#dylan singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Secrets

Holed up in a house together for a week, Matthew Wignall and Deep Sea Diver weren’t just there to hang out, although they certainly did that. Instead, they were there to work -- cranking out the art for Deep Sea Diver’s second record, Secrets, by week’s end.

Deep Sea Diver - Secrets (via Deep Sea Diver)

“I’m pretty involved with the band, having made a record with them [before],” explained Matthew. “So when they called me for the newest record, I heard the music and I [knew] where they’re coming from. We then decided that they needed photos, too, so we decided that I would fly up to Seattle and hang out with them.”

This sort of assignment is about as ideal as it gets for Matthew. He not only got a chance to work with a group that he already had a strong relationship with, but being on site with the band for a few days also allowed him to collaborate with them in a way that a shorter visit or email exhange wouldn’t allow.

Deep Sea Diver shot by Matthew Wignall

“We were all in the same house together and we spent probably 5 days or something like that where we went out and did a few photoshoots, talked about art concepts, we filmed a little bit -- I think we filmed a music video,” Matthew said. “So we did a bunch of stuff over that period of time and so it was all kind of to just immerse into what they’re thinking and what they’re doing. So really you get a couple cool photos and that sort of starts the aesthetic.”

Building on that aesthetic was the next hurdle, and Matthew and the band had brainstormed a couple of directions that they wanted to go with it.

“[When we begin], I’ll ask an artist sometimes for a list, like: ‘What inspires you? What do you like? What is some artwork that you dig?” Matthew said. “It can be an album cover, it can be a book cover, it can be whatever. ‘What are you into right now?’ So that way at least I have a starting point for where to design from.”

Deep Sea Diver shot by Matthew Wignall

In this case, both Matthew and the band felt the need for something that felt cool for the cover, and what better of an inspiration for that than Nick Cave?

“Nick Cave, of course, came up as an influence at some point,” he explained. “I started looking at his covers and I kinda thought I loved some of the ones with a stark black and white photo of him. So I kinda went into it thinking about that a little bit.”

With Nick Cave as his guide, Matthew began mocking up the layout of the cover.

“I think [I was] playing around with some of the big horizontal boxes of color and all that kind of stuff. In some ways there’s definitely some 80s in there -- those older Nick Cave covers and stuff like that.” 

With an idea of what they want the cover to look like -- big boxes of color, juxtaposed with a stark black-and-white photo -- Matthew and the band had to make one last decision: whose photo should they use?

“I think me and Peter -- the drummer, he’s married to Jessica -- we had discussed how Jessica’s cool and it’s her songs. [Deep Sea Diver] is a band, but in a lot of ways it’s her,” Matthew said. “Everybody contributes, but she’s definitely the point of the tip of the spear -- creatively as well as being the front person.”

“I think me and Peter were talking about about ‘I dunno, maybe it’d be cool to put her on the cover. She looks cool and if we had a cool picture, maybe that’d be an interesting kind of thing.’ She is a really strong woman who has a lot of opinions and is pretty capable of producing herself and that sort of thing. I think in a way I started playing around with that right off the bat -- that was the way I wanted to go with it.”

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: form/a

As a self-proclaimed “alternative to CD and Tape packaging,” Brittany Gannon has built up Pavonine Packaging through a combination of her own talent and the relationships she has developed with different bands. 

One of those connections has been with the band Half Waif, who have tapped Brittany to work on several of their releases, including their most recent EP, form/a.

Half Waif - form/a (via Pavonine Packaging)

“I had done the packaging for Half Waif’s previous release, Probable Depths, so they thought of me when they needed packaging for form/a,” Brittany explained in an email. 

Because Brittany works on Pavonine in her free time, she is often busy filling older orders when a new job comes in. This adds a layer of complication to new projects as she doesn’t always have time to sit down right away and flesh out any ideas she has for the piece. At the same time, this almost forces her to take a slow and methodical approach to developing new ideas.

“I couldn’t work on form/a right away because of other orders so I had a few weeks to think about what I wanted to do. A lot of the time I get an order and I really don’t know what I am going to do,” she explained. “Some order forms don’t have any hint of what the customer wants so my mind doesn’t have that initial starting point to build on. I don’t know how but I always seem to figure something out.”

In the case of form/a, the band had given her some direction to work with, as well cover art to build off of.

