Love Drug: Winter Release Plan

The short version

The song is finished. Now we need the support around it.

Love Drug is done. Releasing a song with nothing behind it usually means almost nobody hears it. We want to raise a small, focused amount from friends and family to pay for a professional music video, photos, and a short build-up before release, then release it in early January.

The ask

$7,500A base goal, raised from friends, family and close supporters over 7 days.

Stretch goal

To be setOnly if we bring in an outside creative vendor. Pricing comes on Oct 22.

What it pays for

One professional music video for Love Drug, plus photos, cover art, and short videos for a 60 to 90 day rollout.

Proposed release

Fri, Jan 8, 2027Sent to the distributor by Dec 18. Social build-up from mid-November.

Every number and date here is a proposal until we agree on it together. The $7,500 is a starting target, not a finished budget.

Where we are today

What's already done

Love Drug is finished: written and sung by Miller, produced by Grayson (Gray Skies).
Two more songs are in progress: Transforming and Grief Is the Price You Pay for Love.
Raw footage from our October 10 shoot exists, plus behind-the-scenes clips and the first acoustic clips already posted.
A look of our own is taking shape. Charcoal suits, open collars, fully untied ties, and a strip of white tape worn as our two symbols: a slash ( / ) for MILLER/MILLER and a wide X for Gray Skies, together on everything we release. Anyone can wear it on their own clothes, so fans can join in without buying anything.

What the music is about: Feel everything. Escape nothing. These are songs for people who feel overwhelmed or stuck and want to feel understood. They build from tension to release and end somewhere calm.

Creative direction

Two marks, one world: / and X

The slash ( / ) is MILLER/MILLER: fracture, light, moving forward. The wide X is Gray Skies: horizontal energy, contrast, balance. They show up together on every single and on stage, so the collaboration is visible in everything we put out.

Single series concept board: Love Drug, Transforming, Grief Is the Price You Pay for Love, and a future single, each cover carrying the X and slash in a different mood, plus minimal, portrait, texture and environmental directions and a five-color palette. — **Single covers.** Each single gets its own visual story and color mood, but every cover carries the X and the /. Different stories, same language.

Uniform concept board: Miller in a gray suit with a white tape slash on the lapel and Grayson in a black suit with a white tape X, untied ties, vintage watch, silver cuff, ring and brown boots, the symbols on the backs of the jackets, sleeves and cuffs, and on stage. — **The uniform.** Suits, open collars, untied ties, and white tape: a slash for Miller, an X for Grayson. It works on the lapel, the sleeve, or across the back of the jacket on stage, and fans can make their own.

These boards are concept art made to show the direction. They aren't final photos or covers; the real ones come out of the shoot.

The winter timeline

Fund in two weeks, film in November, release in January

When	What happens	Status
Wed, Oct 21	Meet with Stuart: agree on the goal, Stuart's role, and how money is handled.	Today
Thu, Oct 22	Meet a creative and editing vendor with Grayson. Get pricing for each of the three ways of making this (next section).	Tomorrow
Oct 23 to 25	Choose a model, finalize the budget and stretch goal, write the GoFundMe page.	Proposed
Oct 26 to Nov 1	7-day GoFundMe, shared personally with friends and family.	Proposed
Nov 2 to 3	Book crew and dates. Stuart pays the deposits.	Proposed
Nov 4 to 24	Production. Shoot the Love Drug video, portraits, and cover art, plus extra footage for Transforming when we can. Editing starts right away.	Proposed
Nov 19 to Dec 24	Build the audience. Introduce the look, post short videos regularly, test what lands, open a pre-save link.	Proposed
By Fri, Dec 18	Final master and artwork go to the distributor (we've planned a 3-week buffer before release).	Proposed
Fri, Jan 8, 2027	Love Drug release day, with the music video and promotion going live together.	Proposed
Jan 8 to 18	Watch how listeners respond, adjust, and plan the next single.	Proposed

Why January and not December: music released in the last two weeks of December tends to get lost in the holidays. Early January is a cleaner start, and it gives the video a full month to come together.

The budget question

Three ways to make it, priced side by side

Tomorrow's meeting is a real pricing exercise. The main question: what's the cost difference between using our own local people and bringing in an outside team? Locally, Alex (Miller's friend) and Nate (Grayson's friend) could shoot and edit. The vendor could advise us, plan the creative, edit, or fly a crew out.

Model A

Local

$7,500Base goal

We plan the creative ourselves
Local crew shoots (Alex, Nate, photographers we know)
Local edit
Most of the money goes to production and promotion

Model B · Middle path

Hybrid

$7,500 + stretchStretch set after Oct 22

Vendor advises and writes the creative plan
Local crew shoots, so no travel costs
Vendor does the edit
A professional finish without paying for flights

Model C

Full outside team

HighestStretch set after Oct 22

Vendor plans the creative
Vendor crew flown in to shoot
Vendor edits
Adds flights, lodging and day rates

Where the money goes

Line item	A · Local	B · Hybrid	C · Outside team
Creative plan and direction	Us (no cost)	Vendor quote, Oct 22	Vendor quote, Oct 22
Shoot crew (video and photo)	Local rates, to confirm	Local rates, to confirm	Vendor quote, Oct 22
Editing and color	Alex or Nate, to confirm	Vendor quote, Oct 22	Vendor quote, Oct 22
Travel (flights, lodging)	None	None	Vendor quote, Oct 22
Location, wardrobe, props	Small, to estimate	Small, to estimate	Small, to estimate
Promotion test budget (ads, honest playlist pitching)	To set	To set	To set
GoFundMe processing fees	About 3% of what's raised (around $225 on $7,500). We'll confirm the exact rate when we set up the page.
Cushion for surprises	We'd like to hold back about 10% for overruns.

