Ottawa band crowdfunds Christmas album

By Kyle Duggan and Brett Throop One Christmas, North Easton made a promise to his mother: he would write her a Christmas album of his own songs. That was some years ago. And while Easton plugged away at the Christmas collection over the years, tragically, his mother died of lung cancer before the project could be completed. Now, with the help of online fundraising, Easton is making good on his promise. Easton and his three-piece acoustic band, My Favourite Tragedy, raised $6,414 on Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding website, to produce the original Christmas album.  The album has eight songs that tell intimate stories about family and the holidays. The band is doing a music video for the song Christmas Lights, which is about Easton’s father’s tradition of waking him up early to put up the Christmas lights—rain or shine. Click on the photo below to view an audio slideshow about the making of their music video for Christmas Lights. “Traditions of Christmas aren’t just waiting in a mall in a line up to buy something somebody doesn’t want. But more like sharing something inside of you that’s real,” he said. The group’s Kickstarter page asked for $5,000 to produce the album and raised it with just three days to go before their deadline. They then pushed on to get another thousand to make the video for Christmas Lights. Drummer Phil Desmarais said friends wanted to buy an original Christmas album but the band didn’t have the resources to make one. But when Easton found Kickstarter, he saw an opportunity to launch their album.  Kickstarter works by direct donations, where artists pitch their project to potential backers. If the backers like what they see, they can donate to the project in exchange for products or services. “There was a musician on there who raised over $1.5 million and I thought this could very well be the next revolution in music,” Easton said. “Artists now have a chance to sell to their fans before they’ve created their product, as long as the trust value is there.” Desmarais said crowdfunding is a “very democratic way of getting things produced because ultimately the public has the right to say what is good and what is not.” Phil’s brother, John-Marc Desmarais, plays bass and cello for the group. “It’s kind of a gamble on backers’ part given that the product they’re trying to purchase hasn’t yet been produced,” he said. “But thankfully they’re willing to gamble.” He added the band will likely look to Kickstarter again for future projects based on their success. The group raised funds from 92 people around the world, offering...