“I think [the packaging] was all inspired by this sentence that Nandi [Rose Plunkett] wrote in the order form: The cover art conveys the idea of ephemeral moods being made tangible, so that you’re able to actually visualize the feelings exploding from the chest.”

Half Waif - form/a (via Pavonine Packaging)

On top of that, Nandi and Half Waif wanted the packaging to be “travel friendly” so that it would hold up if they brought it along on their upcoming tour. 

With that direction in mind, Brittany was able to start coming up with some ideas.

“For Half Waif I spent those weeks thinking about ‘ephemeral moods being made tangible.’ Once I had my idea for Half Waif it took about 2-3 days to finish the design. The packaging itself took about 6-8 weeks finish an order of 75,” Brittany wrote. “The inside of the packaging is the chest and the cut out, pop up lines are those exploding tangible ephemeral moods.”

Circling back, it was Brittany’s past connection with Half Waif that prompted them to ask her to work on form/a, but it was also that same relationship, this time coming from Brittany’s perspective, that fueled her work on the project.

“I think my love for Half Waif’s music was a big influence on how complex I was willing to go with the design,” Brittany explained. 

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Bleachers

It started with a classic case of “pink hair, don’t care.”

Michelle Holme was working at RCA when the label received a handful of images from Jack Antonoff to be considered for the artwork for Bleachers’ record Strange Desires. As Michelle was looking over some of the options, a flash of pink caught her eye.

“[The project] was not really assigned to anyone, and Jack sent in a bunch of pictures, and I was like ‘Oh that’s fun.’ So I started comping for the single ‘I Wanna Get Better,’” Michelle said. “For this music, I was like ‘I think that maybe the back of this chick’s head will be better for this track’ and apparently Jack really dug that.”

Bleachers - I Wanna Get Better single (Courtesy of Michelle Holme)

With Jack’s seal of approval, Michelle then began working on the art for the rest of the singles as well as the album. Because she hadn’t been involved in the photoshoot process, her job was to curate the photos and lay out the covers in a way that kept the “same vibe throughout” all the different pieces.

“That was a fun project because...  you could just pull weird random things, and [while] more often than not it wouldn’t be the right thing, it got a good dialogue going of where [the art would] end up.”

Bleachers - Strange Desire (Courtesy of Michelle Holme)

As exciting as the project was, it wasn’t until later that Michelle’s favorite part of it all happened. 

“I really dug working on... Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2, where it was all women singing (the songs from Strange Desires),” Michelle said. “[Jack] wanted to do this [record], and I did a couple of cover comps for [it] and was like, ‘You know what would be kind of fun? Let’s replace you with a chick’ and that ended up being the cover.”

“And then we just had to find some, we had to take a second to look in images to find appropriate replacements for the other shots in the package. But that was kind of fun, I was like ‘Let’s literally replace you with a chick and see how it goes.’”

Bleachers - Terrible Thrills Vol. 2 (Via Spin)

Michelle was also brought on to help design merch for Bleachers’ subsequent tour. In doing so, she and the band made sure that they didn’t stick to just the typical crop of screenprinted tees, but instead created a wide range of items that highlighted the band’s personality. 

“The thing is, [Jack] wanted to do a lot of random, fun merch like the gold chain and a lot of the shirts. I assume there was little resistance… just because like ‘Oh it’s cut and sew it’s going to be expensive’ but everyone seems to really dig it,” Michelle said. “It’s not just like a printed tee, people do dig it and they wear it out in public and it’s good for the band. But that was fun because it was like different hats and sweatshirts and a bunch of different merch that was a bit more fun and silly than I’ve been able to do in the past.”

Bleachers chain (Courtesy of Michelle Holme)

Of all the merch, there was one item in particular that spoke directly to Michelle. She liked it so much that she was even inspired to try it out with one of her other regular clients.

“There were sunglasses! That was fun, that made me [think], ‘Let’s do sunglasses for Bruce!’ and then that came out interesting as well. ...But that’s also because I love sunglasses,’” she said. “...I still wear my samples around.”

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Pavonine Packaging

With Pavonine Packaging, Brittany Gannon wants to help musicians create “a more creative and special experience” with the packaging of their music. Living up to her word, Brittany’s creations are beautiful, captivating, and -- most of all -- unique.

