Levi Britton Kickstarts His Career

Jan. 18, 2015

At 15, his mother was teaching him how to play guitar. At 18, he was performing in the Golden Garter Revue at Dill’s Olde Towne Saloon in Traverse City. As an adult, he became an integral part of touring bands Stolen Silver and Chicago’s Down the Line. Today, he’s a favorite local musician who’s learned how to leverage crowd funding to make his first solo album a reality.

Singer-songwriter Levi Britton says that he’s been surrounded by incredible musicians ever since those early days of working out guitar chords and he just knew that playing music was all he wanted to do. But, when it came time to plan his album project, crowd funding was a harder sell.

"I was actually not a fan of the idea at first," Britton said. "But realistically, with the huge changes in the music industry, it makes so much sense and Kickstarter, in particular, was interesting because it was all or nothing."

Kickstarter, a crowd funding website, allows people to post projects with a specific financial goal. If that goal is reached via friends and fans donating funds by a set deadline, the Kickstarter is considered a success and the majority of the funds are transferred to the artist, with Kickstarter taking its standard 5 percent fee on every successfully-funded project. If the goal isn’t reached by the deadline, none of the contributors are charged and the project gets nothing.

"It definitely put a healthy pressure on us," he explained. "Structuring the campaign was really up to my wife, Krissie. She put together a team of people, put on a couple of events, printed posters and kept up on social media and Kickstarter updates." Britton’s goal was a pretty big one: $30,000 to record his album, supply tour support and allow him to design a full line of merchandise like T-shirts and hats.

"We really wanted to do this right," he said. Their efforts succeeded and the Kickstarter was a success with a final tally of $31,810 raised.

So how did that feel? "Man, I don’t think words can even describe it," Britton exclaimed. "I felt obvious excitement, but more than that, I felt so grateful for the support that I received. Although there were people from all over the country that donated, there was such an overwhelming support from this community."

Traverse City fans have long supported Britton’s musical efforts and many local fellow musicians do too, as evidenced by the additional support Britton received from Aaron Wolinski, the sound engineer at Spiral Sound Studio.

"Aaron and I have co-written this album together, which has been an awesome experience," Britton said. "He has been a very integral part of this process. It’s hard to find someone that you work well with in that capacity."

Britton calls the new album "more soulful" than any other project with which he’s been involved and he references everyone from Sade to Peter Gabriel when listing current songwriting influences.

His studio band is a round up of musical heavy hitters.

"I’m lucky enough to have my all time favorite bassist, Joe Ayoub, playing with me," Britton said. "Joe is also the bass player for Enrique Iglesias and Shakira – and the dude can play!" Additional performers on the set include Elton John tour mate Rob Cookman on keyboards, guitarist Chris Sterr, and drummers Jonny Tornga and Matt Hayes.

With the album’s release date set for May 1, Britton is on track, supported by his fans and the results of the Kickstarter campaign, as well as by his own longstanding determination.

Once the album hits outlets, touring, radio stops and a cohesive marketing and branding plan are all part of what’s next.

"Doing something like this completely on my own is a huge challenge," he said. "I have been a part of some other amazing projects, but I’ve always had other people involved in making decisions. So I’m looking forward to doing things the best that I know how and surrounding myself with a great team."

For more information on Traverse City’s Levi Britton and his music, visit: www.levibrittonmusic.com and www.facebook.com/LeviBrittonSongs.