With his new Kickstarter project, “The DNA Project,” Israeli-born and Brooklyn-based musician j.viewz wants to produce a new kind of album in which his fans will be able “reach into and trace each song back to its origin,” he explains on the crowdfunding site.
The project offers several different interactive innovations between the artist and the listener. It will be possible to break down the songs into different steps and see when and where each sample was recorded: in the studio, on the road, in the woods, at a lake. j.viewz even promises to document his meetings with labels. “Everything will be posted on a timeline,” he explains, adding that his project “will show how these updates slowly come together to form each song.”
Having a behind-the-scenes access to the making of the musician’s work is not the only innovation here. In his quest to redefine “the way music is presented in digital space,” j.viewz also wants his fans to participate in his upcoming album, which will be recorded over the course of ten months, with around one song uploaded online every month. As well as being able to download each sample of his songs, the musician, who already ingeniously used crowdsourcing for his 2012 video “Rivers and Homes,” has made it possible to upload your own sounds and maybe “influence the album’s DNA.”
Always looking for ways to reinvent the concept of the album in the digital era, several “goodies” are also included for anyone who helps j.viewz fund his “DNA Project:” a limited edition CD package, a fancy preloaded USB stick, an invitation to a private listening party in New York, a private letter or Skype call from j.viewz himself, a version of a song matching your heartbeat, or even the cat costume used in the “Rivers and Homes” video. The artist does everything to make his work attractive and special.
And it seems to be working. After two weeks and with 22 more days to go until the funding deadline on Oct. 16, “The DNA Project” has collected more than $20,000 of the $60,000 needed.