Almost Elijah - For a Year (via Pavonine Packaging)

As a passion project, Pavonine occupies just about every second of her free time, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I have a more than full-time job and I work on Pavonine every free moment I have,” Brittany wrote in an email. “This doesn’t leave much free time to socialize but I am okay with that. I like to have crappy TV shows playing while I am packaging. I tried getting into audiobooks while packaging but the voices [used to] bother me for some reason. I’ve killed 3 printers over that past two years.”

Despite having been “always interested in art,” it took Brittany a while to find her niche. Less than successful forays into photography, embroidery, drawing, and painting left her looking for more. Eventually, she found her way.

“I was never very good at any of [them],” she wrote. “I knew that I liked how I felt when I was creating but I didn’t find what I was good at until a few years ago with Pavonine. It turns out I can make a lot of cool sh*t out of paper and glue.”

It was in 2012 that she began realizing her prowess with paper and glue, and began a project that would plant the seeds that would grow into Pavonine a few years later. 

“I started out doing packaging for my boyfriend's releases as True Key,” explained Brittany. “He always released his music around his birthday, [so] I thought it was a pretty good gift idea.”

True Key - I Want to Believe (via Pavonine Packaging)

Despite doing the work for her boyfriend, it wasn’t until 2015 that Brittany would get the idea to branch to other bands.

“My very good friends in the band Sunrot actually helped me realize the idea of Pavonine. A few summers ago I was helping clean up and paint a local DIY basement venue. Lex [from Sunrot] was down there painting too. On cigarette breaks we would chat and at one point I decided to show them that very first CD packaging I had done for my boyfriend years before. It was on a shelf down in the basement. Lex was blown away by it and that felt amazing.”

“They asked if I would make the packaging for Sunrot's release. Every member of Sunrot is an artist as well as a musician and they all contributed a piece to the design of the packaging. An idea or artwork. They were all so supportive and encouraging of my work that the idea of doing this for other people seemed obvious,” Brittan explained. “Meeting new people is difficult for me so I don't know if I would have started Pavonine when I did if I hadn't had this very positive experience of working with strangers. We are still good friends and I continue to work on the packaging for all of their releases.”

From there, Brittany started to get Pavonine’s wheels rolling by finding new clients as well as developing her own skills so that she could offer more with her work.

“For the first year almost every order required me to learn something new. That was an obstacle I was more than willing to overcome. My day job was only part time still so I had the time to dedicate to figuring out embossing, tape dubbing, Photoshop, pressing shirts, dyeing canvas, marbling tapes, etc.”

Toy Cars – Letters (via Pavonine Packaging)

When working with a band, Brittany approaches her work by building out from what the band brings her so that the packaging complements any artwork that they might already have.

“My biggest inspiration for packaging ideas is the artwork that musicians send in with their orders. Rather than try to interpret their music myself I look to the artwork as already being an interpretation of the music. I am a visual person so it is easier for me to understand images rather than sound,” she wrote. “I look for small details in the order forms to build on. A tie closure, a cut out pattern, a lyric booklet, a shape. My mind takes that one suggestion and builds on top of it until I can see the whole thing. Then I try and make it.” 

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Relaxer

One day while scrolling through his Twitter feed, alt-J’s Thom Green stumbled upon something that caught his eye. At first glance, he wasn’t sure what it was, exactly. It was an image, sure, but a fairly abstract one at that. 

Thom was intrigued. This was exactly the sort of thing he was on Twitter for.

“I really like Twitter and Tumblr and Instagram for the sheer factor of how much access you have to imagery, really,” Thom explained. “I really like just scrolling through [them]. ...I often find images that I want to be involved with or do something with, [but] I don’t know quite what. Usually I end up using them for like my Twitter picture -- I change my Twitter picture every day because I like using images for things.”

This particular image came to Thom’s attention courtesy of a man named Oliver Leach, and his Twitter account, @BAKKOOONN, that Thom followed because “he regularly posts images -- quite interesting images -- that he’s made or that he’s found.”

It came at a perfect time, added Thom, because alt-J were in the need of an album cover for their upcoming record, Relaxer (out June 2nd), and Thom was sold that this was it.

alt-J - Relaxer (Courtesy of alt-J)

“I contacted [Oliver] saying that I thought that it was a piece of work that he had made... I was getting prepared to be like, ‘Can we please buy this image off you?’” Thom said.

Oliver responded, explaining that it wasn’t his image, but rather a still image from a game called LSD Dream Emulator.

