At the age of 12, Spencer Butte Middle School’s Savanna Coen has been performing for the last three years, successfully funded her first Kickstarter project and is getting ready to release her first album.
The release of the album, titled Strength, will be celebrated this Saturday, April 30th, at Eugene’s Saturday market.
“I’m really excited. It’s pretty cool because three years ago one of my first performances was at Saturday Market, and now I have a new band and a CD,” Savanna said.
Her parents, Angel and Josh, weren’t even aware of Savanna’s gift until her grade school choir teacher heard her sing and asked her to start performing with him at libraries, retirement homes and places similar.
Seeing a pre-teen girl sing the blues worked well drawing crowds at festivals, and Savanna has started making some money off of her performances. Her dad said her first big purchase was an iPod touch.
“I might save up for the new iPod touch with a camera. So I might sell my old one and get that one,” Savanna said.
(Sources can neither confirm or deny whether or not I offered to purchase her old iPod touch during this interview. )
As is popular now for many musicians, Savanna had help funding her new album thanks to supporters of her Kickstarter campaign. Through the website, she was able to raise over $3,000. The money helped pay for studio time as well as the manufacturing of her first 300 albums. Many of the albums will be sent out to supporters who bought a copy in advance through the Kickstarter program. The rest will likely be sold at the release party Saturday.
She recorded the album with David Frank in Eugene.
“David is so talented, his degree is in recording but he’s also a full-fledged musician. He’s talented with so many instruments,” said her father Josh. ” After Savanna laid down her vocals, David went back and played guitar, drum, bass, and piano. It sounds amazing.”
Another big motivator to get the album produces was to increase her chances of getting accepted to perform at the Riverfront Blues Festival in Portland this summer.
“She submitted her application through Sonicbids,” Josh explained. “They already have their headliners set, and their other touring recording artists set up. And they’re just trying to set up their regional talent that their hiring for the event. So that’s what we’re waiting on to see. They say they have 500 applications and just a few slots, so we’re hoping Savanna will be one of those.”
For more information visit her website at www.savannacoen.com