Oh. Hello.
Figured today was as good a day as ever to show you the album cover to Grand Romantic (out June 16th). I'm a bit partial to it myself, but I still can't help but show it to anyone who's within striking distance of my phone. I'm freakishly obsessed with it. To me, the toughest, and sometimes most frustrating parts of making an album are song titles (who cares?), and how you can best try and fit image to song, or even worse, an eclectic group of songs. To me- Grand Romantic is a title that can really go all over the map with emotions- so getting to this cover you're looking at, was a long process. I spent a whole day shooting an album cover that I thought would embody the album, and at the end of the day, despite it being a cool photograph, just didn't define the album the way I wanted to.
I texted Sam to get his expert opinion on the photograph I was unsure of, and his first reply was "that doesn't look like Grand Romantic to me". Automatically we started sending images back and forth of what the term embodied to us- and we realized that we were saying the same thing. As you might know from the format days- when Sam and I are saying the same thing, it can be a very fulfilling artistically. So I begged him to help me plan what the new cover was going to be. He referenced a painting from the Renaissance period, or maybe a photo of Amadeus (from the movie), and it automatically reminded me of something...
At one point in the album cover conceptualizing process- I was looking into making the cover a portrait, and so I searched something as basic as "portrait", and one of the images blew me away: http://bit.ly/1Pv5Ss1
I clicked on the image and started looking into the artist. Her name is Teresa Oaxaca, and if you have any time to look her and her work up, I suggest you do. She's a twenty something painter who studied in Florence but is now living in DC, honing her craft. I showed Sam a bunch of her stuff, and we both decided she HAD to do it.
The problem was, I had no time. If she was going to reply to my email, let alone paint, it had to be done within two weeks. And I was supposed to fly to Europe at the end of that week. By the grace of God, she replied quickly, we had some inspiring phone conversations, and within days I was at her studio in Arlington.
Teresa is truly amazing. I've been fortunate to be surround by people who eat and sleep their craft, whether it be music, design, or even gardening. And Teresa is more into what she does than anyone I've ever met. She looks, talks, and thinks like someone from either another time period, or another planet, and it's exciting to be around because she puts you into her world when she takes the pictures that she'll eventually paint.
So we took about 1,000 various pictures of me surrounded by dolls, balloons, tea trays, and even in clown makeup. I hate taking photos, and I can't stand looking at pictures of myself. But Sam, Teresa, and I almost automatically agreed on the photo she would eventually paint.
This album means the world to me. I've always been personal with the lyrics I've written. As someone who doesn't have any pictures documenting my life, or who rarely talks or even thinks about what's already happened, lyrics have been my way of remembering, and acknowledging that something has happened. For better or for worse. To put that into one image you want everyone to see and visually relate to your songs, is almost impossible.
Two weeks later, breaking only for tea, and as soon as the paint dried, Teresa sent Sam and I a photo of the portrait. We were both beside ourselves. Having only heard a handful of songs at the time, I can safely say that she and Sam (with additional help from the amazing Mat Maitland of Big Active) did an amazing job of capturing my emotions and putting an incredible visual stamp on something that means the world to me.
As always, I want to thank you guys (the listeners) for the continued support down this unconventional path that has become Grand Romantic. This is just one image (and lord knows I'm losing sleep over the excitement of you guys hearing the album), but to me- it's as important as any.
Figured today was as good a day as ever to show you the album cover to Grand Romantic (out June 16th). I'm a bit partial to it myself, but I still can't help but show it to anyone who's within striking distance of my phone. I'm freakishly obsessed with it. To me, the toughest, and sometimes most frustrating parts of making an album are song titles (who cares?), and how you can best try and fit image to song, or even worse, an eclectic group of songs. To me- Grand Romantic is a title that can really go all over the map with emotions- so getting to this cover you're looking at, was a long process. I spent a whole day shooting an album cover that I thought would embody the album, and at the end of the day, despite it being a cool photograph, just didn't define the album the way I wanted to.
I texted Sam to get his expert opinion on the photograph I was unsure of, and his first reply was "that doesn't look like Grand Romantic to me". Automatically we started sending images back and forth of what the term embodied to us- and we realized that we were saying the same thing. As you might know from the format days- when Sam and I are saying the same thing, it can be a very fulfilling artistically. So I begged him to help me plan what the new cover was going to be. He referenced a painting from the Renaissance period, or maybe a photo of Amadeus (from the movie), and it automatically reminded me of something...
At one point in the album cover conceptualizing process- I was looking into making the cover a portrait, and so I searched something as basic as "portrait", and one of the images blew me away: http://bit.ly/1Pv5Ss1
I clicked on the image and started looking into the artist. Her name is Teresa Oaxaca, and if you have any time to look her and her work up, I suggest you do. She's a twenty something painter who studied in Florence but is now living in DC, honing her craft. I showed Sam a bunch of her stuff, and we both decided she HAD to do it.
The problem was, I had no time. If she was going to reply to my email, let alone paint, it had to be done within two weeks. And I was supposed to fly to Europe at the end of that week. By the grace of God, she replied quickly, we had some inspiring phone conversations, and within days I was at her studio in Arlington.
Teresa is truly amazing. I've been fortunate to be surround by people who eat and sleep their craft, whether it be music, design, or even gardening. And Teresa is more into what she does than anyone I've ever met. She looks, talks, and thinks like someone from either another time period, or another planet, and it's exciting to be around because she puts you into her world when she takes the pictures that she'll eventually paint.
So we took about 1,000 various pictures of me surrounded by dolls, balloons, tea trays, and even in clown makeup. I hate taking photos, and I can't stand looking at pictures of myself. But Sam, Teresa, and I almost automatically agreed on the photo she would eventually paint.
This album means the world to me. I've always been personal with the lyrics I've written. As someone who doesn't have any pictures documenting my life, or who rarely talks or even thinks about what's already happened, lyrics have been my way of remembering, and acknowledging that something has happened. For better or for worse. To put that into one image you want everyone to see and visually relate to your songs, is almost impossible.
Two weeks later, breaking only for tea, and as soon as the paint dried, Teresa sent Sam and I a photo of the portrait. We were both beside ourselves. Having only heard a handful of songs at the time, I can safely say that she and Sam (with additional help from the amazing Mat Maitland of Big Active) did an amazing job of capturing my emotions and putting an incredible visual stamp on something that means the world to me.
As always, I want to thank you guys (the listeners) for the continued support down this unconventional path that has become Grand Romantic. This is just one image (and lord knows I'm losing sleep over the excitement of you guys hearing the album), but to me- it's as important as any.
望hit
