You want to set The Globe and Mail to music?

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When it comes to public relations, basing an entire album's worth of music on the contents of a specific newspaper is pretty slick.

And setting the March 30 edition of The Globe and Mail to music isn't the only unusual device that Enter the Haggis used to produce its latest album, says singer Brian Buchanan. The band also sought production funding through Kickstarter, through which artists ask their fans for money to finance their projects.

Within hours of the Toronto-based band's plea, their goal was surpassed. They are sitting near $50,000 with a few days to go, which means the album – whose title Modest Revolution is based on that day's front page headline about the Harper government's first majority budget – will be recorded early next year in Kentucky.

The band also pre-purchased 1,500 copies of that day's newspaper, which they will send to many of the fans who helped finance the project. Maybe there is hope for print media after all.

So where are you right now?

Playing at the world's biggest Irish festival, which is in Milwaukee. Thanks for expressing an interest in our story, by the way.

Well that's the thing – we don't really have much choice here, do we?

This is how you force your own press these days. Obviously, it's a fringe benefit of what we are doing.

It's hardly fringe, it's the heart of the bit.

We just wanted to get a snapshot of the world through the lens of Toronto media. We got the idea after a basement we were staying in flooded in Massachusetts, and the whole town went through a lot of damage. We were doing a songwriting clinic and decided to take that one story in the local paper and each write a song about it and share them at the songwriting clinic.

But why not stop after one newsy song about a wet suburban basement?

We've been looking at the way the music industry is going – people want a story. We liked the idea of using the newspaper as our inspiration. The majority of our fans are in the United States, so we can send them an interesting and well-written Canadian newspaper that gives them a window into the way Canada sees the world instead of having everything filtered through News Corp.

It's sweet that you like us, but do you not worry that this is going to be the most boring concept album since Kiss released The Elder?

It is a challenge. It's not that the Globe is dry, we just had to pick the day in advance because we had to order 1,500 copies of the paper. We planned a year in advance and we snuck a couple of things into the paper that we can't reveal just yet.

You mean you actively altered that day's paper? How?

Yes. There is something in the March 30 paper that will tie into stuff on the album. We're diabolical geniuses.

What was it?

Can't say.

Oh. So what are the songs going to be about?

There's lots of cool stuff we may use – this day in history sort of things. There was also an Earl Scrugg's obituary, so that kind of writes itself. And we weren't limited to just stories – we looked at ads, obituaries and movie reviews, too. We'll take the title of the album from the front-page headline: "Harper's Modest Revolution."

Is funding an album on Kickstarter the most DIY thing ever, or the least? I can't make up my mind.

Depends on how you approach it. I've seen bands make the mistake of making every part of the process crowdsourced, it means they are writing for you. They vote on the songs or lyrical changes, it rubs me the wrong way. We've tried hard to walk a line – we'll send demos as we record but that's about it. You don't want to whore yourself too much.

But, you're asking strangers for money on the Internet.

Every CD we sell we sell off stage directly to a fan. There's no big industry behind us. We have every fan to thank for letting us do what we do for a living. I have so many friends who are weekend warriors playing terrible cover gigs, we've all been lucky to do this full time. I used to have a TTC busking licence, to me that's what this is like.

You've raised an astounding $50,000. That's a lot of album – maybe you could get Taylor Swift to appear for that kind of cash.

We have to pay the producer, print the thing, ship out 1,500 copies of the newspaper. There are other things – custom USB keys, posters and T-shirts plus doing a live album in the studio. It seems like a lot of money but we'll probably spend every cent of it and need to go into our pockets for more.

Are there any refunds if you put out a really crappy album?

No, but I guess I'll end up back in the subway stations.

The interview has been condensed and edited.