Desk Hermit Records

Illustrators share the music they would listen to if they found themselves shut in their studios. Which, generally, is only a slightly hypothetical situation.

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This week's contribution is by Kyle Fewell, an illustrator from New York who probably draws some of the best cats on the internet.  His music choices make a nice contrast with the cavalcade of cute cats, girls and food illustrations in his portfolio.

Innumerable Forms - Frozen to Death EP This is my go to album currently at work. Nice old school death metal sound. 'Frozen to Death' and 'Contaminated' are the best things on the album.

Thou - Another World is Inevitable Sludgy and depressing doom, mmm.

Heaven in Her Arms - correlative sign Nice little screamo band from Japan.

Insect Warfare - Necessary Death Really good Grindcore from Houston, TX.

Isis - Ghost Key Anything by Isis is always a good choice (unless its from Absence of Truth.. then it's basically one song).

Merciless - Mind Possession Good Death-Thrash crossover band from the early 90s.

Coroner - Reborn Through Hate Highly enjoying this thrash band lately.

Thunder Bolt - Impious bewitchments of Aberra Recently got back into this band. Some good ole blackened death metal.

Kyle's day job is illustrating for an ipad-app for young readers,  which has deprived him of the opportunity to sit home alone all day drawing. So he would actually welcome some quality studio-hermitude.  Provided of course he could have: 'My Surface Pro 2 for FFXIV (and drawing), 3DS (with bravely default installed on it). my cats Chumley and Gemma, whiskey/beer and a box of Shipley Donuts'.

See more of Kyle's work here: kyle-fewell.com and follow him here: kylefewell.tumblr.com and here: @kylefewell

[groeneinkt]

Listening to this today (of course).

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KRIS MUKAI

This week's contributor is the wildly talented Kris Mukai, who says that being locked away in her studio would be 'no way to live', so her list of five items would be: A lock picking kit, a toolbox, a sledgehammer, her computer, a gun.

Kavinsky - Nightcall This album is first thing I listen to when I start working, and I'll listen to it over and over and over and over and ∞ . It is immediately transporting and fascinating. 

Cocorosie - Werewolf (live) The poetry in this song is fantastic. 

Ester Dean - Drop it Low This song makes me feel tough. I love in the video when Ester says "CAN YOU PLEASE GO HOME?"

Rye rye - Sunshine Carefree summer memories.

Ninjasonik - Daylight Remix Another carefree song that reminds me of my friends. 

M.I.A. - Bad Girls Fucking cool right?

Azealia Banks - 212 If you can't appreciate this song, I can't appreciate you.

Daughn Gibson - A Young Girl's World (off the album All Hell) This is another album that I will listen to over and over again.

You can see more of Kris' work here: www.krismukai.com She tumblrs here: krismukai.tumblr and tweets over here: twitter.com/krismukai

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ANDREW KOLB

the first contributor after this little break (illustrating books takes up a fair amount of time) is Andrew Kolb an illustrator from Ontario, Canada. Andrew's work is distinguished by a marked sense of playfulness, bold shapes and a deep love for (the geekier side of) pop culture.

If we were to lock him up in his studio, and he would prefer his studio if he did have to be shut in somewhere, these are his 8 choices to listen to.

Hoshi Neko by Yamantaka// Sonic Titan 

I admit I don't know what is being sung about, but I think that's the point.

Jolene by Dolly Parton

The story is as much in her voice as it is in the words.

I'm Waiting for the Day by the Beach Boys

These next two songs fall into a category I really like: sad songs that sound happy.

We've got a groovy thing goin' by Simon & Garfunkel

See above.

My Girls by Animal Collective

This whole album just makes me feel like I'm living 10 minutes from now.

Headache by Metz

The roller coaster that starts at 1:30 is pretty great.

Rockers to Swallow by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

These last two fall into another category I'm fond of: the first 5 seconds make me believe I can do anything.  

Tell 'em by Sleigh Bells

Absolutely anything.

Although he spends most of his time in his studio already, being locked in there would completely change his attitude towards being a recluse. 

