Tanya Tagaq turns to crowd funding site for help with new album

Tanya Tagak will perform May 4 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as part of the Northern Scene event. (FILE PHOTO)

Here’s an idea: throat singer Tanya Tagaq is looking for public support to complete her third album.

Tagaq, originally from the western Nunavut town of Cambridge Bay, wants to raise money with Indiegogo, an international crowd funding site.

On Indiegogo, anyone can raise money for film, music, art, charity, small businesses, gaming, theater, and more.

Tagaq says she needs $15,000 to make her “CD dream come true” — $10,000 will pay for producers and mixing and mastering and another $5,000 will go to collaborating vocalists.

If this way of paying for a project seems crazy to you, a look at the Indiegogo shows it can work. A film project called, “The Way Home: Tibetans in Exile Journey of Family and Faith,” the story of three generations of Tibetans in exile struggling to keep their culture and faith alive, raised $5,125 in 21 hours — more than its fundraising goal.

In her pitch Tagaq talks about throatsinging: traditionally, she says Inuit throat singing is “a call and response vocal competition, kind of like having dual beat boxers fitting their beats together like puzzle pieces.”

Tagaq says she has “taken throat singing and made it my own.”

“Firstly, I have removed the ‘game’ element to it — what I do is more of a commentary. I have also made it an improvisation, and I allow myself to become a conduit to the audience, to the intricacies of what lies unexamined in our daily lives.”

Tagaq says she feels the sounds she makes are important for a few reasons: “one of them is cultural awareness; the other is personal awareness.”

“My first two recordings have been successful, and have allowed me to spread my music to 35 countries. Hopefully, this CD will be the platform for more projects, more music, and future collaborations,” she says.

Tagaq says her third studio album has been years in the making.

“It is my baby. It is a political and spiritual spelunking into the depths of this existence,” she says

A base recording, which has already been made, includes “heavy electronic beats, punkish percussion, and soaring viola. We also have some French horn players in the mix,” she says.

“With your help, I am hoping to rope in a few more vocalists. One of them is Anna Pardo, a Belgian opera singer whose clear, earth-shattering voice will hypnotize listeners. She also improvises. I also am hoping to hire some top notch designers to help out with the CD, a photo shoot for the cover, and shower my beautiful producers with gifts and proper payment.”

Tagaq says she plans providing a series of perks, which include free CDs, mentions in the liner notes, free concert tickets, and even original paintings.

“If I don’t receive all the funding, whatever I do raise will go directly into the CD. Please help me reach my goal.”

Tagaq performs May 4 at the National Arts Centre as part of the Northern Scene festival in Ottawa, when she will use her voice to create an original soundscape during a screening of Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North.”

Also ahead for Tagaq, recently interviewed for Nunatsiaq News: a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, a project in Italy as well as a segment for a Japanese television show. She is also working on a project in Israel for 2014 that involves performing with dancers.

You can find Tagaq’s Indiegogo site here.