Uncovered: Glüme - Main Character
Continuing our insights into the creative behind the shortlisted album covers for Best Art Vinyl 2023. Andrea Riba talks us through her work and this evocative cover shot of the avant-pop star Glüme who flippantly calls herself the 'Walmart Marilyn' for her latest album Main Character.
Andrea Riba is a Mexican-Chilean writer, director, producer, and co-founder of Femina Films. The album cover for Main Character was shot on the film set for 'Child Actor' which is the opening track on the album and inspired the short film and music video of the same title produced by Femina Films and Italians Do It Better.
Andrea tells us “It's a surreal film in which Glüme revisits her child self in the 90s. The image was taken after shooting the climax of the film in a preserved 70s dressing room in the outskirts of Hollywood. In this scene, Glüme confronts her mother (played by Riki Lindhome - whose credits include Knives Out, Wednesday) about the loss of her childhood to the demanding world of child acting in Hollywood."
Riba first met Glüme on set for her debut album cover shoot for 'The Internet', although the shoot initially started as a passion project. Andrea explains, “I had a Blue Velvet inspired photoshoot I had been sitting on, and after discovering Glüme through music label Italians Do It Better, I thought she had the perfect cadence for the concept. At the time, the label had already announced the album cover for her debut album The Internet, but when the label saw the photos from our shoot, the plan changed and they landed on one of the images for the album cover and billboards around LA, which was such an exciting surprise.”
The Internet album cover - Glüme 2012
We asked Andrea how the iconic image for the cover of Main Character came about. She told us, “We purposefully scheduled this scene at the end of our 12 hour set day in order for the exhaustion of the day to aid Glüme's performance. After wrapping the scene, I thought of taking film stills to capture Glüme's raw emotions, which were at an all-time high. There was no intention for the image to be the album cover, but the distraught expression captured on Glüme sparked the attention of her label, so they landed on this image as the album cover. There is an interesting contradiction between the title of the album 'Main Character' - someone at the centre of the plot, with an image of a woman tearing and in pure vulnerability.”
Vinyl scan image for 'Main Character' 2023 by Andrea Riba
We wanted to delve into how the vintage feel of this image was captured so effectively. Andrea tells us, "I wanted to shoot the image on Cinestill 800T because this film captures a beautiful halation and glow around practical lights, that being the vintage tungsten bulbs around the mirrors around the entire dressing room we shot in. There is also a thick grain to the film which provides a sort of surreal veneer between the audience and the world captured, which was meant to reflect Glüme's life as a child actor in the 90's. We also wanted to keep it same world, since her first album 'The Internet' was shot on Cinestill as well."
Riba and Glüme have a close professional and personal relationship which may account for how Andrea was able to capture such a wonderfully raw and personal image of the star. She explains, "Glüme approached me about joining her team as a creative director and this was the beginning of, not only an organic professional collaboration between her and I, but a long term friendship. She is an inspiring human being and we share the same aesthetic interests and love for film, music, and people."
Glüme Harlow and Andrea Riba
Main Character by Glüme on Italians Do It Better label is shortlisted for Best Art Vinyl 2023