“I’ve never heard of the game, never played it,” Thom said. “So I looked into it and our management got into contact with the designer of the game and asked if we could use it. He was totally happy for us to use it. He’s a Japanese visual artist… I think his name is Hiroko Nishikawa. He was really excited because he really likes the band and he was really flattered that we wanted to use the image.”

Born from the dreams of Hiroko Nishikawa, LSD Dream Emulator was a PlayStation game released in Japan in 1998 that has since developed a cult following. During gameplay, the player simply walks around, experiencing visuals inspired by a dream diary Hiroko kept over the span of 10 years. Despite the game’s limited initial reach and abstract concept, it features some very relatable aspects for a gamer like Thom. Most notably: the unmistakable visual style of ‘90s video games.

“I’m a massive fan of computer games and I recognize computer game imagery -- you know, it’s quite distinct imagery,” Thom said. “I used to play PlayStation 1 but I’ve never played this game. [The art] drew me in, I think the red and the black work really well together. It’s really an attractive image. I think a lot of people might think: ‘What the f*ck is that?’”

That last part comes from personal experience. In fact, it wasn’t until Thom showed his bandmates the image that he was even aware of everything that was going on in it.

“The red figure on the floor, I didn’t notice that to be a body to begin with, I just kinda thought it was an abstract shape, really -- maybe a puddle or something like that. And it was Gus (Unger-Hamilton) that pointed out that it was a body,” Thom said. “When editing the image for the cover, we removed [the body] to see what it would look like because originally we weren’t too into the idea of it being a dead body -- it would just have too much symbolism that didn’t relate to anything [in the record]. So we took it out and then realized that it actually works much better with it in it, it kinda ties the image together, really.” 

By far, Relaxer has the darkest cover of alt-J’s three records, and intentionally so. During the process of thinking about the album’s artwork, Thom was leaning towards something darker than before. Ironically enough, Thom explained, Relaxer “[is] not a dark album. A lot of people say it’s quite bright, it sounds like a fun album -- which it was to make.”

The darkness of Relaxer’s art wasn’t the only notable stylistic change from the first two record covers -- this album also marks the first time that alt-J have put any text on the cover of their records. In doing so, they didn’t just stop at listing the album’s title, but chose to add the entire tracklist to the front cover as well, a much less commonplace decision.

alt-J - “In Cold Blood” (Courtesy of alt-J)

“It came around when we were putting the imagery together for the album with our kinda art director. He kinda has everything up on his monitor… [and] I think Gus might’ve said ‘Let’s see what it looks like with the logo with Relaxer up there.’ I think because, you’re right, it’s not seen that often, I think older albums, like older records used to do that or singles... I quite like how uniform it is, kinda structured. I think because the font works so well it was just like ‘Why not?’ It was definitely a deliberate decision and we were aware that we hadn’t done that before. The first two albums, we thought there wasn’t really a place for the title or the name on the cover and we didn’t want to just put it on there for the sake of it. They’re so abstract -- the two other images -- that I think they work as an image alone.”

Going forward, the band is excited by the opportunities that this stylistic change presents. For Thom, things like merch and their live setup immediately jumped to mind.

“Using different colors for merch and the live show and things like that I think is good -- it would be a bit crap to not think about that. For the live show it’s really, one of the first things I thought was this computer game and the game itself was based around kinda random images, I think it will work really well live if we can figure it out.”

alt-J - “3WW” (Courtesy of alt-J)

Already, alt-J have embraced LSD Dream Emulator in a myriad of different ways for Relaxer’s rollout. Artwork for the singles “3WW” and “In Cold Blood” as well as a teaser video for the album and interactive web game have all featured images pulled from LSD. Because the band hasn’t yet had a chance to play the game, finding the images has required an inventive approach.

“We found a database of images from the game that somebody’s compiled and we kinda sifted through them and [suggested images].” On top of that, Thom explained, “There’s a guy at our label who had to play it to get an idea of what to use for the trailer videos or things like that and we played it for a week apparently. It’s pretty cool, I like the premise of it -- it’s really hard to find the same image twice because it’s all randomly generated.”

That said, despite a lot of thought about it, Thom isn’t quite ready to dip his toe in LSD’s waters just yet.

“We actually watched a lot of the footage that’s on YouTube and it makes me quite anxious -- it’s quite intense,” he said, laughing.

