I have to tell y’all something that I’ve only recently realized over the last couple of years—something that amazed me. Something I’ve since shared with several close friends.
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When I made that first trip to Nashville back in January 2005, being any kind of artist was the furthest thing from my mind. My only goal was to write songs for other people—famous people, country radio. And while God obviously had a little of that kind of success in mind (Cody Johnson, Bryan Martin, and others), He also had a lot more. More than I could even imagine. And as usual, His timeline was a lot longer than mine—haha!
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But it was longer for good reason: there was a lot of work to do to get me ready for what He really had in store. First, I had to learn how to write songs. I mean, really write songs—how to craft a lyric. And that was gonna take a while. (Still learning!) It’s hard. Second, I had to learn what “my” voice sounded like—both my literal vocal voice and my writing voice. See, I’d played in a cover band forever, so on the rare occasions when I did sing lead, I was trying to mimic the recording. That was the job. So I needed to figure out what I sounded like if I was just “me.” That took a while, too. As for my writing voice, well, that was a process as well—because writing songs aimed at radio and then trying to write your own life can be two different things. And for me, initially, they were. Then I had to (subconsciously and unintentionally) figure out who I was as an artist—before I ever knew I was going to be one.
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All of that is just completely wild to me. Because looking back now—particularly over the last five years since COVID shut the world down and gave me time to make my first record, and I literally became an independent artist—I see it more clearly than I ever have in my life. I have never been more sure of what I was made to do than I am now. At 57 years old. I was made to do this. Songs. Touring. Shows. Telling my story.
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And even more wild than the artist thing—and I never thought I would say this, because it was even further from my mind than being an artist—is that this has turned into a ministry of sorts. What?! I call it the most unexpected ministry in the history of ministries—LOL. Because I thought I was just writing these songs for me, but as I went out and started playing them and telling the stories behind them, I found out they were for so many other people. In house concerts and little listening rooms all over the country. The hundreds of texts, emails, social media messages—and face-to-face conversations with people who told me what one of these songs meant to them—whew. Y’all, I can’t even begin to describe it. I am so grateful, so humbled, and it’s such a privilege to participate in what God is doing in the world—and getting to do it in settings that are largely secular. And I don’t even have to try, y’all… I ain’t preaching… I’m just being me. Telling my stories and singing these songs. It’s crazy!!!
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So now it’s time for 10 more songs—produced again by my insanely talented friend (and Grammy nominee) Dave Brainard. Songs that I’m proud of as a songwriter. As a human.
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And I could use your help.
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The first Kickstarter I did was in 2020 to raise the money I needed to promote the first album, Call It Even. It was in the heart of the pandemic and right in the middle of the holidays—just the worst time to do one. But… y’all raised over $31K. Heck, you hit the $19K goal in just over 24 hours! It was wild!
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The second one, in 2023, for promoting Even Better on the Bad Days, was a sitting-on-pins-and-needles, are-we-gonna-hit-the-goal, 30 days of stressful waiting and watching… but we squeaked through in the last few hours and ended up just over the $25K goal. Almost gave me a heart attack—haha! But I was so thankful.
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And honestly, I was hoping not to have to do a Kickstarter for the promo costs on this third album. Like the first two albums, I’ve already paid to make the record (tens of thousands of dollars) out of my own pocket. And although things have been going better and better all the time with house concerts and touring, I’m not quite where I can handle the promotion part all by myself. It’s just so much when you add it on top of the recording costs.
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The record is done. As a matter of fact, here’s the tracklist:
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1. She’d Be the Bible
2. Here to Stay
3. Piano for Sale (I know so many of us have been waiting forever for this song to come out—I can’t wait for you to hear it!)
4. Six
5. Little Bit of Luck
6. Castle in Kentucky
7. What the Devil Whispers
8. By Heart
9. Hold Your Own
10. Days Are Long
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We even have a tentative release schedule! Five singles, with the first one coming out in January—then one a month until the full album drops in June!
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But… all that means the work has really just begun.
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I have to hire a publicist to send it out to all the media outlets—print and online—to get reviews and exposure for the singles and eventually the album. My publicist also sends hundreds of copies of the album out to Americana radio all over the country and the world. He’s great and worth every penny. (And it’s a lot of pennies—haha.)
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I have to have a substantial social media advertising budget because that’s how this industry moves these days. Ad money for single releases and music videos. I handle all my social media myself, so I don’t need to spend the money hiring a team to do it like I did on the first record—that leaves more money for advertising.
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I have to make music videos. My plan is to make five videos for the five singles. But… in a perfect world, I hope to make videos for all ten songs, because videos get so much more attention on social media than just audio links or clips.
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I have to hire photographers for all the new photos we need for the launch of a new album. (I hate photo shoots—haha.)
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I have to hire a graphic designer for the album artwork. I normally handle single artwork these days, but the album artwork is a little too complicated for little ol’ me.
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I have to print CDs for the publicist to send out—and for sales.
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And I have to print vinyl because, well… everyone loves vinyl now. :-)
So… I’m shooting for $15K in 15 days! (I stole that plan—and catchy wording—from my dear friend Helene Cronin—haha!) Realistically, I could use twice that, but I’m hoping to make this goal a lot more reachable than the last one that scared us all to death! And if we go over—or way over—great! But I can do the minimum of what I need to do with $15K, and I would be super grateful.
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Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottseanwhite/scott-sean-white-days-are-long
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I’ve put together some reward tiers that I think you’ll love—there’s a little something for everyone, from the smallest donation to the biggest! For independent artists like me—folks with no record label to back them—y’all are critical to the whole thing, or it just doesn’t work.
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So thank you in advance for helping, supporting, and believing!!!
Scott