Prospect Heights Songstress Finds Modern Way to Fund Album

Stephanie Carlin has titled her upcoming album "The Human Connection," which is fitting, because it is being funded with the help of just that, many very real human connections.

Carlin, who is known to some readers as Prospect Heights Patch's , is also a jazz singer. And she's using the website Kickstarter to hold a 21-day campaign drive to raise enough money to fund the album’s production. At $2,566 she’s just over halfway to her goal of at least $5,000.

A Long Island native who moved to Washington Avenue and Sterling Place in 2008, the 21-year-old is a vocalist and songwriter whose work bridges the gap between funk, jazz and folk melodies.

She currently studies jazz at Long Island University in Fort Greene and already boasts an accomplished musical resume: she was a member of the touring six-piece band Oliver Lankard, and in 2008 she released her first solo EP “The Agony and Ecstasy Of.”

Carlin describes the upcoming album, "The Human Connection," as being about “our connection with ourselves, and how it stretches out to our relationships with loved ones, society, government.”

“It all comes back to how we need to be peaceful, strong, innovative individuals,” she said.

Carlin knew that an idea for an album this big would require bigger production values than a home recording could capture. With producer Matt Pierson on board (he has worked with Diana Krall, Kirk Whalum, Brad Meldhau and Jane Monheit), and studio time at Manhattan’s Flux Studios carved out, all Carlin currently needs are the funds to get the project off the ground.

“Musicians cost money, creating a professional album costs money,” she said. “I’m simply asking my fans to help me pay for studio time.”

The backing musicians who are so far confirmed to work with her in the studio are bassist Alan Hampton, drummer Nate Wood and pianist David Cook, who have each worked with artists such as Gretchen Parlato, Kneebody, Liz Right and Natasha Bedingfield.

In the age before the internet, though, the money for a full-length debut album would come from the backing of a record label, something that Carlin says she was never interested in.

“Labels control your music when you sign with them,” she said. “When you do it on your own, you control the shots.”

“Freedom is a huge benefit to not being on a record label,” she added.

Donations for Carlin’s album have come in mostly from fans, friends and family, but she says she has gotten donations from a few strangers, too. She has a structured rewards system for donations – all listeners who give will get something in return. A $10 pledge gets an advance digital copy of the album, a $100 pledge gets a ticket to an upcoming New York show and a signed copy of the album, and for a $1,000 or more pledge, Carlin will play a show at the donor's house (so far her biggest donation has been $500, by a former vocal teacher).

The Kickstarter campaign will end at midnight on May 26. If Carlin doesn’t make her goal of $5,000, all of the donations are refunded to the donors, and Carlin said she’ll have to take out a loan instead. Hopefully, she reaches that goal, though, because on Saturday, May 28, Carlin plans to hold a celebration concert and party at , at 8 p.m., to thank her donors in person.

“If you want to support anyone who has creative endeavors, Kickstarter is the way to do it,” she said. “Emotional support in the arts is of course necessary, but any donation to a grassroots artist truly makes a difference.”