Switching topics, you were the artist behind the graphic design work on the new record.
Yeah, I’ve done all the albums. I’ve done a lot of the shirts, the logo, and a lot of the stuff you see surrounding the band, I’ve had a hand with. It’s just always the way it’s been, I’ve always been a DIY guy, every band I’ve always kind of took the reigns even if I didn’t know what I was doing.
Would you say you’re more of a graphic artist or a musician?
Yeah, oh yeah, a graphic artist.
How did you get into playing the bass?
Well, sort of the same parallel line, seeing all my friends having so much fun playing, and then wanting to be that guy as well. I bought a bass from a friend because I couldn’t afford the guitar. That’s how I became a bass player. You know it’s all art, really. It all weaves in and out of each other.
What was the thought behind the image on the new record-it looks like some kind of tiger or leopard.
Just going for something really iconic. Something that every time you see it you kind of know what it comes from. Something that you can just automatically register, where as a lot of stuff that I do has so many layers and so many components in it, it can be hard to kind of pick out what kind of image I’m trying to portray. I feel like this is really stripped down, like here it is.
You also did something recently for Record Store Day back in April.
Yeah, we did posters for Record Store Day with the cover of the record which actually got me into trouble a little bit because I passed in the poster before I passed in the record cover. They loved the poster so much that when they saw the record cover which is square and not a rectangle they’re like, ‘Why doesn’t this look like the poster, what are you doing?’ ha ha. So I had to sort of go back and re-crop the cover to reflect the poster a bit more.
Tell me about participating in Record Store Day- it’s not just independent record stores that are in trouble, all records stores seem to be closing. Virgin Megastore closed in NYC.
Tower’s out.
Yeah, so how relevant are record stores now?
They definitely are, it’s a dying dinosaur unfortunately. Something new is going to come along and take it over and people are going to find ways of making money again, but it’s a really cool thing to get behind. Growing up I could just spend hours in there. Unfortunately, that’s the only time I’ve been to a record store in the past year or two years, mostly getting stuff online these days, iTunes and stuff like that. It’s so much easier than having to run out to a store and grab it, which is good and bad I suppose. It’s all about touring, it’s all about getting in front of the kids and feeding off their energy and I think probably the core of music in general anyways.