We'll fill in this table after the Oct 22 meeting and send Stuart the finished version before the GoFundMe goes live. A separate artist-development strategist has also been asked for pricing (strategy only, or strategy plus help running it). That's optional, not something the release depends on.

Supporters and the money

How the funds would work

Stuart's proposed role

Holds the funds raised.
Approves spending and pays vendors directly.
Keeps a simple record of every expense.

Miller and Grayson stay responsible for the creative decisions.

What we'd tell supporters

Gifts are donations to the project. They aren't loans or investments, and they don't buy any ownership.
What a gift makes possible: a professional music video for Love Drug and a real release.
We'll post short updates at each milestone (shoot, first look, release day).

To agree on before launch

Spending: what the money can be used for.
Payments: how vendors get paid.
Fees: who covers the GoFundMe fees.
Surplus or shortfall: what happens to extra money (our suggestion: the next single), and what happens if we come up short (our suggestion: scale down to Model A).

What we won't do: buy fake streams or "guaranteed" playlist spots. Spotify treats paid placement as a violation and can remove the music. We want real listeners who come back.

Separately, Miller and Grayson are putting their split (masters, songwriting, publishing) in writing before release.

For today's conversation

Eight things to decide together

The purpose of the fundraiser, the $7,500 goal, and the 7-day window.
Stuart's role in holding the money and paying for things.
The minimum we promise supporters.
How the budget splits between production, artist development, and promotion.
Local, hybrid, or outside team (final answer after Oct 22 pricing).
How vendors are chosen and paid.
Release order and timing (proposed: Love Drug on Jan 8, 2027).
How and how often we update supporters.

For the GoFundMe page

A starting draft, for Stuart to make his own

The fundraising page will come from Stuart, so the draft below is written in his voice as an example. Everything can change. The highlighted parts are the lines only Stuart can write, and the questions after the draft are there to help him write them.

Title options

Help Grayson and Miller release Love Drug
Love Drug: a first single, done right
Back the Love Drug music video

Short description for when the link gets shared: “My son Grayson and his collaborator Miller made a song I can’t stop playing. Help us give it a real release this January.”

Example page, in Stuart’s voice

Help Grayson and Miller release Love Drug

Organized by Stuart · Goal $7,500 · 7 days

I’ve listened to Love Drug more times than I can count. Stuart: where were you the first time you heard it, and what hit you?

Love Drug is the first single from my son Grayson, who produces as Gray Skies, and his collaborator Miller, who performs as MILLER/MILLER. Miller wrote and sang it. Grayson built the sound around it. It’s finished, and it’s good.

What it doesn’t have yet is everything a song needs to actually be heard: a music video, real photos and cover art, and a few weeks of building an audience before it comes out. That’s what this fundraiser is for.

Our goal is $7,500 in seven days. Every dollar goes to the release:

A professional music video for Love Drug
Photos and cover art for this single and the songs coming after it
Short videos to build up to release day
A small, honest promotion budget. No fake streams, no paid playlist schemes.

I’m managing the money myself. I’ll pay the crew and vendors directly and keep a record of every expense. Your gift is a donation to the project, not a loan or an investment.

The plan is to release Love Drug in early January. Everyone who gives will get updates from the shoot, a first look at the video, and a note on release day.

Stuart: one or two lines on why you believe in these two.

Thank you for being part of it.
Stuart

Outline: what the page should cover, in this order

Why Stuart cares. Open with him, not with the budget. One personal moment with the song.
Who they are. Grayson (Gray Skies) and Miller (MILLER/MILLER), in a sentence each.
What’s already done. The song is finished. This isn’t a maybe.
What’s missing. Video, photos, and a real build-up. Why a song needs more than a recording.
The ask. $7,500, seven days.
Where the money goes. The short list, in plain words.
How the money is handled. Stuart holds it, pays vendors directly, keeps records. Donations, not investments.
What supporters get. Updates, a first look at the video, release-day news.
When. Shoot in November, release in early January.
Thank you. Signed by Stuart. Add a photo of the three of them, or a 30-second phone video of Stuart saying why, at the top.

Stuart’s writing prompts

Short answers are fine. A few honest sentences will do more for this page than anything polished.

The first time you heard Love Drug: where were you, and what did you notice?
Why do you keep playing it?
What have you watched Grayson put into music over the years?
What would it mean to you to see this song released properly?
Finish this sentence for a friend deciding whether to give $25 or $50: “I’m asking you to help because…”
Who are the first ten people you’ll send the link to?