Casey Black is a singer/songwriter currently living in Brooklyn. Since he posted his project "Shape Me As It Goes" a few weeks ago, I've had a chance to get to know Casey's work - and have become a fan of both Casey's music and his humor. Recently we had a chance to catch up to discuss the success of his latest project. He gave some cool insights on his creative process and RocketHub campaign.

What was your inspiration for your material in It Shapes Me As It Goes? Can you tell us a little bit about how you write?

The inspiration for this record came in a variety of ways, and over at least five years of time. I went from being 26 to 31 between records, so time and aging inspired a few of these songs, as did the constant battle between pessimism and optimism that occurs when you start seeing long pieces of lifetime pass by. I found myself getting into characters a lot more on this record, some that I created, and some that I "borrowed." For instance, The Sarge is about a soldier who can't form short term memories due to an IED explosion that injured his brain in Iraq. I saw his story late one night on PBS. And the last song on the record, one called Hard Alee!, is totally lifted from a great Joseph Conrad story called The Secret Sharer. There are at least two songs where I've sort of crawled into the head of a significant other and lectured myself through lyrics. Admittedly I do write a lot of autobiographical songs, but I've found that I can't write them without thinking of myself as a character. Usually this happens unconsciously, and when I finish the song I think to myself, 'That sounds like someone I know,' until I remember I'd started writing it about myself.

My process has changed very little since I started writing about 15 years ago. It always starts with a chord progression that offers up a nice, natural line of melody. When I've got that I start singing nonsense words over and over until some syllable or word sticks. After awhile (maybe minutes, maybe months) a couple lines form and I start knowing what the song is about. That's when the whole character switch happens I think, because once I know where a song is going I get excited, but I also get really possessive. I'd rather not know where a song is going when I'm writing it: it's more fun that way. In the end a song is written over, usually, a period of weeks or months, and I haven't written a single line down. This record was different though. I was getting a little down on myself for my slow process about a few years ago, so I started writing down the song fragments I had in process, taking that notebook to a cafe, and trying to finish one after the other. This is satisfying, but usually results in a lyric that is too dense, or lopsided in its meter. So there's always a little whittling to do when I actually 'write' a song away from my guitar.

Thanks for sharing this insight. I can relate on quite a few levels there. How has your experience been as a crowdfunding pioneer in the world of music?

A favorite (and horrible) road-trip joke of mine is to muse aloud about how the pioneers must have been so relieved to find that the USA has a great interstate system. I had two great friends crowdfund their records right before me. Niall Connolly did his here on Rockethub, and E.W. Harris, who is producing my record, funded his with Kickstarter. They both reached their goals and encouraged me to do it, but I was skeptical. I must have hung around them for a couple months saying annoying things like, "Are you SURE this works? What if this experience only shows how unknown I am? That would break me in two!" But then I embraced the process, especially after meeting with the founders (Brian and Vlad), who met me in midtown early one morning(!) and spent hours with me helping me envision the campaign. And indeed, it did take hours and hours after that (and a lot of very patient editing by my girlfriend) to write a proposal that was direct and complete. But I remember that I'd $100 of fuel by the time I woke up the morning after I launched and was so thrilling, humbling, and might I even say euphoric? And that's the felling that carried me through the next two weeks, which is the very short time it took to reach my goal. What could be more humbling and exciting than asking for support and receiving it in truckloads? (gas-tank-loads?). . . Only the feeling of getting my cd's back from the presses with all my supporters names in the jacket, I suppose.

Well, we are glad you took the plunge! Props to Niall and E.W. for paving the way as well. Any advice for creatives looking to crowdfund a project?

I only know what I did, and that seems to have worked. I thought of everyone I have ever known who would not think it totally odd to receive such a request from me. I asked my family for names, scoured Facebook and MySpace for people I'd lost contact with, and I did a lot of thinking about who has liked or supported my music in the past. Then I constructed one enormous email and sent it out, putting in the body the message that was on my Rockethub page below the video. I never sent this request out on any social networking sites. Instead, I used facebook to thank publicy the people who had given, and placed a convenient little link to the Rockethub page along with it. This is literally all I did, save for sending personal, more lengthy thank-you's to each fueler.

Yet, I know this wouldn't have worked if I hadn't spent a lot of time working on my video and my proposal. I got the most obvious, but most oft-forgotten piece of advice from you guys (Brian and Vlad) in the beginning, which was to 'be myself.' I have a big split in my personality: I wrote super-serious songs, but make super-dumb jokes. Constantly. So I took numerous takes of my video until it seemed myself, until those aspects seemed balanced, and I edited my message until it felt like something only I would say. So, I would give the same advice. Be yourself to the best of your ability.

Thanks Casey for giving us the scoop on your creative process and RocketHub campaign.  It has been awesome to have you on the site and I look forward to seeing you perform live in the near future.

Brian Meece