Album Sleeve Design Interview with Thomas Ewerhard
By Mark Grove
08/28/04 Back Issue Article
I've been going back to a lot of my old interview's. This is another dandy from 10 years ago when I interviewed Thomas Ewerhard who's one of Rock's better Album sleeve designers, who takes the artistic sensibility as far as album artwork goes, back to the early and mid 70's when album artwork actually meant something to both the creator, artist and especially the listener of the music.
Roger Dean, the great album sleeve designer once said "Music is an abstract thing, it exists only while you listen to it". Canadian Guitar Player interviews Album sleeve designer and layout man Thomas Ewerhard who did the layout for one of progressive rock's best known artists:California Keyboardist Derek Sherinian's latest Solo album "Black Utopia"(Inside-Out).
Mattias Norén did the actual artwork for this album which is incredibly innovative to say the least. Inside out Music has some of the most creative and over the top art work done I've seen since the early 80's.
www.thomas-ewerhard.com/main.html
This type of artwork takes you back to the art rock days in the 70's when bands such as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and artists like Rick Wakeman had art on their albums that defied the norm. The artwork itself had those more astute listeners thanking these bands for not coming out with cookie cutter artwork and photography on their album sleeves just to sell more copies. Thomas Ewerhard's artwork strives on making sure it's not just the music of prog rock that takes you on a journey but the artwork as well.
MG: Who was the first band you did artwork for and what type of music was it?
TE: Well, the first band I did artwork for was my own called Breeding Fear back in 1993, but I guess that can't really count. My first 'professional' artwork was for the German band Richthofen in 1997. I am not sure how to name their type of music. It was a very modern and hard type of trash metal with german lyrics. Could be described as Rammstein for tough guys ;-) Soon afterwards I did artworks for the German death metal bands Crack Up and Disbelief as well as for Hate Squad after which I decided to try to run my own business. And so far it has worked.
MG: Mattias Norén seems to be an incredibly gifted artist. Did his vision of where you wanted to take album layout and design mesh with yours or is it sometimes conflicting with each other?
TE: Hmmm? in this case none of both. In fact it almost didn't influence each other. Derek Sherinian knew what he wanted for the cover on the one hand and he knew how he wanted the layout to look like on the other. So this has been separated more or less.
The only 'conflict' that occurred was that Derek didn't like my suggestion for the album artwork, so that Mattias had to come up with something new. But this didn't cause any trouble between Mattias and me. Sometimes things like that happen. And the American prog-metal band Magnitude Nine, also on Inside-Out, really loved the illustration I had in mind for 'Black Utopia--and they wanted to use it slightly amended for their recently released record 'Decoding The Soul'.
MG: It seems to me your layout and artwork design type lend itself more to Progressive rock and metal more than anything else. Is that true?
TE: Sort of. Since I do a lot of work for Inside-Out Music, it is just natural that many of my artworks have this progressive vibe. I didn't really intend to do that much progressive stuff, I somehow grew into it. But I don't mind it at all, I like it a lot to play with surrealistic things and landscapes in order to create an image that will attract people just because it looks unusual. And since I used to be a real 'Metalhead' in the past, all bands I worked for in the beginning were metal bands.
Meanwhile, I am more open to any kind of rock music and I have done some covers for bands which don't play metal or progressive at all. And of course these artworks have a different approach.
MG: You've done work with Inside Out and Nuclear Blast Records. Can you tell us which bands and albums made you and Mattias stretch your layout and artistic abilities beyond where you normally go?
TE: I cannot answer this question for Mattias (although I know that the artwork for the STAR ONE 'Space Metal' album took Mattias a lot longer than usual), just for myself of course. When I started working for Inside-Out I found it kind of difficult to get into the typical prog artwork.
I had never done this before. The first artwork I did for IOM was for MINDFEED's 'Ten Miles High', and I was asked to create a more or less typical 'metal' cover, since Mind Feed were not as 'progressive' as other Inside-Out bands. The result was pretty satisfying for everybody so we wanted to establish a cooperation on a regular basis.
