Project Proposal: Bell Eddy Debut EP

Bell Eddy and the Basstones performing live at Blind Pig, March 2025

I'd like to propose a project where I can record a few of my many many songs to put them in a collection to make a debut EP so I can promote myself and my artistry more concretely!

I will begin by explaining the narrative surrounding this proposal. My name is Charlie Bell, although professional I am known as Bell Eddy when credited to my art. As stated in my artist's statement, I have been writing songs and lyrics since I was 5 years old and putting them to music since I was 10. Many of the songs that I plan to include in this EP were written when I was 18 and 19 years old in my freshman year of college. This period of time was a significant turning point for me. It made me realize that I wanted to focus on my art and transition my studies to music rather than STEM which my original major focused on. That is why I really want to take the time and effort to honor these songs and showcase them in a way that I think they deserve. They were incredibly cathartic and life-saving, and I truly believe they are the beginning of me discovering my true sound and a profound representation of my artistry and experiences. I feel this will be the perfect introduction of my art, as it will be immortalized digitally and presented into the public eye.

For this project I will be working on recording 5 songs with my friends and bandmates, Minglu Jiang on bass, Adam Heiler on drums, Kate Stienstra on violin, John Faraz on piano, Jaymie Tyson on saxophone, and Pawel Bolek and Peyton Mae on backing vocals. I'll also be working with audio recording engineer, Tony LaVigne and Shantelle Provyavitch. We'll be recording 5 original songs for an EP which I plan to entitle Heartbreaker, featuring songs I've written like 'Baby Blues', 'New Shoes', 'Lorelai', 'Heartbreaker', and 'Janie,' during the winter semester beginning January 2026. Then I will be working with artists Zoe Corley and Sophie Monarrez to photograph and edit a cover for the EP.

Another reason this project is so important to me is because I will be working with very close friends and fellow artists and peers that I've met since writing this music and transferring to U of M's BA in Music Creation program in their School of Music Theater and Dance. These are all people that believe in me enough to be a part of a project that is so personal, who will be there to help make it something great.

Audio Recording Studios at Duderstadt Library, University of Michigan

Each song should take about 3-4 hours for set up and recording the individual parts. So for all 5 songs it will take about 15-20 hours of recording. Then for mixing it will be about an additional 5-6 hours for each song so 25-30 hours of mixing total. Finally for mastering each song it will be about an additional 1-2 hours so 5-10 hours total. In total on the low end it will take 41 hours total, however on the higher end it could total to 42 hours to record, mix, and master all of the songs. In addition it will take about 3 hours to photograph the album images and an additional 3 hours to edit them. Finally to get the copies of the album shipped it will be about 3 weeks to order 100 copes of the album. This totals to 3 weeks and about 47-58 hours to complete this project.

We will likely record 2 songs for each session and then 1 song for the final session, so I anticipate this will be done over the course of 3 weeks with one session per week. Then we will mix each song probably mixing one song per session and do 2 sessions per week, with the single final session during it's own week. Then because of the minimal amount of time it will take to master the songs we will likely get those done over the course of 2 sessions, likely broken up over 2 weeks. For the photoshoot we'll do 3 hours of pictures and then likely will edit the pictures during a 3 hour session in the same week. This totals to about 9 weeks of recording, mixing, mastering, and creating the album art.

For this project we'll be using the Duderstadt Audio Recording Studios in the Duderstadt Library at the University of Michigan. Because I have student access to the studios, it will be no charge. For recording we'll record in Studio A and for mixing and mastering we'll be working in Studio B. It will cost $22.99 for a one-year subscription to DistroKid in order to upload the EP to streaming services. On one site to order 100 copies of this EP it will be about $425.00 for all of the elements of the CD that I would like to have (lyric insert, CD wallet, gloss coating, UPC code, etc.).

For the photoshoot we'll be doing, as well as the editing process, will be done at my cooperative living community house, Escher Cooperative house. This is also of high significance to myself because this living community is where I moved to when I first began at U of M's School of Music, and has really healed me since the difficulty of my freshman year of college when many of these songs were written.

For reference, here is my groups demo recording of 'Janie' that is still unmixed or mastered: https://on.soundcloud.com/PWaFKkwzPFM7ZlLfTe