“I think that the game… within the game the higher you are, the more abstract the world becomes and yeah, it’s like, it’s quite weird,” he said, adding, “You can get an emulator -- you can get an emulator for anything nowadays -- I’ll download it on my laptop and have a look. Maybe one day. Or get a PS1 -- that’d be cool.”

-Dylan Singleton

alt-J play Merriweather Post Pavilion on July 27 - tickets available here.

Preorder Relaxer here.

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Bruce Springsteen

In 15 years of working together, Michelle Holme still hasn’t quite narrowed down what makes it so easy to collaborate with Bruce Springsteen. She does have a guess, though.

“It’s been a very good working relationship -- I don’t know if it’s because we’re both from Jersey, I just don’t know, but it’s been awesome,” she said, laughing. “He’s obviously one of the best artists I’ve ever worked with. He’s just really super chill, and laid back, and very low drama.”

Bruce Springsteen – The Rising (via Bruce Springsteen)

Michelle first started working with Bruce back in 2002, helping to develop the artwork for his record The Rising. Since then, she’s been involved in the design for all of his main releases as well as “all the random bits and pieces here and there,” winning a Grammy for the packaging of The Promise along the way.

Most recently, Michelle designed the photo inserts for Bruce’s autobiography Born to Run, an assignment she found intriguing in how much it differed from her previous experiences working with him.

“I’ve been working with him on packaging and merch and all the tour stuff and so many different music ends of it [before] so [the book] was interesting because it took a little longer to do,” she said. “Because it was personal shots, it was a lot of back and forth, more than we usually have… it was fun.”

“I did all the inserts for all the photos and the personal artifacts from Bruce’s life. It was a big honor just for him to share that with me, like ‘These pictures are amazing, I can’t believe how cute you look!’”

Bruce Springsteen – The Promise (via Bruce Springsteen)

Like working with any client, Michelle’s approach to working with Bruce is all about making sure they’re on the same page from moment one, and -- most importantly -- ensuring that she understands the direction he’s trying to head in with the album.

“It’s a dialogue you have where you’re trying to make a visual representation of their music and their experiences. In the beginning you try to establish the look and feel of the music that they’re trying to create, and the conversation is a little more back and forth,” she said. “Once you land on a direction you can go off and do a bunch of things on your own. Everything is like just trying to work with the artist and make sure it works with their music, because it’s not about me, it’s about creating the look and feel for their music.”

As the years have gone along, Michelle says that she and Bruce have developed a “good shorthand” and understanding of each other. She knows, for instance, that Bruce likes to change things up and do “something completely different” from record to record, instead of sticking to the status quo. This means that her approach for first drafts for a new album cover will be to “go in random, showing him a bunch of different directions,” instead of presenting a handful of tweaks of the same idea like she might do later in the process.

Bruce Springsteen – The Album Collection (via Michelle Holme)

Despite that, Michelle will attest that Bruce does have certain preferences for his art that have found their way into many of his album covers over the years.

“It changes, but I mean for album covers he kind of likes things that are a little blurrier,” she said, laughing. “I’ve noticed that he likes photos that have a little motion to it, he likes a little motion in there. High Hopes, I think he likes the energy and movement in that [one]. He tends to like more golden covers, I’ve noticed, but that’s over a large body of work. Like The Rising, Devils & Dust, High Hopes are more in the warmer tones.”

Bruce Springsteen – The River Box Set (via Michelle Holme)

Aware of how lucky she has been to develop this relationship, Michelle has been sure to not take any of it for granted.

“I’m very fortunate that I’ve been working with him for so long,” she said. “With him, he’s a really cool, chill dude… He’s extraordinarily laid back and when you’ve been in the industry this long you could either be super chill or super high drama. But he’s the literal antithesis of a diva, so it’s been really great to work with him.”

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Aaron Draplin

Aaron Draplin doesn’t do it for the money. Rather -- as cliché as it might sound -- designing records is something he does for the love of music, plain and simple.

“Here I am, I’m in Northern Michigan and I’m digging through my [parents’] basement and I just found a box of my tapes from high school and I just can’t get rid of them,” Aaron explained. “…I’m looking at these things here and that’s what started me on graphic design -- seeing the liner notes on tapes.”