But if given the choice, he would prefer his studio over any other room. As long as he gets to take "the current Nintendo handheld gaming system (with games) to play, Darwyn Cooke's Parker series to read, Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy to watch, and a McCain's Deep 'n Delicious chocolate cake for company. I think that's only 4 so either the games will count as one or I'll have another cake."

You can find Andrew here: http://www.kolbisneat.com here: https://twitter.com/kolbisneat and here: http://news.kolbisneat.com

My thanks to Andrew for participating!

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No new post this week, as I'm busy (to use the parlance of our times; I am, in fact, working my balls off) finishing a picture book. Fortunately I have Michael Nyman spurring me on.

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Britt Wilson

This week we'll be getting our 'content' from the maddeningly talented Britt Wilson; a cartoonist and illustrator from Toronto. Although I would be remiss to mention her lettering skills.

And while she chose eight tunes to listen to in her studio-prison, she says that generally she prefers audiobook and podcasts while working. She needs something with words to keep her mind occupied while she is drawing, painting, or inking. But that's only after sketching and writing; a more delicate process, where anything with words or a story can be used as an excuse to stop working.  (A familiar issue, if I may interject)

So here is a list of 8 songs that will not break your concentration.

Sigur Rós in general has been a band I've listened to while working since I was first introduced to them in high school, but this song is my current obsession.

Sometimes a lot of soothing instrumentals can make me a bit sleepy, so this one wakes me back up and helps get my brain juices flowing. Pretty sure I first heard it on a commercial for TV's.

This has been my favourite song since the end of high school. I don't listen to it much anymore, but it's still my #1. It has a lot of good memories attached to it after all these years, so this is what I put on when I'm stressed out about deadlines, or ideas that just won't solidify.  

I love me some good fiddle tunes.

Once, I heard this song in an advertisement for Baz Luhrman's Australia, and that made me laugh. 

I have a double album of Artie Shaw's greatest hits and I throw the whole thing on repeat. Usually I end up folding laundry to it though, I guess it's just got that house-wifey feel to it.

Something about the repetitiveness of this song helps my brain work. I don't know why.

Gotta respect a dude who can play the guitar like this with two paralysed fingers on his left hand. Plus his tunes are great for "puttering" around the studio. Tidying up my various messes or reorganizing my copious amounts of stuff.

Britt would actually welcome being locked up in her studio, she says it would be way to 'finally get some things done'. Although she basically already lives at her desk, seeing how her studio is in her apartment, and only goes begrudgingly outside occasionally for such trivialities as groceries. If she were locked in though she would like the following items; 1: food. I always snack while I work. 2 Liquids. Big water bottle, coffee in the morning, tea throughout the day. 3... actually that's probably it, the rest of the things I need to work are already here, books, music, my plastic stegosaurus...etc.

You can find Britt here: brittwilson.com She twitters here: @Britterson

As always these posts are best viewed on the site itself in a browser.

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Trevor Basset

This week our musical guest is Trevor Basset, a designer and illustrator from Seattle. You might also be aware of him from his side project, the Silver Screen Society, where illustrators share work inspired by films.

Here he shares his choices for 8 pieces of music to keep with him if he found himself locked away forever in his studio.

"Bowerbirds is a good go to to calm things down, peaceful and imaginative music."

"A beautiful song from French singer Barbara." 

"I'll listen to pretty much anything Spencer Krug is involved with and Sunset Rubdown is my favorite of his projects."

"Classic Beach Boys, not much to say here."

"Any Ravi Shankar would do really but I've listened to 'The Sounds of India' the most which is where this song comes from."

"A great Joy Division song."

"My favorite album of the last few years and my favorite song from Father John Misty."

"Just nice mellow music."

He wouldn't actually mind being locked up, provided he could still get any necessary supplies. Having grown up isolated in the woods, he feels comfortable hiding away from the world.  Although he would like to take with him: his guitar, a computer, his cat, his other cat, and a warm blanket.

You can find Trevor here: www.trevorbasset.com And here: twitter.com/trevorbasset

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A new year and a new contributor! (yes, it's been 2014 for a little while now, but I think it still counts) Kenard Pak is an illustrator and visual development artist living and working in San Francisco.

His first picture book is coming out soon from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and a few days ago he took some time out, of what I presume to be a busy schedule to share some of his favourite music.

