March 3 by the Few Moments: Interview With the Makers of the 50-Foot Long Musical Album Art
Filed under: Videos, Music, Art / Design, Exclusives
Two years ago, Vimeo cofounder and erstwhile internet microcelebrity Jake Lodwick commissioned an art project, somewhere between album art and a music video. Fourteen days ago, that video was released online. This piece, culled from interviews with the creators, is its story.
Michael McQuilken, of the one-man rock band The Few Moments, had an idea, a one-man band rig that looks like a metal box and unfolds to reveal a drum kit, keyboard, guitar and pedals. Mike explained the philosophy to me:
I was composing loop-based music for theater and dance in Seattle, NYC. It was always difficult to transport the mess of gear, not to mention wiring it all together and then taking it apart again. The “rig” combines all of the gear I like most in such a way that it remains ever-wired, ready to play, and road-enabled. The unfolding of the device also becomes a sort of show in and of itself.
It was an elegant design principle. Jake would hire Michael to create an album-length recording that could be easily replicated by one man in a live setting.
When the music was finished, Jake asked illustrator Ira Marcks to create a visual accompaniment to the music. Because the album would be released digitally, they hoped to create imagery that a listener would be able to appreciate while engaged in the listening. Ira ended up drawing a staggering 50 feet illustration that would scroll across the viewer’s screen over the album-length period of 45 minutes. Ira explained the genesis.
Jake came to me with the finished album and a simple concept of ‘one long drawing.’ I was enthusiastic about the project. I draw comics so I felt like i’d have to engage the audience with some sort of light plot for the audience to invest in. Luckily, Mike’s lyrics are highly vivid. Creating a complimenting narrative to his songs was effortless.
Meanwhile, the brooding baroque pop music recalls the claustrophobic loneliness of Menomena and Wolf Parade. According to Jake:
The album wasn’t just ‘a bunch of songs’ but a continuous story about a boy who was born laughing and whose legs kicked relentlessly, whose movement was impossible to control, who could not sleep, whose parents took shifts, a steady rotation of looking after him, while the other one would sleep out in the car…
The art entrances with demonic blue monkeys, creation myth monstrosities, psychedelic cityscapes and a cross-section of antediluvian phantasms, encompassing dozens of styles and themes. It’s worth watching all the way through in order to appreciate every detail, allowing Ira’s gorgeous world to unfold…slowly. Says Ira:
Music is BIG for people. It has always deserved BIG art. I think this project accomplished that.
Watching this collaboration’s results is a pleasure. In an age when everything seems to be turning “micro” in competition for our attention, this is a self-contained work of art that demands your uninterrupted attention from start to finish. Close your tabs, turn off your chat client, and enjoy.
The project probably points toward the future of recorded music. Brian Eno recently compared the medium to “whale blubber.” Musicians whose product is so easily copied are coming up with unconventional ways to arrest listeners’ attention in new ways, whether it’s selling the Twilight soundtrack on a USB drive or putting as much energy into viral marketing as actually creating music. Ira thinks a traditional big label would have shied away from the ambitious project:
The lo-fi production aesthetic would be risky for a large label. Would a team of people be on board for this concept? Not in the same way. This thing was built in solidarity from all directions. It may be a shock to you but Mike and I have NEVER exchanged words!
The trick appears to be not selling record albums so much as providing an “experience” that isn’t easily replicated elsewhere. In this case, it may have taken two years, but it really works.
Sexy Friday: Going Green
St. Patrick’s Day. It’s not all green Natty Light and fake Irish brogues set to a never-ending soundtrack of “I’m Shipping Up To Boston.” There are good things too. Like Guinness. And Irish women. Oh, the Irish women. So seductive, so freckled, so magically delicious. We salute you.
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