All Tiny Creatures – Harbors (Courtesy of Aaron Draplin)

And he really does mean tapes. Back in the day, vinyl was just too bulky for his taste, so cassettes were his preference. But as times have changed, so have Aaron’s purchasing habits: cassettes made way for CDs, which, in turn, made way for vinyl. Having now worked on designing records, Aaron has grown an appreciation for the bulk that vinyl brings, so much so that he’s often found himself trying to convince clients to make sure they at least press a limited amount of records.

“A lot of the bands 4 or 5 years ago, they knew they were going to sell 10x more CDs because they were easier to cart around or easier to sell at shows,” Aaron said. “So of course we’re going to make that CD… but I’ve just done this little pep talk so many times where you say: ‘Guys, how many records are you going to make in your life? It’s only going to be about 8 or 9 let’s hope, or even just a couple. But you guys, why don’t you do this? Make it on vinyl, give it a download code, and sell those.”

A prolific designer, Aaron got his start in graphic design working in the snowboard industry. Since then, his company, Draplin Design Co., has built an impressive clientele list featuring everything from Target to Bernie Sanders. Still, record design has been a newer venture in Aaron’s career, albeit one that he took a liking to almost instantly.

Danava  – Hemisphere of Shadows (Courtesy of Aaron Draplin)

“My favorite thing to make is making a record, designing a record for someone,” he said. “There’s only been 10, 11, or 12, but every one has been fun.”

“I like nerding out on how to make the labels, and edges, and bleeds and just all the little things that are probably a pain in the ass,” he said. “The first couple records I learned was [that] you can’t really start at the CD size, you have to start at the record size and work your way down. Just the files even, because you’re making your art big and as you work your way down to those smaller sizes then you scale everything down.”

Much of Aaron’s approach to working on a record cover comes from the music fan within him. As someone who can play guitar “a little bit,” he’s fascinated by the grueling process of recording an album – something he’s never done, but one day hopes to do – and wants to make sure that his visuals mirror the passion and effort that the band put into recording.

Old 97’s – Most Messed Up (Courtesy of Aaron Draplin)

“If you’re going to go through the pain and the strife of building this thing, recording this thing, making this object, making this art, make sure it’s got a nice cover.”

It’s that mindset that makes Aaron lament any time he sees a band skimp on the visuals for the record. It doesn’t matter the reason, it’s against his nature, and his goal is to stop it every time he can.

“I’m doing a record for these folks in Portland right now called Diesto, [they’re] a heavy metal band,” he said. “I’ve known this guy for eight or nine years and he comes to me and says, ‘Man, I don’t have any money but will you do our record? I know you’ll care about it.’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s do it!’”

“That’s such a weird thing, it’s like I’m not really concerned about it,” Aaron added. “He’ll give me a stack of them and I’ll give them to buddies and then on top of that, there’s just something about making these things and not wanting it to be… I don’t want it to get worked over because he can’t find someone who will give it the love that it deserves, you know? What a bummer [if] that’s why it didn’t turn out as good as it could turn out, because you couldn’t find somebody.”

Again, it’s the music fan within him that takes over when approached like this – he wants to make sure that the band makes the best record that they can, visuals included.

Casey Neill - All You Pretty Vandals (Courtesy of Aaron Draplin)

“That’s an interesting thing because I think everybody else their first reaction is like, ‘Well I’m not going to do it if there’s no money to pay the graphic designer,’ but that’s never really my first reaction,” he said. “…So, I offer myself a lot to that stuff and just I’m really open to just saying ‘This isn’t about the cash -- not even close. This is simply [that] I just want to make cool shit that people are going to enjoy.’”

In some cases, Aaron knows he can use his skills as a designer to not only help fledgling bands, but also as an opportunity to give back to some of the musicians that have meant the most to him.

“There’s a band called Son Volt… and I just want to reach out to Jay [Farrar] and say, ‘Hey, I’ll be your instrument. If you need anything, I can help you -- I won’t charge one penny. But if you need a poster or something done or something designed, I’ll just do it,” he explained. “Because the enjoyment I’ve gotten from their records -- it’s infinite. That’s one of my favorite bands.’”

“It’s a weird angle, like I’m certainly not trying to make a living making records. …I’m totally cool with that, too. Which maybe makes me nuts, I don’t know.”

-Dylan Singleton

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Malibu

The metaphor practically writes itself. Anderson .Paak’s music fuses together different genres and influences into one swirling, beautiful concoction. The end result: a sonic collage.

