The Knew – Album Photography & Design
The Knew is a great band from right here in our town of Denver, and we at Dayjob are big fans. The band reached out this snowy winter to ask if we could put a face to their sound and spirit and design the artwork for their first full-length album – Pulpería.
When explaining the concept, The Knew’s Tyler Breuer explained the idea for album this way:
"More than just a bodega, a pulpería represents where good people get together to joke around when things at home, work or wherever aren’t going so well… it becomes like a community center that serves as a temporary break place – harnessing good feelings (because you are taking a break from work and relaxing) and acting as a brief escape from serious shit/problems.
Thus it allows people to let their guard down and act silly. It’s kind of like a watering hole in that sense, but it isn’t always necessarily based around drinking. I think the four members of TK kind of serve as a pulperia for many people – we are a good time (mostly) all the time and we act as a gathering place to rock out, despite what is going on elsewhere. Check your pretension at the door, but be careful and remember that a pulperia isn’t a frat house or a forum for idiots – what is discussed at a pulperia might be delivered in a joking manner, but many of the issues might be significant to your values – things that affect you on a daily basis that you might want to bounce off your cohorts and discuss. It actually can be directly related to many of our songs."
After getting their full license to run with this idea, I was fortunate enough to have to opportunity to employ personal photographs of my own good friends and good times into the album by incorporating almost 20 photographs of dogs, fireworks, snow forts, hot tubs, motorbikes, pretty girls, coonskin caps, cowgirl boots, arm wrestling, bicycles, general ruckus to create a visual translation of the band’s sound and character.
Like most designers, when I am able to work for something/one I believe in, and be able to incorporate things and people I love into the narrative, it is a rare and priceless form of compensation for the work. (And to get paid, yes that is part of the equation. But I am lucky when that is that last on the list of benefits.)
Learn and listen to a little more of the Knew at this music review.
*My favorite track on the new album might be Picnic. Check out Eryc Eyl’s story and listen to it.
Posted by Todd Roeth on March 9th, 2010