My basic go to music is Stars of the Lid; where they put most to sleep, their music actually motivates me to work hard.

I used to be a Drum 'n' Bass DJ, so when I'm in an energetic mood, I catch up on with labels/producers/DJ's who are contributing to the tradition.  Right now I really like this Belgian duo.

...or the young Rockwell.

So I have a keen interest in electronic music producers. Burial makes his textured, gritty garage/2-step that in my mind is sonic representation of the immigrant neighborhoods of South London

When I'm peeved, Rites of Spring.

I'm a sucker for romantic jazz, so I like Bill Evans a lot.

Or when I'm crazy busy, everything from Miles Davis' 1965 Plugged Nickel Series. I love how it sounds like noise.

I also love working to William Basinki's tape looping experiments.

If he were to find himself trapped in his studio he would like to have: a book with up to date baseball statistics, binoculars, pen and paper, and a nice, small bowl.

The question is if he would take them with him, because he would try to escape. It's having to be behind his desk that, for him, encourages discipline and inspiration. There is the matter of where he would try to escape to though.

You can find Kenard's work here: http://www.pandagun.com and he tumbls here: http://pandagun.tumblr.com

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It's been a bit quiet over here as I look for some new contributors, but here's some music I've been listening to lately while I work on a book for next year's holiday season (how very appropriate right now, don't you think?).

In the mean time; if you're an illustrator who isn't hesitant about sharing what you like to listen to, do get in touch.

(the picture above is from my work for Marks & Spencer's 2013 christmas products)

Just setting the mood here.

I play Sufjan Stevens' christmas songs to death every winter, by which I mean; if I don't stop playing them my wife generally wants to murder me to death after a while. However I can't imagine christmas without his songs anymore, Sufjan gets something so right about the feeling of that period of the year. 

For some reason I have these two tracks as one file, so I'm just posting them together here. And they work well together anyway. This is perfect music for walking alone through the snow. Except of course if you're a hungover Kevin Kline, but that's a spoiler.

Shame on you if you only discovered Benjamin Britten after Moonrise Kingdom.

Did I ever mention I used to be a choirboy? Make of that what you will.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter is quite possibly Astrid Lindgren's book and I grew up on this film. And I still can't imagine anything better; it's got everything: vast wild forests to have adventures in, two bands of robbers, topless witches who are half eagles, idiotic gnomes, and more importantly a brave young girl protagonist who doesn't take crap from her dad.

It's not unusual for me to listen to a lot of soundtracks while I work. Originally I thought I'd choose something from the Golden Compass soundtrack, because it has some nice tingling and appropriately icy textures, but it doesn't really hold up on its own. Rather like the film itself. 

I have fond memories of my friend Meidi, trying to teach me and a few others to play this song on the violin one evening in 2003.

Haha, this movie was terrible. Still I like the song. Also, I wish people were more serious about the twelve days of christmas.

As lovely as it is to live in a place where the winters are truly snowy, I do miss being so far away from Northern Europe.

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Phoebe Wahl

This week's musical guest, as it were, is Phoebe Wahl; a recently graduated illustrator from the Pacific Northwest. Although, I thought at first she was from somewhere in Scandinavia or Germany. Her work, echoed, it seemed to the illustrations of classic Swedish illustrators like Ilon Wikland and Elsa Beskow, with its goodnatured domestic scenes, and woodsy settings. What distinguishes her work though is the heft and the presence of her materials. There's no ethereal application of pastel and watercolour here, instead gouache, pencil and collage assert themselves almost forcefully. The way you feel the slathered on paint in a van Gogh painting. It gives her work a sense of conviction and an earthiness that is singularly appealing. You can also tell that it takes time to make such pieces. So it's not surprising that she says that her studio is where she spends most of her time already. Having her bedroom in there though, she feels, is not entirely ideal. Spending the entire day in your bedroom working, doesn't always feel like working. And it's hard to take breaks when your work is staring you in the face. However she does enjoy working at home, surrounded by her things. Her work is intertwined with her life to a degree where, she thinks, she'd be uncomfortable to separate her work and living spaces. So if she did find herself locked up in there, she only needs the following items to make life a bit more comfortable:

I don’t know if a window can count. But I have to have a window. I have to have some reminder of nature and the outside world to space out through while working. Plus fresh air!