So says even the man himself.

Dewey Saunders, meanwhile, frequents in more literal forms of collage, preferring paper and scissors (and occasionally Photoshop) to Anderson’s microphone.

As collaborators, they have brought together the metaphorical and the literal, with Dewey’s compositions adorning the covers of Anderson’s records.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”

“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”

Most recently, Dewey created the artwork on Anderson’s critically lauded record Malibu. Just like the album, Dewey’s art has also earned a deal of critical acclaim. But for Dewey, the process of working on Malibu was different than past collaborations with Anderson. 

“So Malibu came around and that was different than Venice because he had gotten this art director named Cory Gomberg and Cory basically art directed the whole campaign for Malibu,” Dewey said. “It was a pretty long process of back-and-forth even though there was... a pretty hard deadline we had to meet. And it just, we dialed it in so precisely... working with Cory made my work get tighter and just added a level of polish, I think, just by having so many edits and having everybody look at it and critique it and everything. So it was definitely a group effort.”

Anderson .Paak - Venice (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

In total, Dewey worked with Anderson and Cory to put together art for Malibu’s cover, gatefold, singles, and various other associated pieces. Strangely enough, Dewey’s work on the project didn’t start with the album or singles, but with the European tour poster.

“I actually had done the poster and then Cory came onto the project and we redid it and [then] did all the singles for Malibu,” he explained.

Redoing the poster allowed Dewey and Cory to build a cohesive aesthetic for the art that matched Cory’s vision for the record cover, which they would then use as a blueprint for the rest of the artwork as well.

“Cory’s initial inspiration that we were kind of looking at was this 10cc cover from the 70s I guess. It was this diver with a diving helmet and he was carrying this girl out of the water… That just kinda sparked the idea [that] we wanted it to have it this 70s classic LP feel to it. So that was the jumping off point as far as the composition.”

10cc - Deceptive Bends (Via discogs)

Originally, they used a photo of Anderson merging from the water, carrying a woman, just like on the 10cc record, but a last minute decision -- due to the photo being, as Anderson put it, “a little too Fabio-ish” -- had them change the image to Anderson at the piano instead.

Looking back, it “was [a good decision] in retrospect but at the time was a big change for the cover,” Dewey said.

Surrounding Anderson on the cover are a myriad of images that relate back to the record’s lyrics. As Dewey and Cory were initially working on the artwork, they would listen to the album, digging into the music for imagery to pull out. Dewey would then look through old and rare books and magazines for material to use, scanning them into his computer and compiling the piece together digitally.

Some of the images they used were overt: the car, the suffer, the “Cali-beach feel”; but many of the things they pulled out were hidden deep within the art, ready to be discovered by those willing to hunt for them.

Anderson .Paak - The Season (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“The picture of Anderson in the top hat is really surreal and absurd in a way, so we added all these other elements that go with it, but also are kind of popping out: the ship and the whale and everything happening at once is just this epic scene that would never really happen but it’s this alternate universe. That’s what’s so great about collage is that you can make this semi-believable thing happen, this magical moment.” 

“A lot of thought went into the imagery. So everything was very specifically placed and there for a reason,” Dewey said. “And a lot of little elements that are there for the people that are really looking, especially if you get the printed versions of the record -- a lot of little, hidden little elements.”

To match the cover art, Dewey and Cory then worked on the record’s gatefold, which they would also use for a poster that accompanied some of the physical releases.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu gatefold (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“That’s a scene with Anderson underwater on the piano again with all the naked girls surrounding him and there’s all the divers and fish swimming around -- so it’s a pretty complex scenario,” Dewey said. “So the whole concept was very beach-y and then going into the underwater, very psychadelic as well and just having the collage elements made this a very surreal atmosphere.”

Key to art was Dewey and Cory’s ability to capture Anderson’s aesthetic and create visuals that felt authentic to his unique musical voice.

“It was an interesting process because I wasn’t really used to working with such close art direction and we were just able to spitball and brainstorm and create really specific feels of imagery that [feels] cohesive with the music… [We made] this psychedelic landscape that was for Anderson that was kinda a unique aesthetic that [matched] his,” Dewey said. 

“I think that’s a thing that I kinda pushed [for, and] that Cory kind of pushed me to do, to really create this perspective and depth through so many layers and so many different things happening. ... it elevated my collage game, I would say.”

 -Dylan Singleton