Imagine one of the things that you enjoy collecting the most; action figures, lace curtains, model trains, Power Rangers, human remains, whatever your most exciting items may be. Now, imagine becoming a small part of the legacy of that thing. You know, except for ‘human remains’. That’s just morbid. And it’ll happen soon enough, buddy.
I recently had that kind of cyclical experience when I was invited to contribute a small bit of art to the release of an oldschool vinyl record. Yeah, they still make ‘em, and I still collect ‘em. It wasn’t anything as glorious as a giant 12” x 12” cover (yet), but it’s an awesome feeling to become part of that collection which you cherish.
See, every so often, I create illustrations for Daytrotter, an amazing little website that belongs to a recording studio in Rock Island, Illinois. Independent bands with ridiculous names stop by on their tours and travels, pick up the instruments that are lying around, record some live songs, and the results are given to the world for free. It promotes bands that might have otherwise flown under the radar, it provides a constant influx of live, unedited tunes for my insatiable musical needs, and I’ve been a little in love with it since I found out about them from Wired magazine a couple of years ago.
Daytrotter was looking for art for album reviews, and I was looking for an outlet. Even being a tangential part of the music world has always been a bit of a dream of mine. The rest is history.
My most recent set of illustrations involved a kind of collectible themselves, because I was photographing original papercraft portraits of the bands, and allowing for these 3D portraits to be downloaded and constructed from my own portfolio. Papercrafting, a kind of subsection of the designer toy movement, is a great, easily-accessible, often free, form of DIY collecting by itself – but I decided to bring it into the world of illustration for a bit.
When I illustrated the band Deer Tick (a process that involves listening to the band’s albums about a thousand times as I get a feel for them), the band’s record label took notice, and much to my honor, asked if they could include my papercraft templates with the vinyl release of the band’s newest LP, War Elephant. So, I became a part of a vinyl legacy.
My compensation was a copy of the limited edition red vinyl double-LP, and a signed Deer Tick poster, as well as my own papercraft, slipped into the package for anyone who purchased the LP from the Partisan Records website. So, not only could I add to my own collection of awesome vinyl, but I could be a part of that collection. And damn do I love colored vinyl.
I maintain dreams of pressing my own 45s someday, but until then, it’s a whole lot of fun to become part of my own collection.