The next ones were Enchant's 'Break' and Spock's Beard's 'Day for Night' and both of them were pretty hard to realize. Inside-Out told me right from the start that they didn't want anything 'metal' for those two releases and advised me to come up with something different. Especially 'Day for Night' took ages until we had a final cover.
But I believe that those two records were some kind of test if I would be the right guy to work together with in the future. And since I still work together with IOM very closely I think I can say that I passed it :-) ...
MG: Do you find that you are extending a bands personality and level by coming up with an alternative design that could contrast with the bands artistic vision for the sleeve?
TE: I wouldn't say that I am extending it. Maybe I add a new facet to what has already been there. If I think it is necessary to come up with a new approach for an artwork I still want to make sure that it matches the music and the image of the band. So it isn't something completely new - which could have been called 'extension' -it is just a different way of visualizing the music which may have not been seen by the band.
MG: Does album layout and design have an effect on sales at all?
TE: I really hope so, but I don't know it for sure. I guess no one REALLY knows. But I am sure that a good layout and a high quality packaging attract a lot more people than a standard jewel case with a black & white booklet does. Especially in the metal scene the packaging is very important for the fans. You can't read the lyrics, look at the band pics and a cool cover art or layout if you copy the CD from a friend instead of buying it.
So in the end there must be an effect on the sales, at least in 'our' part of the business. Just look at all the limited or special editions out there with tons of bonus material and extraordinary packaging. Those products are very expensive to manufacture and therefore they are also expensive in the stores. If people wouldn't buy them-and in doing so people express their interest in a high quality packaging, even if it isn't cheap-no record company would release them.
MG: Do most album designs reflect what the artist wants?
TE: Again, I really hope so! I never send a design to print before the artist has given his approval. So everybody has the chance to influence the layout as much as he wants to to reach the most satisfying result.
MG: Do you feel that artistic integrity is lost with artists at Major record labels reflecting the fact they just want to sell as many units as possible?
TE: Yes, at least a little bit. It is fact that usually the releases of major record companies are more simple than the release of smaller record companies are. Albums on a major label are often released in a standard jewel case with a 12 page booklet and that's it. No surprise that this packaging doesn't prevent people from copying the CDs. The packaging is just not attractive enough. I am convinced that doing it like the smaller companies do - high quality packaging and artwork, limited editions, bonus material, etc - is the much better way to go, which will be appreciated by the fans and which will enable steady sales. And it is obvious that artistic integrity can be much better supported with a 24 page booklet and a bonus DVD housed in a stylish digibook...
MG: Have you ever scrapped an album art project because your vision and the bands contrasted too much?
TE: No, that has not been necessary so far. Thank God!
MG: Does your company strictly do artwork and layout for record labels or do you do it for comic books as well which seems to be done by very innovative artists?
TE: No, I am not limited to the music business, but admittedly most of my time is spent an CD artwork. I have been involved in a few comic projects from 2000 to 2002.
Usually I took care of the coloring. 'Die Vergessenen', which was the biggest German comic project at that time, was my main job besides music industry. I also did the coloring for comic books that were part of computer game releases, like 'Gothic', 'Die Siedler' or 'Demonworld'.
I really enjoyed this different type of work. Since I am doing the CD layout all on my own, it was interesting to be part of the team that is responsible for the creation of a comic book: Author, Penciler, Inker, Colorist & amp; Lay-outer.
Unfortunately, there haven't been any new comic book projects in the last two years. Most of them were pretty expensive and have only been used for advertising purposes. A lot of companies seemed to have run into financial difficulties so that they couldn't afford doing whole comic books anymore, and hopefully that will change again in the near future...
Mark Grove: Music becomes an ongoing art form only when it is packaged and sold to a consumer.That particular album becomes more of an artistic vision in the buyers hands than it does in the creators. The listener critiques it and becomes emotionally drawn by the music and artwork which sometimes takes a purveyor of innovative music and artwork on a journey and a whole new level of appreciation for the sleeve art and the textural nuances of the music.
