When Simon Cowell is dead and gone, kids will still be picking up guitars and working out how they feel about being alive through music, thank fuck.

Because it’s nearly Record Store Day, today I’m officially launching my Pledge campaign to get Leaves… pressed up in vinyl.

Come and preorder your copy, or any of the other exclusive-to-Pledge items such as an exclusive EP, or even a birthday visit from me with a cake and 3 songs just for you!

My first record label One Little Indian made sure my first two albums Scissors In My Pocket and Fingers & Thumbs were available both in CD format and vinyl LP. Some of you mentioned to me how you’d like to see a vinyl LP version of Leaves…. I thought it would be prohibitively expensive, but then I was approached by vinyl-only label Diverse Records , who press and distribute vinyl for Laura Marling, Richard Thompson, Joan Baez and Daniel Lanois to name but a few. I got very excited. However in order for me to enter this agreement, I needed to be able to guarantee to buy the first 250 records.

I need to raise £3,600 for the project to be green-lit. So I’ve started a Pledge campaign to raise the money. Here’s how it works: with Pledge, you can pre-order your copy of the LP without actually paying for it yet – it’s a promise to buy. And there are lots of things you can pre-order, not just the vinyl – the smallest contribution, £8, is for an exclusive digital EP I’ll be putting together just for Pledgers. In addition, I’m doing lots of give-aways to help the fundraising process.

If we raise the money the campaign closes, your funds are collected, and you will receive your album a few weeks later, literally hot off the press! If we don’t, the campaign closes and your money stays with you. If we raise more than we needed, 20% goes to my nominated charity, NSPCC.

Pledge Music is just one of a growing number of reputable crowd-funding companies such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter. I chose Pledge because some of my respected music industry peers have recently used it successfully. Pledge specialises in music and I hope that some of you may already be familiar with them.

If you have any questions, please email me at polly@pollypaulusma.com!

I hope you’ll want to take part.

Collaborations I’ve been writing some songs with Annie Dressner and we are working towards a little EP together. I’ve been producing albums for Harry Harris and Stylusboy, who have both signed to my label Wild Sound and whose albums I’ll be releasing later in the year. I’ve done some vocals for Italian band Teodorf.

About two weeks ago I pre-recorded a show for Sky TV with fellow singer-songwriters Edwina Hayes and Rachael Sage. Some of you came along and made up the audience. It was a really amazing experience. My friend Suzanne leant me a Vivienne Westwood frock and I wore a lot of lipstick. It felt good.

I have just been told that the show will be broadcast on Sky 200 on 21 March 2013 at 10pm. I haven’t seen it, and I have no idea what it’s going to be like. But we all talk frankly about our takes on what it’s all about to be a songwriter, and we play a few tunes. I hope you enjoy it!

It’s been great the last few weeks having the opportunity to connect with other musicians. Firstly I’m working with the incredibly talented Stylusboy as he prepares to record his first album. I’m helping him in a producer capacity but a very hands-off one – he’s so capable and has very strong ideas about what he wants to sound like, so I feel more like a sounding-board than the kind of producer I sometimes imagine people being when they say they’re producing. I guess producers I’ve worked with in the past have run a spectrum of facilitation / interference and it’s such a fine line between bringing out the best in people and muddying the water. I love working with him because he knows exactly what he’s after.

Secondly I’ve got together with Annie Dressner for a cowriting session and we came up with a real gem of a song, music only. Now we need some words. We’ll see how that goes. It’s really interesting seeing how our guitars meld together; she plays really sturdily; she’s got a great sense of the guitar and how it should sound; I play with all my fucked-up tunings and so we’re playing technically the same thing but the voicings are all over the place and it sounds great. Two ways of arriving at the same place? Really interesting. We’ll be coincidentally playing a night together with Lotte Mullan in Cambridge at The Portland Arms on April 11 – can one town take so many brunettes?And, what would be the collective noun? A Flush of Brunettes? A Borrow? Answers on an email…. Only time will tell…

Thirdly, I’ve been singing some ethereal vocals for a UK/Italian band called Teodorf, when my children and my computer have played ball and let me get into the shed. It’s been really lovely to secret myself down in my shed and sing about some kind of tropical utopia, before slinking back to make a quick cup of tea before picking up the kids.

Yes, I do love my job.

Come and find me next Saturday night. At Kings Place, Kings Cross (London) I’m happy to be taking part with this amazing event as part of Jewish Book Week.

http://www.jewishbookweek.com/events/six-word-memoirs

I’ve got to tell a story that leads into a song. Can I keep it to six minutes, that’s the big question!

Click on the iTunes button above to preview and purchase – I hope you like it!

To all my Canadian fans – the film Clear Lake is available to download on Video on Demand from this month on all Rogers cable and digital boxes – take a look on Channel 100.