Books. I like having lots of books around to look at if I’m stuck and need inspiration. Most of the books I own are children’s books…

Slippers & hand warmers. Maybe I’m stingy or my house just doesn’t hold heat very efficiently…but my feet and hands are always cold. Even in the summer I wear slippers while working, and a lot of times fingerless gloves too.

Tea. Earl Gray with milk and honey. Chamomile & Lavender after 9pm. I was vegan for a while and non-milky tea was the second saddest part. (No cheese was the first saddest of course.)

Some sort of audio-device, a computer or iPod (although I could definitely still get down with a walkman… I love cassettes.) When I was little I would zone out for hours drawing and listening to audiobooks. I would listen to the same ones over and over. I’ve listened to Little Women and The Secret Garden about 30 times, I swear. I still love audiobooks, and revisit old favorites frequently…like Harry Potter!

Musically her choices would be:

I like to listen to classical music a lot while I work. It allows me to zone out in a way that is more difficult for me to do when listening to other music. Everything melts away, I don’t think about skipping tracks or what’s coming next. I love classical piano. I play piano. I love Debussy and Erik Satie and Chopin and some Phillip Glass, like his Metamorphosis pieces. I also love the Bach cello suites. Sometimes while I work I will live stream KING FM which is the Seattle based classical radio station that always plays at my Grandma’s house.

Nick Drake is morning music. It’s sunshine streaming in, a cup of tea, cedar incense burning and a good project to work on.

I love old timey music. Frank Fairfield is an amazing contemporary artist doing old timey folk. I saw him in Newport, RI last year. He looks like he walked out of a time machine. We talked about how he’s been to Bellingham, WA (my hometown) before and we liked the same antique shop. He’s one of my major celebrity crushes.

I love listening to Jean Ritchie’s album “Mountain Hearth & Home” while I work. She does a lot of traditional Appalachian/old English ballads. She’s also a total style icon.

I’ve seen these folks a couple times busking at the Oregon Country Fair and then saw them headline at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree. They are so cool. I want to draw all of them. And have, pretty much. I like to theme the music I listen to based on what I’m working on. I’m about to start a painting of people dancing outdoors to a lively string band… I will probably be listening to the Crow Quill Night Owls while I work for inspiration! I like having soundtracks to my pieces, it takes me deeper into the world of whatever I’m working on.

I only just started listening to Bill Callahan, I don’t even have his new album yet! But I love the album this song is on, “Apocalypse”.

I was torn between Paul Simon and Tallest Man on Earth so I compromised with one covering the other.

You can find Phoebe's portfolio here: http://phoebewahl.com She blogs here: http://www.phoebewahl.blogspot.com and here: http://phoebewahl.tumblr.com And her store is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PhoebeWahl

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Phil McAndrew

This week's contributor is a cartoonist and illustrator I've known online for a few years, and recently I've had the pleasure of getting to know him offline as we moved to the same city this summer. Phil's work is in many ways decidedly old school, his scratchy pen and ink drawings have a quality that place them in a tradition of cartoonists like Ralph Steadman, Ronald Searle and the great Quentin Blake. He says that being locked in his studio would be a terrible punishment, even if work sometimes demands living like that. He gets antsy if he doesn' get to go out, talk to people, look at trees, pet stray cats and ride his bike.

If we were to lock him in his studio however, he would like to be given: a blanket (for cape reasons), a big sandwich, a drum set, a bottle of orange juice, and a case of beer. (editor's note, while Phil has a very nice workplace, I really don't see how he's going to fit a drumset in there, unless it's a tiny one)

Bad Girl by Lee Moses. I don't know much about Lee Moses. I'm pretty sure he never got all that famous. I somehow came across this song a while back, I don't remember how exactly, but it immediately became an obsession for me. It's got a raw, powerful sound, the sort of sound that I imagine can only come directly from a person's soul. Lyrically it's great. I love that so much is left unsaid, left to the imagination, and yet when you listen, a very clear picture is painted. It's a gem of a song.

