TODD "DAMMIT" KERNS, from SLASH and SIN CITY SINNERS has joined forces with Pledge Music to support the release of his forthcoming solo album, Hello Cruel World, and the accompanying EP, Near Life Experience. All is explained in the video below; make your pledge at this location.

"When I was coming up in this ‘business of show’ a band played and played and wrote and wrote and recorded and toured and toured and maybe... just maybe some guy with a faux-hawk and a Porsche would put a contract in front of you which you would so desperately sign immediately cuz it was everything you had been working towards," recalls Todd. "Unfortunately that document was never a benefit to the musician nor his or her’s audience. It was always slanted in favor of ‘THE MAN’.

Well, those days are over, brothers and sisters!

And I say Ding Dong the witch is dead!

Enter Pledge Music which I was turned onto by my brother in arms, GINGER WILDHEART. If you had told me that one day there would be a system in place where one could make music and directly get it into the hands and ears of music lovers everywhere with essentially no middle man whatsoever I’d have thought you mad. Adorably naive but mad.

Well, guess what? It’s 2012 and that’s exactly what we have! People always ask me, ‘hey Todd when are you gonna do another solo album? Your last one was a while ago.’

My answer is simply that I was frustrated by a system that had been in place since long before I had picked up a guitar. 10 years ago I was run ragged on the major label hamster wheel. I started writing songs and making music cuz I felt I had something to say and wanted simply to share it with like minded people. I didn’t expect to have an army of people trying to tell me ‘how it is’. Turns out they were wrong anyway.

All these years later all I wanna do is make music and share it. People who are as excited about discovering new music as I am. Every artist on the Pledge Music campaign is something that may never have been heard otherwise. It has shone a spotlight on a community of music lovers that is thriving and growing every day and I can’t help but be excited by that as both a musician and as a seeker of great music.

Now what I’m doing is something I’ve always wanted to do. Something I probably would never be allowed to do without such a system.

I have always dreamed of making an acoustic record. I have a back catalogue of songs that I’ve been stock piling for just such an occasion. I am a big fan of JOHNNY CASH’s American Recordings records he made with Rick Rubin and that has been my inspiration all along.

Of course one can throw in a long history of BOB DYLAN, NEIL YOUNG and so many more in there as well in such a rich tradition. How about GNR Lies? Or NIRVANA Unplugged?

My record is called Hello Cruel World. It is a full-length album of acoustic or acoustic-oriented songs. All new and never released before.

Along with that, exclusive only to the Pledge Music campaign, will be the Near Life Experience EP which is a collection of some of my pre-released songs in acoustic form. As many know I’ve been releasing music for years so to some people these will be cool new versions of songs from my back catalogue that I’m very proud of. To the uninitiated these will be brand new songs altogether just like Hello Cruel World.

Along with music, there will be a wealth of other goodies to come with any pre-orders through the Pledge Music campaign.

The cherry on top is that we will also be raising money for a good cause for something that is near and dear to me which is putting money towards research in the field of Muscular Dystrophy Association. I am honored to be able to do anything to help.

I couldn’t be more excited about the prospects of such a venture together. This feels like an adventure the musician and the audience go on as a singular unit. I’m super excited about the possibilities of what a system like this could bring to us music lovers in the future.

I couldn’t be more psyched about this project. I’ve waited a long time to record Hello Cruel World and this winter that will become a reality. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure."