Much like Amanda Palmer, Animal Collective member Deakin has been receiving a lot of flack over a Kickstarter campaign. Back in 2009, the musician also known as Josh Dibb successfully raised almost $26,000 with a campaign intended to fund a trip to Mali, where he was to perform at the Festival au Désert. He also planned to make a related CD and a book from the experience, but it's now three years later and no backers have received their Kickstarter rewards from the successful campaign.
Now, Dibb has finally spoken out to apologize and at least somewhat absolve himself of wrongdoing. He told Pitchfork that he hasn't kept any of he money from the campaign, but instead donated it to the charity TEMEDT (which aims to end slavery in Mali).
He explained, "I think the [Kickstarter] was up for a day or two before I realized that I felt incredibly uncomfortable about the idea of asking people to fund a trip for me to go to Africa."
This change is explained on Deakin's Kickstarter page, which notes that Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label covered all of the production costs associated with the festival performance and the book manufacturing.
As for the undelivered rewards, he said, "The gifts were supposed to be based around the music that I had been writing at that time, and when I came back, I personally felt really dissatisfied with it."
He added that he's been slowed down by perfectionism, and said, "It's just been a much slower process to do things on my own than with the band."
Dibb admitted, "I haven't been the best at updating people in the last two years." He did send out a message back in August, but is unclear how many of the donors receive it. The message is below, so if you're one of the 205 people who backed the project, you still might receive your gift — eventually.
I am writing to you once again to thank you for the tremendous support that you all gave back in December of 2009. I am writing you now to deeply apologize for the amount of time it has taken to come back to you with the rewards of your support. I have heard from a number of you expressing deep disappointment in the way that I have handled this project...
I also want to be clear so that all of you know that none of the money you donated was used for my trip. Nor is it being used to fund the materials that you will all be receiving (yes, you will!). All of these things are things that I have paid for myself or will be paying for myself. All of the money that you donated is being used by TEMEDT to continue their work to change the social dynamic in Mali...
...The crux of what has held this up is to record the songs that I was working on around that time in a way that I really felt good about. I am sure it seems inexplicable to some of you that that has taken nearly three years. On a personal level I have been coming to terms with my own creative process and some of that has been to accept that things take a long time to work through me.
So despite the fact that I know that I intend now and have always intended to turn this all into something that you all would be psyched about, I know that I have not been good about keeping you up to date and feeling included in the process which you all have the right to feel. I promise that for the rest of year my only two priorities will be to finish this and to be on tour with Animal Collective. I will keep you updated monthly on what is going on. Lastly I would like to speak to all of you directly if that is something that you would like...
Now, Dibb has finally spoken out to apologize and at least somewhat absolve himself of wrongdoing. He told Pitchfork that he hasn't kept any of he money from the campaign, but instead donated it to the charity TEMEDT (which aims to end slavery in Mali).
He explained, "I think the [Kickstarter] was up for a day or two before I realized that I felt incredibly uncomfortable about the idea of asking people to fund a trip for me to go to Africa."
This change is explained on Deakin's Kickstarter page, which notes that Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label covered all of the production costs associated with the festival performance and the book manufacturing.
As for the undelivered rewards, he said, "The gifts were supposed to be based around the music that I had been writing at that time, and when I came back, I personally felt really dissatisfied with it."
He added that he's been slowed down by perfectionism, and said, "It's just been a much slower process to do things on my own than with the band."
Dibb admitted, "I haven't been the best at updating people in the last two years." He did send out a message back in August, but is unclear how many of the donors receive it. The message is below, so if you're one of the 205 people who backed the project, you still might receive your gift — eventually.
I am writing to you once again to thank you for the tremendous support that you all gave back in December of 2009. I am writing you now to deeply apologize for the amount of time it has taken to come back to you with the rewards of your support. I have heard from a number of you expressing deep disappointment in the way that I have handled this project...
I also want to be clear so that all of you know that none of the money you donated was used for my trip. Nor is it being used to fund the materials that you will all be receiving (yes, you will!). All of these things are things that I have paid for myself or will be paying for myself. All of the money that you donated is being used by TEMEDT to continue their work to change the social dynamic in Mali...
...The crux of what has held this up is to record the songs that I was working on around that time in a way that I really felt good about. I am sure it seems inexplicable to some of you that that has taken nearly three years. On a personal level I have been coming to terms with my own creative process and some of that has been to accept that things take a long time to work through me.
So despite the fact that I know that I intend now and have always intended to turn this all into something that you all would be psyched about, I know that I have not been good about keeping you up to date and feeling included in the process which you all have the right to feel. I promise that for the rest of year my only two priorities will be to finish this and to be on tour with Animal Collective. I will keep you updated monthly on what is going on. Lastly I would like to speak to all of you directly if that is something that you would like...