Pidgeon by Shotgun & Jaybird. A good friend of mine turned me on to Shotgun & Jaybird back in... 2007? I can't remember when exactly. Their songs are often really bleak and beat down, but also soulful and full charm, an aesthetic that really appeals to the rust belt upstate New Yorker in me. I love most of their songs, but this one in particular always cuts right through me and builds a little nest somewhere just behind my ribs. I have to sing along whenever I hear it. I can't stop myself. It shuffles along in such a comfortable way.

Random Rules by Silver Jews. This is a song that always just feels "right" to me, no matter what mood I'm in. Lyrically, I think it's a perfect song. And it's real easy on the ears. David Berman has a voice like a full glass of top shelf bourbon.

I'm So Depressed by Abner Jay. Listen to him howl! Listen to that harmonica! What a guy! What a song!

Eye Know by De La Soul. The album Three Feet High and Rising is a hip hop masterpiece and this is one of my favorite tracks. I could nod my head along to this all day. It's playful and smart and I love to listen to it when I cook eggs in the morning.

I Am Warm And Powerful by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. My brother got me really into this band. This song is from their first album, Broom, which became the soundtrack to a weird, magical, uncertain year that I had right after college. I've met the the band a couple times since then and they're great, wonderful people. I love those guys. This song swings back and forth from soft and melancholy to... well, warm and powerful. I love that it feels like a song that's being played in an attic somewhere.

Our Happiness Is Guaranteed by Quasi. I love everything about Quasi's sound - Sam Coomes' crunchy, distorted keyboard and Janet Weiss' relentlessly awesome drums. Their songs are simple and catchy and full of untamed energy. I always find myself singing and air drumming along to this one, which is great considering how terrifying the lyrics really are.

Scavenger Hunt by SSWAMPZZ. Full disclosure: this is my little brother's band. But the one album they put out was really, truthfully, my favorite album of 2012. It's refreshing and wild and loud and spooky in a perfect way. The whole album knocks my socks off. And it was probably written and recorded in my old bedroom at my parents' house. Two of the three dudes in this band, one of them being my brother Ray, are now making waves as members of the band Perfect Pussy. (Editor's note: Perfect Pussy is on tour at the moment actually: http://prrfectpussy.bandcamp.com)

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Donovan Crosby

This week’s contributor is Donovan Crosby, an artist and illustrator who is originally from L.A. After working in the animation industry for a few years, she escaped to Portland, Or, to paint, draw, hike and generally enjoy the grey and mossy vastness of the pacific northwest. She shares her work sparingly, sneaking it on to her blog hicockalorum.tumblr.com.

If she found herself stranded in her studio, it wouldn’t be that different from her current life but she would miss being able to go hiking or simply getting a breath of fresh air. Although, as she puts it, she’s already adept at contorting her body for long stretches at a time to serve a finished piece of art. She would like the following items in said studio: twinkle lights, a kettle, tea and lots of it, a cat, and a yogamat.

This is a stretch, but technically it is a soundtrack. It takes me back to a childhood in Southern California where going to Disneyland was an immense treat. Most people I know who had similar experiences still retain a flitter of excitement at the thought of wandering around those cavernous air conditioned rides. I’m not sure what I would make of the place if I were to see it for the first time as an adult. Likely I’d see more of the scaffolding and edifice holding the illusion together, ie; the little wires that LED fireflies hang from. But hearing this reminds me of a time when I didn’t need to squint to make it look fantastical, I was just swimming in magic.

All I really know about this music is that there were a group of people in a room really enjoying themselves. Sometimes that is enough for me.

This woman is a muse. The way she spins this far-fetched tale almost makes me believe it is real.

Listening to anything by Newman is a powerful mood enhancer for working, but there is something about this piece that I can’t put my finger on-even the melancholic tone doesn’t deter me. 

