Crowd-Funding 'Terrified' Jen Cloher

29 June 2013 | 2:10 pm | Dylan Stewart

"It’s like publicly announcing a party and seeing if anyone comes along.”

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For Jen Cloher, a casual chat is just the tonic she needs to steel herself for a weekend of posting vinyl all over the country. “I've had a rough time with vinyl coming in from the Czech Republic, which is where my records get shipped from,” she begins. “I've been waiting two weeks for it, and it turns out (the shipment's) been waiting in customs for ten days! I've got irate Pozible supporters going 'where's our vinyl?' So I'm gonna just sit and address the mail all weekend.”

Something that's a hell of a lot more enjoyable than licking envelopes is the release of Cloher's third and arguably most accomplished record to date, In Blood Memory. It's a little rougher around the edges than her previous releases, and according to Cloher, it feels good to bank the third.

“There's something about a third album that feels kind of solid. You could stop at three albums and not be a one-hit wonder.” While Hanson, Alanis Morissette and Chumbawamba might beg to differ, things are looking up for Cloher. “It's an honest album; it's not trying to be an extraordinarily over-produced masterpiece.”

Nonetheless, it's still a mighty fine record. Crowd-sourced through a Pozible campaign, Cloher says the prospect of laying it all out there was daunting. “I was terrified. It's like publicly announcing a party and seeing if anyone comes along,” she said. “You're putting yourself out there to fail; and there's not a single human being who wants to fail, especially publicly.”

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