In 2007, I was afforded the opportunity to do something every music fan/nerd dreams of – I got to produce an album for one of my favorite bands.  They had also come to be great friends of mine, so our mutual admiration led us into a partnership that proved to be an exercise in testing the boundaries of perfectionism while enjoying the company of creative collaboration.  There were times when I pushed them more than they probably wanted to be pushed, and when I nagged them to change parts they didn’t want to change, but they honored my role and conceded authority, and in the end, I got the record I was hoping for.  And I think they’re happy, too.

The artwork was a joint effort between myself and John Vogl of The Bungaloo, where I essentially served as “art director” – interfacing with the band’s aesthetic preferences and my own vision – and he generate the stellar design.  I ended up laying out the final artwork, adding the white trim, “graph” imagery, and copy.  There was some debate as to whether the lyrics should be included, so the compromise wound up being a separate cryptogram for each songs lyrics (with a one letter “solution” provided, for easier decoding).  For the CD tray, I utilized one of the band’s old logos – an owl silhouette wearing headphones – and overlaid it with more coded text.  Having no extraneous info to use for this text, I fished out something *special* from the internet, and coded it in cryptogram fashion.  There are solution letters provided at the bottom, if you want to “decode the magic”.

Ultimately, the look and sound of this project fell right into the pocket of what I had set out to accomplish, and I just thank John and the band for the opportunity to collaborate with such talented guys, and moreover, great people.  Cheers, y’all.

“Off Key And Violent”

“Sleeping In Space”

“Into The Storm/Out To The Sea”

“People Better Than You”

“Air Force”

“Throwing Rice”

“Scissors”