21 years of New Zealand Music Month: Fat Freddy's, Lawrence Arabia, The Beths, Cairo Knife Fight - a back catalogue of inspiration

Fat Freddy's Drop. Photo / Harry A'Court

To mark 21 years of NZ Music Month (Te Marama Pūoro o Aotearoa), Art of the Record is a showcase of 21 distinctive album covers. Four artists, whose work features in the exhibition, speak to their inspiration, memories and process for their pieces.

Absolute Truth.

2016
LAWRENCE ARABIA – ABSOLUTE TRUTH
Artist: Anns Taylor

James, who is Lawrence Arabia, but also mainly my boyfriend, said, "Why don't we make a map of my face?" and that's basically where it started. I work closely with James on all his artwork and sometimes things can get a bit heated, especially when he's looking over my shoulder trying to make suggestions, but we always end up with work I am proud of. 
Normally I use a lot of painted textures and hand-drawn elements in my work, so using only the computer to create the whole image was new. We started out by getting James' face 3D scanned. It's basically a whole heap of photos taken from different angles and put into software, which converts it into a set of data points called a mesh. We sent the mesh file to the cartographer Chris McDowall, who converted the file into contours. I then turned Chris' contour image into vector art in Adobe Illustrator. This became the basis for the final image, which we coloured and added in topographical details based on some old New Zealand Lands and Survey maps from the 1970s. The rest of the artwork then referenced that theme, including the font and colour choices and the key on the back.

I think when we finished it we knew we'd nailed the concept as we'd intended it from the beginning, which was hugely satisfying. It was definitely a great affirmation when I won the Tui for it.

Cairo Knife Fight

2015
CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT – THE COLOSSUS
Artist Barny Bewick. Photography by Alexander Hallag. Stock Imagery licensed from Getty Images.

The cover for 'The Colossus' is a combination of an orchestrated photoshoot and stock photography. A sodden, dripping male figure, complete with deep-sea diving helmet, stands in a vast, water-starved environment. This image is a nod to the LP covers of the 1970s powerhouse design agencies such as Hipgnosis. A time when LP covers compelled you to pick up the release without necessarily knowing what the musical content may be. This particular surrealistic subject matter style in an album cover has always been a favourite of ours.

For 'The Colossus', an outdoor photoshoot was arranged at Kingsize Studios, Kingsland in May 2014 with Alexander Hallag behind the lens. The model, shot against a white wall, was systematically doused in cold water by hose and bucket. Several different shots were then combined to ensure the most dramatic water coverage over the entire figure. This compilation was then imposed on to a stock image background and graded to create one coherent shot. The entire process took several weeks to complete.

Creating a memorable and iconic album cover for any band, regardless of genre, has always been the goal for us.

Future Me Hates Me

2018
THE BETHS, FUTURE ME HATES ME
Artist: Eleanor Barker

Liz {lead singer of The Beths{ and I have known each other through the Auckland music scene for a while now. She is such a one-of-a-kind, sweet person. She helped me out by offering me this project to focus on, I won't forget that. And I know it was because she was a fan of mine, which gave me a lot of pride, too.

If I were to title this work I would probably call it 'The Fearful Augur'. But it was always intended as cover art. It's meant to be about that "oh s***" moment when you are holding your battered heart and considering whether you can bear to share it again - maybe it's too late to decide. What kind of person makes that anticipated pain worth it? That risk? The colours are comforting. Forest green, ocean blue, clay brown, a rich eggy yellow. The media used is a hodgepodge, my usual way. I love how watercolour and gouache, acrylic and ink mix and repel each other. My works are small. I like to work on cotton paper.
In terms of inspiration, I was lucky enough to have the album for reference. I was freshly trounced by the end of a long-term relationship. Liz did me such a favour by asking me to work that out through this painting. We also lost someone very special, very young, very gifted a few weeks later, and again I buried my grief in creative work and this beautiful sad-hopeful album. The tension is played out in the music and the artwork. This pain is love. I painted a third painting months later that I think goes with the album art in spirit. It was more overtly vengeful and more overtly grieving.

The piece took around 40 hours. I made the deadline, but only just. I remember the dog [featured on the back of the album[ translated so quickly I was stunned. The front cover took the lion's share of my attention. The dog is my favourite part.

Boondigga.

2009
FAT FREDDY'S DROP, BOONDIGGA
Artist: Otis Frizzell

I've known Dallas and Mu [Fat Freddy's Drop members] for years and was mates with the whole band by the time I did Boondigga. I pretty much BEGGED them to let me do it. I remember telling Nicole, the band manager extraordinaire, that "I speak Freddy's. I have to do this …"

I had a meeting with Dallas [the band's lead singer] and asked him to tell me as many crazy ideas as possible. He told me an insane tale of the band getting kidnapped by a Māori mad scientist called Dr Boondigga. Boondigga had robot crayfish, and lived in an abandoned Māori pā … And he had a killer robot. And a death-ray. And he was planning to steal Freddy's music and bootleg it somehow.

The Boondigga art was all hand-drawn. Starting with pencil sketches, and completed with pigment liner pens. Once the line work was completed, everything was scanned and the colour work was completed in Photoshop. All the ageing and comic paper effects were done by my rather clever mate Dan Bussell.

The project kinda kept growing. Dallas got me started with a big idea and I turned it into a universe.

I wanted to create a back story I could reference in the illustrations. I started to think of ways to turn the story in on itself. I had the idea of doing a "to-do" list on the wall of the lab so I could put little personal jokes in the story. Put a broken light bulb on the cover art, and then put "get light bulb" on the list. I put an oil leak under the "killBot" and added, "fix oil leak" on the list too. There are a LOT of little in-jokes throughout the whole thing. I called the computer printer "Printor" because that's our friend Ben [Tippett's] nickname/DJ name and he prints all the T-shirts for the band. Stuff like that. I started the artwork before the album was finished, but by the time I finished I had heard the full album. I LOVE that album and am honestly really proud to have been a part of it.

Art of the Record showcases 21 singular album covers. The exhibition opens in Auckland on May 1, Wellington on May 10, Christchurch on May 17 and Dunedin on May 24.