16
May
2013
Nice to meet you : Piers Faccini
posted in Music | Nice to meet you
at 7.35 PM
from
Grabels
(near Montpellier)
/ France
listening Piers Faccini ;)
For all those who don't know Piers Faccini (shame on you), he's a singer, composer, songwriter, photographer, painter... mixing Englsih and Italian origins! I've followed him since his first album, "Leave no trace" in 2004 and for all the subsequent albums, I've seen him live twice, including an impressive showcase in a French record shop, where with only his voice, guitar and harmonica he can give you have chills !
But apart from the music, I like how he is involved in all the creative process of his albums, making the artwork and doing the photos and designing the sleeves with designer Uncle O... He is for me a full creative, passionate artist doing things just for the pleasure and beauty of it all…
With the magic of social media you now can be in contact with everyone, even if it is most of the time "virtual"... But this time it became much more concrete... After his tweet about a demo of one of his songs on soundcloud, I just retweeted it and we started a tweet exchange... He likes this blog and as I know he lives near me (now I am back in the south of France), I asked him if we can meet to share about design and inspiration... I came to graphic design through a passion for music, not the kind you play but the stuff you listen to... I've collected records over the years and spent more time looking for rare LPs or 7" vinyl when I was young instead of losing time in bars like most of my friends. So meeting a global creative artist like this, someone I admire and inspires so much through his music was really exciting…
Our meeting was set up in his house, on May 9th... Piers lives a nice home in "Les Cevennes" with his wife and their 2 kids, and has a small house at the back of the garden where he can create, paint, and record his albums... We spent some hours talking about the process of the design of his album sleeves, about how today you can do your own promotion and be in contact directly with people who like what you do... I asked him to write me about all that we had talked about via email so as to have his own words (in italic black).
But apart from the music, I like how he is involved in all the creative process of his albums, making the artwork and doing the photos and designing the sleeves with designer Uncle O... He is for me a full creative, passionate artist doing things just for the pleasure and beauty of it all…
With the magic of social media you now can be in contact with everyone, even if it is most of the time "virtual"... But this time it became much more concrete... After his tweet about a demo of one of his songs on soundcloud, I just retweeted it and we started a tweet exchange... He likes this blog and as I know he lives near me (now I am back in the south of France), I asked him if we can meet to share about design and inspiration... I came to graphic design through a passion for music, not the kind you play but the stuff you listen to... I've collected records over the years and spent more time looking for rare LPs or 7" vinyl when I was young instead of losing time in bars like most of my friends. So meeting a global creative artist like this, someone I admire and inspires so much through his music was really exciting…
Our meeting was set up in his house, on May 9th... Piers lives a nice home in "Les Cevennes" with his wife and their 2 kids, and has a small house at the back of the garden where he can create, paint, and record his albums... We spent some hours talking about the process of the design of his album sleeves, about how today you can do your own promotion and be in contact directly with people who like what you do... I asked him to write me about all that we had talked about via email so as to have his own words (in italic black).
My wilderness sleeve process
I have always been fascinated by these portraits used on his 4th album, even more now that I know how they were made... I always thought it was done with photoshop but actually Piers told me "I don't even have it !". He did these self portraits by cutting up maps ! Impressive...
And it's part of the whole concept of the album :
The whole thing was inspired by a song 'my wilderness' that I wrote in the year that album was taking shape :
"Here was sorrow and here was I / Here was anger and here was my / Wilderness where I'd remain / Emptiness forever retain"
The idea came to me that when I write it's as if I go roaming in a desert, in a place where nothing is marked or signposted, nothing is permanent... In this metaphorical place I'm happy to be lost as I always end up finding something unexpected. A seed or a fragment of something that slowly grows into a poem or a song.
So with my songs I map my very own wilderness, I transcribe its geography and songs are the end result. This wilderness as well as being imaginary refers also to physical/emotional/spiritual journeys and discoveries.. That's how the idea of making a self portrait with maps came about. In order to tell a story, I deliberately chose maps not only for their colours but because of the links my music had with those places. For my skin I used the Sahara, for my shirt Mississippi and Texas, for my hair walking maps of the Cevennes.
In fact, this side portrait was use on the American version of the album, while a front on portrait was used on the French sleeve. When I asked, Piers told me that when he presented the idea to the record company, the boss didn't like it ! But if he had to choose, he preferred the front on one... Luckily, the American label preferred the side one so in the end both portraits were used ! The US album also contains 2 more songs, which was how Piers conceived the album, but the French record company thought it was too long...
Between dogs and wolves new album sleeve
For the new album (coming later this year) I wanted to carry on working with cut out paper, this time I chose to work with silhouettes using a reduced palette of blue red and black. As a painter, working with paper is a way I can create work that is of a more graphic nature which is of course primordial with album artwork and design.
The title of the album is 'Between dogs and wolves' I've translated this French phrase into English because the expression doesn't exist in the english language. I liked the idea of using this title in a literal way to accompany an album of love songs because when we are in love we are in a way between day and night, between love and desire, between the mataphorical 'dog' and 'wolf' etc . The album also transcribes the moment of twilight and this 'non-time' between day and night to a landscape of relationships, and to the stories we live, falling in and out of love. The songs depict the unknowable and undefinable spaces between love and desire, between two lovers.
I feel that in a way what an artist does more than anything is to attempt to describe the unknown and the undefined, the treasure lies in the paradoxical and ambiguous 'in between' spaces !