Choral music tends to transport me. I stubbornly refuse to use the correct pronunciation “ˈkôrəl” though. Instead, I derive much joy from annoying my musician boyfriend by pronouncing so that it rhymes with ‘spiral’. I’m more keen on religious music than one would suspect an average atheist to be. However, if it is in a language I don’t know well-so much the better

It’s not so much the lyrics in this song that moves me, but EVERYTHING about the way he delivers them (and the crowd reacts) makes me swoon every. single. time. So much of his goodness just oozes out of this recording. A friend of mine told me that when he was 17 or so, he gave a speech to his entire high school entitled “Why Marvin is the Man: A Dissertation”. He went on to say that Marvin strikes him as being unleashed, and spoke of how he sees that as a sign of a really fucking good artist. I can’t put it any better than he did.

Explanation: I am an anglophile.

Like a lot of white people, I probably heard this man’s voice for the first time in a commercial doing a cover of ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’. I have no idea what the commercial was for, but it personally sent me into a mad fury to find the singer and hear more of his work. There are so many things one hears about IZ that it’s hard not to believe them all. He was a beloved figure in his community (about ten thousand people attended his funeral). You get a sense of that if you are lucky enough to visit the Hawaiian Islands. There is no way to convey in words what it is like to be there, but his music holds a tiny hint. Most of his music can mentally send me to a real life Xanadu, but this song has the added ability to generally pull me out of any number of crappy moods.

[deskhermitrecords]

Two things:

Next's week contributor is Donovan Crosby, an illustrator, who you might know from her blog: Hicockalorum (Image above by Donovan Crosby).

Secondly, if you have spotify you could, if you are so inclined, keep track of everyone's music selections with this playlist. Sadly that does mean that if anyone chooses  anything by Joanna Newsom (and why wouldn't they?), or other songs that aren't available on there those will have to be left out. But then again youtube isn't perfect either.

(Click the anonymous little box above for said playlist)

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Roman Muradov

Roman Muradov is an illustrator and cartoonist who barely needs an introduction here. Originally from Russia, he has been making his fellow illustrators and doodlers sick with envy over the past few years with his incredibly inventive and constantly elegant work.

Here he shares his choices to listen to again and again if he found himself chained to his desk.

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is my favorite jazz record (though I have to admit I'm not much of an expert in these matters). I often get lost in its movements, sit for hours eyes closed, fingertapping. I don't know how many times I've listened to that album, but it never seems to get old.

NME's C86 tape shaped a great deal of my aesthetics in terms of treatment and finish: the stripped-down underproduced sound that most of the bands borrowed from post-punk, shameless naivety, a general roughness around the edges. Pastels eventually evolved a mature sound out of their genuine naivety, and although the new album is excellent, these old tracks have a special place in my heart. I love the fragility of the shambling guitars and awkward rhythms, it's as if the whole song may fall apart at any second.

I actually discovered Ivor Cutler only a few months ago, although I remember being deeply moved by his "disposition" poem that I mistook for a Chris Morris sketch on Blue Jam. Cutler's work is entirely without malice. "Gravity Begins at Home," What a way to respond to a miserable childhood!

Stephin Merritt is my favorite songwriter for a good number of reasons. Firstly, it's languor and wit edited down into digestible pop numbers. Secondly, his detached, clinical approach to love songs. Finally, it's his restless stylistic constraints and constant referencing that make the final product feel far more warm and honest than the standard wailing indie stuff. I think Merritt described 69 Love Songs as an album about love songs rather than an album of love songs. That just about sums it up.

Although the Friedbergers' solo work is most excellent, I miss the lyrical density and erratic pop progressions of Fiery Furnaces. Eleanor's near-hysteric stream-of-consciousness delivery jumps between characters, times and places, and the obsessive geographic exactitude and oddly specific details appeal to me immensely.

Early múm is the closest thing I have to feel-good music. As a lonely youth, I used to listen obsessively to Throbbing Gristle, Ground Zero and all that, but over time their abrasive sounds grew tiring and I gave in to gentler noise. It always seemed to me that these first mum records took the minimalist rusty sounds of TG and rearranged them into pleasant inoffensive compositions that drift in and out of each other in subtly shifting structures.

Aislers Set's How I Learned To Write Backwards is the San Francisco that I somehow missed, a parallel city that developed separately, partially through the beauty of the record, partially through my pathological dissatisfaction with whatever place I inhabit at any given moment. There's a few quiet chamber moments, a couple of delightful abstract pieces and one of the greatest pop songs I've heard, Mission Bells.