Local Band King of Spain Needs Your Help

King of Spain is a well known ambient-pop music act around Tampa and the southeast, but if they're going to take their following to the next level, they're going to need some help.

That's where Team Clermont, a public relations firm from Athens, GA, comes in. After signing with Seminole Heights record label New Grenada this year, King of Spain is enlisting the PR firm as it plans the release of its second album Aug. 28, with a U.S. tour to follow. New Grenada fronted the band the cost of the promotion firm, which has worked with bands such as Wilco, Norah Jones and The Avett Brothers, but now the band has to pay the label back.

"We either have to pay it back from album sales or out of our pockets," said Matt Slate, King of Spain's founder, guitar player and lead vocalist. "They book a lot of our tour stops and have done a lot for the band, so we want to pay them back. We're close with owner Keith Ulrey, who also owns ."

Working as a bartender at in Seminole Heights, Slate isn't able to pay the money himself very easily. As a result, he and bass playing wing man Daniel Wainright started a Pledge Music campaign. Through the online site, fans can donate to the band to help them meet the $4,000 goal to pay for the public relations firm.

The Pledge Music account lasts for 60 days, but should the band meet its goal with the website taking its cut before that time is up, the extra raised in the remaining time is split 50/50 between the band and a charity of its choice.

"We chose the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to split the excess with," Slate said. "My mother has MS, and some of the other people involved have family who has it, so it's a cause very close to us. So far the campaign is going really well. In the first week, we raised one thousand dollars. Our minimal goal is to make the $4,000, and then we hope to be able to give something to charity, and our half of that will help pay for the tour. I don't get vacation pay working as a bartender, so we could use a little extra."

The band's new album, entitled "All I Did Was Tell Them The Truth and They Thought It Was Hell" will release on New Grenada on Aug. 28, with an album release party set for Aug. 25 at New World Brewery in Ybor City. The public relations campaign will commence in the coming weeks, and the band hopes to go on a national tour beginning on Aug. 29.

"We did it with the first album," Slate said. "We sent it out and it was reviewed on National Public Radio and we got some other press outlets to pay attention to it. It was good because now we're kind of known around the places the tour went, but we aren't going to draw large crowds outside of Tampa. The idea here is to get us out there further."

The current tour schedule has 14 dates ranging as far up the East Coast as Boston and as far west as Chicago. The goal is to make sure they play all 14 dates, and with any luck build the name King of Spain.

"The first album was my solo effort, but bringing Daniel into the songwriting process makes this album a bit different," Slate said. "It's simultaneously darker and poppier. We're polishing our playing of the album now, and we look forward to our first show in some time on July 20."

King of Spain will play at New World Brewery on July 20.

For more information on King of Spain, visit their website or Facebook page. To help them pay for the promotional costs with a donation, click here.