Mark Grove-CGP
For more info on Thomas and his Ultra-Wild Art work for Musicians go to:
www.thomas-ewerhard.com/main.html
By Mark Grove
08/28/04 Back Issue Article
I've been going back to a lot of my old interview's. This is another dandy from 10 years ago when I interviewed Thomas Ewerhard who's one of Rock's better Album sleeve designers, who takes the artistic sensibility as far as album artwork goes, back to the early and mid 70's when album artwork actually meant something to both the creator, artist and especially the listener of the music.
Roger Dean, the great album sleeve designer once said "Music is an abstract thing, it exists only while you listen to it". Canadian Guitar Player interviews Album sleeve designer and layout man Thomas Ewerhard who did the layout for one of progressive rock's best known artists:California Keyboardist Derek Sherinian's latest Solo album "Black Utopia"(Inside-Out).
Mattias Norén did the actual artwork for this album which is incredibly innovative to say the least. Inside out Music has some of the most creative and over the top art work done I've seen since the early 80's.
www.thomas-ewerhard.com/main.html
This type of artwork takes you back to the art rock days in the 70's when bands such as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and artists like Rick Wakeman had art on their albums that defied the norm. The artwork itself had those more astute listeners thanking these bands for not coming out with cookie cutter artwork and photography on their album sleeves just to sell more copies. Thomas Ewerhard's artwork strives on making sure it's not just the music of prog rock that takes you on a journey but the artwork as well.
MG: Who was the first band you did artwork for and what type of music was it?
TE: Well, the first band I did artwork for was my own called Breeding Fear back in 1993, but I guess that can't really count. My first 'professional' artwork was for the German band Richthofen in 1997. I am not sure how to name their type of music. It was a very modern and hard type of trash metal with german lyrics. Could be described as Rammstein for tough guys ;-) Soon afterwards I did artworks for the German death metal bands Crack Up and Disbelief as well as for Hate Squad after which I decided to try to run my own business. And so far it has worked.
MG: Mattias Norén seems to be an incredibly gifted artist. Did his vision of where you wanted to take album layout and design mesh with yours or is it sometimes conflicting with each other?
TE: Hmmm? in this case none of both. In fact it almost didn't influence each other. Derek Sherinian knew what he wanted for the cover on the one hand and he knew how he wanted the layout to look like on the other. So this has been separated more or less.
The only 'conflict' that occurred was that Derek didn't like my suggestion for the album artwork, so that Mattias had to come up with something new. But this didn't cause any trouble between Mattias and me. Sometimes things like that happen. And the American prog-metal band Magnitude Nine, also on Inside-Out, really loved the illustration I had in mind for 'Black Utopia--and they wanted to use it slightly amended for their recently released record 'Decoding The Soul'.
MG: It seems to me your layout and artwork design type lend itself more to Progressive rock and metal more than anything else. Is that true?
TE: Sort of. Since I do a lot of work for Inside-Out Music, it is just natural that many of my artworks have this progressive vibe. I didn't really intend to do that much progressive stuff, I somehow grew into it. But I don't mind it at all, I like it a lot to play with surrealistic things and landscapes in order to create an image that will attract people just because it looks unusual. And since I used to be a real 'Metalhead' in the past, all bands I worked for in the beginning were metal bands.
Meanwhile, I am more open to any kind of rock music and I have done some covers for bands which don't play metal or progressive at all. And of course these artworks have a different approach.
MG: You've done work with Inside Out and Nuclear Blast Records. Can you tell us which bands and albums made you and Mattias stretch your layout and artistic abilities beyond where you normally go?
TE: I cannot answer this question for Mattias (although I know that the artwork for the STAR ONE 'Space Metal' album took Mattias a lot longer than usual), just for myself of course. When I started working for Inside-Out I found it kind of difficult to get into the typical prog artwork.
I had never done this before. The first artwork I did for IOM was for MINDFEED's 'Ten Miles High', and I was asked to create a more or less typical 'metal' cover, since Mind Feed were not as 'progressive' as other Inside-Out bands. The result was pretty satisfying for everybody so we wanted to establish a cooperation on a regular basis.
