Mellow Mood: cover and tracklist from the new album "Large"

Mellow Mood revelead to Rockit the final cover and tracklist for their album "Large", which is due out on April for italian label La Tempesta Dub. [italian version]

LARGE TRACKLIST

1. CALL BACK THE LOVE
2. TUFF ROCKY ROAD
3. MS. MARY
4. SOUND OF A WAR
5. LARGE
6. HEART TO NO ONE
7. IT CAN’T WORK
8. ANOTHER DAY
9. DADDY
10. STRING UP A SOUND
11. EYE WAATA
12. PLACE CALLED HOME

LARGE COVER (Dewey Saunders)

This technicolor cover is by Dewey Saunders, born in Florida and Philly-based, well-known collage artist. His job is to mix up organically different worlds, things, images. This time he mixed himself up with Mellow Mood's music. We had a little talk with him.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and where you’re from? What do you consider to be your artistic background and what are your main influences and sources of inspiration?
My name is Dewey Bryan Saunders and I was born and raised in South Florida, moved to Pennsylvania when I was ten and after high school I went to Tyler School of Art for Graphic Design in Philadelphia. My background is graphic design and illustration and main influences are artists like Egon Schiele, David Hockney, Rene Magritte, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, and Seymour Chwast. My sources of inspiration are my piles of books and magazines, I have an enormous collection of printed matter of all types to scour for ideas and from which to pull out collage pieces.

You are a multi-faceted artist, yet you work mostly with collages: what led you to choose this form of expression over other media?
Collage appealed to me after I was using cut paper to cover up old drawings in my sketchbook, and it kind of snowballed from there because the medium is so immediate and versatile. You can do so many different things with collage and I am making new discoveries every day, it becomes sort of addicting because once you have lots of clips, the pieces can come together rather quickly.

Your works look very physical and tactile. Talking more specifically about your collage technique, what kind of approach do you use when creating your art? What are the main sources you draw from when creating a collage? How do you choose the original material from which to cut out the fragments?
My main sources are vintage magazines, especially material from the 40’s to the 70’s. Even earler than the 1940’s is good too but obviously rare. I have different collage techniques - sometimes I will make realistic worlds with a landscape type approach and lately I have been using smaller pieces to bundle up and create movement. I am attracted to the color palates of the vintage magazines and I will spend an entire day cutting objects, fabrics patterns and random shapes before assembling. Collage is about spontaneity and sometimes the pieces kind of happen out of nowhere because you are not forcing the process.

Music is to be a very important part of your life and art. You work with musicians like Anderson .Paak and Chronixx and labels like Stones Throw. When did you start doing album art and why?
I started doing album art officially in 2011 when I designed Brown Recluse’s Evening Tapestry. Before that I was doing album art for friends, local acts, rappers and DJs for years on a casual level. After Malibu came out, album art became my focus and I love working with bands and labels because it’s the perfect platform for my art practice and pairing visuals with music gives the artwork a unique purpose that I really enjoy. The album artwork because integrated with the records and as a music enthusiast and designer it is a perfect marriage of my interests.

You have a recognisable and unique style, but every work you do for others has a very distinct feel. How do you balance your own style with the imagery that a musician carries with him/herself? Do you tend to differentiate among your sources according to your clients or do you have a more uniform cut-out-bank from which you draw more regularly?
Every project dictates the approach and every artist requires a unique perspective. I try to listen to the music right away and let that dictate where I am pulling images and how I am creating the graphic. In a way, I don’t balance my style with a musicians style but pull the musician into my world and interpret the music through my experience and filter. I definitely differentiate among the sources according the clients; although I do have reappearing themes and undertones in my work that I apply liberally. Sometimes, the artist has really specific art direction or an art director which is fun because I like working outside of my comfort zone and taking my style into new directions. My main approach to everything is having an analog, hand made quality to the work which gives the aesthetic a vintage warmth with a certain quality of nostalgia.

Tell us a little about the collaboration with Mellow Mood: how did it start? What is the concept behind this album art and what can we expect from the rest of the artwork? How was it to work with a band, with a strong visual identity like them, led by a couple of twins?
Mellow Mood contacted me in October asking if I would be interested in doing the cover, after hearing the music I was immediately interested in the project. The concept for the album art is derived from the title and the vibes I got from the songs. I wanted to artwork to match the music by creating a very powerful image celebrating the idea of Large in a new way, not in a stereotypical way of living large and having wealth and cars but celebrating everything together, the beauty of nature balanced with the modern trappings of success.
With every design I strive to make the album cover a timeless accompaniment to the music and this cover really captures the feeling - thank you to Mellow Mood for trusting me and my vision and for giving me complete control of the creative process.

MELLOW MOOD - LARGE TOUR

06.04.2018 - Mulhouse (FR) - Noumatrouff Mulhouse
07.04.2018 - Parigi (FR) - Pan Piper Paris
11.04.2018 - Barcellona (ES) - Sala Apolo
12.04.2018 - Madrid (ES) - Sala Mon Madrid Conciertos
14.04.2018 - Lorient (FR) - Festival Insolent
17.04.2018 - Manchester (UK) - Band on the Wall
18.04.2018 - Liverpool (UK) - Invisible Wind Factory
19.04.2018 - Bristol (UK) - The Fleece Bristol
20.04.2018 - Londra (UK) - Brixton Jamm
24.04.2018 - Milano (IT) - Alcatraz - Milano
25.04.2018 - Mosciano Sant’Angelo (IT) - Pin Up Disco & Live
26.04.2018 - Roma (IT) - MONK Roma
27.04.2018 - Firenze (IT) - Auditorium Flog “Official"
28.04.2018 - Bologna (IT) - Estragon Club
07.05.2018 - Amsterdam (NL) - Sugar Factory

Tickets

[italian version]

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L'articolo Mellow Mood: cover and tracklist from the new album "Large" di Redazione è apparso su Rockit.it il 2018-02-15 12:12:00