I wanted the artwork to be a little like illustrations from a book of fables or fairy tales as well as being visually and graphically strong enough to imprint an association with the music in the mind of the listener. It also allowed me to carry on my love affair with work on and with paper.
The Comic books reflections
Funnily enough the idea of The Comic books reflections come about through the desire to have something to post to the people that follow me online that wasn't mundane and gossipy as I'm no good at that! Being as much a visual artist as a writer, I came up with the idea of posting each day a drawing with a kind of aphoristic statement, a simple way to connect with people using poetry and drawing. They're going down really well, if I carry on the momentum, I'd like to make a book with them eventually. (you can see them on Piers facebook)
Freedom of your own label
Having my own label Beating Drum is a way to be able to finally make the decisions my own way without being answerable to a company running a business model that is increasingly bankrupt and devoid of interest. This way I can create the kind of things that I've always dreamed of doing even if they are limited edition. The economic model is very reliant on my relationship with the fans which as anyone can see who follows me is something that I also really value. Hopefully together with the people that follow me I will be able to keep on making music and art and great design objects too!
Here's the first 7" item under the Beating Drum label designed by Uncle O with the artwork done by both of them this time. The record was done to support the Disquaire day, the french version of Record Store day.
Songs I love
This project began as a way to interact with fans on a level that wasn't reliant on an album release. I would give away a song every couple of months on my website. The songs were covers of songs that I loved, as simple as that! It was a way for me to be a fan, recording the songs and playing with their arrangements was a way for me to celebrate the wonderful artists and traditions that have fed me over the years.
To accompany the new album we'll also be releasing a book/cd of the Songs I love. Using paper again I've made portraits of all the songwriters I've covered and written about each song, I'm really excited about this project and I hope all the people who love my music will dig the object too. It's another way for me to continue my collaboration with the designer Olivier Carrie aka Uncle O who I've been working with him since Two grains of sand and now that I have my own label we can really start to have some fun. We have a great working relationship, we're almost always on the same page and we never seem to step on each other's shoes. Sometimes we're uncannily in sync which is a joy! I started the label with my manager of the last 10 years Anais Ledoux and the three of us along with Olivier work very closely on all design/concepts/image to do with Beating Drum.
A new morning
A New Morning is the result of another collaboration, this time with the film maker Jeremiah. We've done so much together over the years especially for la blogotheque, (check my youtube channel. www.youtube.com/piersfaccinimusic ) Mezzo asked us to make a film of acoustic performances of my songs and together with Jeremiah we came up with the idea of filming the performances over the course of the four seasons in the Cevennes where I live.
We wanted it to be a film about music and songs within a normal day to day context, not just a beautifully filmed concert which seemed too banal somehow. We wanted the film to be about how music and songwriting are inseparable from the every day, that's why Jeremiah also filmed certain scenes at home with my kids and my wife. It's a film about sound, about the voice and songwriting as well as the portrait of a place, the mountains of the Cevennes. The film came about because Jeremiah is one of the few people who I feel really comfortable being filmed by. I also love his approach, his eye, his taste, his improvisation, his constant search for the perfect sequence. He also has the advantage of having a really instinctive understanding of music and performance, it was a very easy project to collaborate on as we're also great friends !
Painting, inspiration & instagram...
Piers finnaly told me about his paintings, and his interest in still life... a side that I did not really know from this amazing artist and that you can found on his site. I also told him about instagram, and since then, I guess he posts 10 images a day ;)
24
April
2013
Here comes some picture of I took, and some of the project of this young and promising Singapore studio.
18
March
2013
Nice to meet you : Bravo company
posted in Identity | Print | Nice to meet you
at 6.40 AM
from
Hubug coworking space, Ubud, Bali
/ Indonesia
listening Yodelice
Already 3 weeks since I came back from Singapore and haven't found time to post about new meeting with designers there... Here comes the first one, the great Bravo company... You must have seen one of their project on a blog or an other (including this one !), they do such inspiring typographic work. Even if they are not specialized in restaurant identities, they have done several for varied places around Singapore...
This was one of our topic of conversation, how the identity of a restaurant (and its variation over all tools) is essential today. What is interesting in Singapore, as it is a small country / small town, is that many restaurants now have the graphics in the center of their project, as well as the food that is served or music they play; it is almost impossible for a new place, if it wants to exist, to not use an agency to have a great graphics. It improves the visibility of graphic design and provides work to design agencies... the circle is complete !
The wood coasters was the ideal gift...
22
February
2013
Nice to meet you : Kenny Leck / Book actually
posted in Vintage | Nice to meet you
at 8.25 AM
from
Singapore
/ Singapore
listening The Police 1984 soundcheck
When I came for the first time in Singapore last october, I discover the amazing BooksActually, the shop of Kenny Leck. Mixing all his passions in the same place, it is like a disneyland store for creative like me... books, magazine, vintage items... After my visit, Kenny contacted me as he want to have the Helvetica wood letters in his shop, we set up a real meeting this time... In fact we spend some hours together as we have so much to share... BOOKSACTUALLY is only the visible part of the iceberg, Kenny is also behind MATH PAPER PRESS, a small press publisher of poetry, novels, and essays & BIRDS & CO., the stationery brand. Ad to that the thousand of vintage and found items collected over the years, and you can imagine how passionate is this man !
Here come some images and yes, the Collection 3 of Helvetica wood letters is exclusively on sell at BooksActually !
Here come some images and yes, the Collection 3 of Helvetica wood letters is exclusively on sell at BooksActually !
