pitch is all about Dave's schedule. Fiscal cliff, the holiday season...doesn't really matter. Dave has time in December, January, and February to work on this. Also, the final decision to do this came in the Fall. So, there was no time to position him for Letterman (if that happens again) or even a big MD story, as the lead time would be too long. These things could eventually help post-production sales.

The music you hear in the video was largely written by Jay specifically for the pitch video. It implies that there will be a combination of sounds; the old "Jay and Dave thing" and a combination of new sounds from their vast experiences the past 12 years. The deep analyses and judgement of these sounds is just a tad premature. These are snippets that may not even make to the CD. But, knowing how much work Jay put in to pull that all together...wow. I think he did an amazing job. If you saw his array of computers and the smoke coming out his ears while composing and editing at the same time...you'd be humbled.

In terms of the lower-than-expected numbers for the Pledge Music campaign, a few things:

1. Dave's core audience is largely in the 45-65 range. Many have a lot of money, but the idea of crowdfunding may not work for some
2. The younger audience that follows Dave may not be too accustomed to PAYING for music, much less paying for it in advance
3. There is little "instant gratification" with crowdfunding. We have given away some drum solos and prizes for pledges, and more rich content is on the way, but the whole paradigm has its challenges
4. This is "jazz fusion" (whatever that is), and Dave and Jay have been out of the artist seat for quite some time. Dave's last album was in 2005. These are also challenges

Despite all of this, and the fact that Dave's Facebook etc. may not be as active as some artists out there, plenty of people have taken note. The video has been watched 27,000 times and we have 788 pledges in three weeks. Though I can't discolse dollar figures, a lot more has come in from these pledges than you would think.

My predication: the project will happen. We'll make some strategic adjustments and try to make this work.

Back to the idea of "humility," I'd like to point out that Dave is just one drummer among MANY who is amazing, inspiring, accomplished...and imperfect. It is the sum of these drummers that helps us stay inspired to listen, play, and exchange ideas here.

I'm amazed when one drummer...like Dave...is expected to absorb one person's expectations of the perfect drummer. "I wish Dave would just take a big pop gig..." etc. Really? I think it's cool that he wants to take another shot at being an ARTIST. I think it's cool that he's LOYAL to the musicians he's played with for so long - and younger ones, like Oz Noy. That he teaches at my camp. That his three hour class typically goes for 4.5 hours because he won't end it until EVERYONE has had a chance to play. That he stands on stage accompanying campers on percussion all night for three nights when he could just easily have dinner, relax, and go to bed!

I guess what I'm saying is: this is a drum forum, not a guitar forum. The love is sorely lacking. That doesn't mean we can't be critical. It's just the tone. The quest for validation instead of information.

As for the gentleman who thinks Jay's sounds are still "horrible," maybe even you can find some humility in the clips, below. The 2008 Olympic theme is almost entirely him performing with the Children's Choir of China. He also discovered Sheryl Crow (unreleased tune, below) and has worked with endless pop and jazz artists. Hardly a "limited pallette."

Thanks to all have supported the project!

[Morgenthaler]

Great post, Steven.

I can totally relate to what I am doing with Virgil, and TRYING to do with Virgil.

[Old Pit Guy]

It's a vampire thing.

[Kurtis]

Picked up Jay Oilvers solo piano "outside the box" cd a few year back. It's sounds great. The wife loves it.

Hope this album gets made. I'm sure the production will sound stellar. Curious to hear the compositions this time around.

[Juan Expósito]

Thanks Steve Orking: You wrote the post of the trimester.

About Dave internet/social activity:
I think is OK.

Just tell Dave to post some more "on the road ", "on the studio", "on the board" type of pics/comments in his Facebook page.
And more Dave´s first person written posts.

I love Dave.

[Avi_drums]

Some have been riding a wave of 'dig me', with an almost jazz snob mentality at times eg 'rock...it's just bashing...you know, no dynamics', 'Black Sabbath are not real musicians'. It's highly egocentric. That type of attitude tends to run its course, especially when it's not grounded in a strong musical context. Guys like Vinnie have that passion and talent that always keeps it fresh, and people gravitate towards that.