The next ones were Enchant's 'Break' and Spock's Beard's 'Day for Night' and both of them were pretty hard to realize. Inside-Out told me right from the start that they didn't want anything 'metal' for those two releases and advised me to come up with something different. Especially 'Day for Night' took ages until we had a final cover.
But I believe that those two records were some kind of test if I would be the right guy to work together with in the future. And since I still work together with IOM very closely I think I can say that I passed it :-) ...
MG: Do you find that you are extending a bands personality and level by coming up with an alternative design that could contrast with the bands artistic vision for the sleeve?
TE: I wouldn't say that I am extending it. Maybe I add a new facet to what has already been there. If I think it is necessary to come up with a new approach for an artwork I still want to make sure that it matches the music and the image of the band. So it isn't something completely new - which could have been called 'extension' -it is just a different way of visualizing the music which may have not been seen by the band.
MG: Does album layout and design have an effect on sales at all?
TE: I really hope so, but I don't know it for sure. I guess no one REALLY knows. But I am sure that a good layout and a high quality packaging attract a lot more people than a standard jewel case with a black & white booklet does. Especially in the metal scene the packaging is very important for the fans. You can't read the lyrics, look at the band pics and a cool cover art or layout if you copy the CD from a friend instead of buying it.
So in the end there must be an effect on the sales, at least in 'our' part of the business. Just look at all the limited or special editions out there with tons of bonus material and extraordinary packaging. Those products are very expensive to manufacture and therefore they are also expensive in the stores. If people wouldn't buy them-and in doing so people express their interest in a high quality packaging, even if it isn't cheap-no record company would release them.
MG: Do most album designs reflect what the artist wants?
TE: Again, I really hope so! I never send a design to print before the artist has given his approval. So everybody has the chance to influence the layout as much as he wants to to reach the most satisfying result.
MG: Do you feel that artistic integrity is lost with artists at Major record labels reflecting the fact they just want to sell as many units as possible?
TE: Yes, at least a little bit. It is fact that usually the releases of major record companies are more simple than the release of smaller record companies are. Albums on a major label are often released in a standard jewel case with a 12 page booklet and that's it. No surprise that this packaging doesn't prevent people from copying the CDs. The packaging is just not attractive enough. I am convinced that doing it like the smaller companies do - high quality packaging and artwork, limited editions, bonus material, etc - is the much better way to go, which will be appreciated by the fans and which will enable steady sales. And it is obvious that artistic integrity can be much better supported with a 24 page booklet and a bonus DVD housed in a stylish digibook...
MG: Have you ever scrapped an album art project because your vision and the bands contrasted too much?
TE: No, that has not been necessary so far. Thank God!
MG: Does your company strictly do artwork and layout for record labels or do you do it for comic books as well which seems to be done by very innovative artists?
TE: No, I am not limited to the music business, but admittedly most of my time is spent an CD artwork. I have been involved in a few comic projects from 2000 to 2002.
Usually I took care of the coloring. 'Die Vergessenen', which was the biggest German comic project at that time, was my main job besides music industry. I also did the coloring for comic books that were part of computer game releases, like 'Gothic', 'Die Siedler' or 'Demonworld'.
I really enjoyed this different type of work. Since I am doing the CD layout all on my own, it was interesting to be part of the team that is responsible for the creation of a comic book: Author, Penciler, Inker, Colorist & amp; Lay-outer.
Unfortunately, there haven't been any new comic book projects in the last two years. Most of them were pretty expensive and have only been used for advertising purposes. A lot of companies seemed to have run into financial difficulties so that they couldn't afford doing whole comic books anymore, and hopefully that will change again in the near future...
Mark Grove: Music becomes an ongoing art form only when it is packaged and sold to a consumer.That particular album becomes more of an artistic vision in the buyers hands than it does in the creators. The listener critiques it and becomes emotionally drawn by the music and artwork which sometimes takes a purveyor of innovative music and artwork on a journey and a whole new level of appreciation for the sleeve art and the textural nuances of the music.
Mark Grove-CGP
For more info on Thomas and his Ultra-Wild Art work for Musicians go to:
www.thomas-ewerhard.com/main.html
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