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As a special treat to our readers I.V has assembled a distinguished panel of industry players to discuss the role of visuals in our predominantly audio-driven scene. We spoke to Mike Monday, who uses animated and cartoon imagery in his work. Mr C who as well as being admirably image-conscious in his fashion sense is also a label owner. Tim Sheridan's VVWI label is well known for it's strikingly gothic artwork. Arthur Baker is the production legend behind such seminal works as the birth of Hip Hop with Planet Rock, New Order and Bob Dylan. We gathered these very different gentlemen together in our imaginary "Big Brother House" (in fact a simple video conference call) and asked them to bring along some of their favourite images to the table and also we took the opportunity to put some questions to them...

Despite the dominance of the digital domain and the subsequent ebbing of the vinyl package... artwork still plays a part in music, perhaps it is more important than ever to make an effort in this area. In times past we all enjoyed the thrill of buying an album and reading the sleeve on the bus home, or flicking through the record collection and alighting on a favourite cover. Or indeed with the DJ rifling through their box they would know which tune to play from simply the edge of a well thumbed bit of worn cardboard. However instead of bemoaning a lost era let us doff our imaginary hats to the art of dance music as it survives today.

Let us be clear about the difference between graphics and art. There is a wealth of fine graphics work in logos and packaging in our scene but when it reaches outside of that utilitarian restriction and becomes something that engages the eye in it's own right... then perhaps we can call it art. Hopefully we are exploring the difference between branding and creativity. Much of our scene has become corporate and therefore deals in graphics and brands. The red hot iron of commerce burning a logo on our collective rump. Hisss. Ouch. BRANDED!
       ....

 However there have been clear moments when our humble scene has exceeded it's mandate and produced some great visual work. The 1980s U.S Hip Hop and House scene is a wonderful example of this synergy. Not merely outstanding graffiti but truly great names like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat crossed over from the streets to the galleries.

I Voice says "Hail to the image makers" whether it be sleeves, posters, flyers, club visuals or simply the personal image of the people involved... it's time we payed our respects to this part of what we do. So rub your eyeballs and don your spectacles, we are having a gander....

So we turn to our panel and pose our first question, namely ; 

What are your favourite images from your own career?
Mike Monday "Other than the very fuzzy ones in my head of people dancing in front of me, those that mean the most are from my last album "Songs Without Words". It was an odd experience working with artist Seb Godfrey because he  "got" me in those cartoons more than I got myself. He took his inspiration from both the album music and song titles, and immediately understood where I was at. He knew more about what I was trying to convey than I did. The really weird bit was when he drew some images that were very relevant to my life but which I'd never told him about."

Which interestingly to I.V, perhaps speaks of the role of the artist... one who interprets and adds a dimension that excels the brief and lifts it above mere 'illustration' , in agreement is ;
Tim Sheridan: "Yes, I work with artists really closely as Mike does. I love that leap that it takes when it goes from a few words, just an idea... and develops into something you didn't see fully in your head. I work with a great artist called Ed Coward who did all the stuff for legendary club Turnmills. We had a new thing starting at Matter in London... and I wanted to convey a visual idea that was very "London" and also involved science and computers, to reflect how our music is made... and ultimately have our VVWI signature thing of weirdness.

I love the dark and strange and I also love the Victorian era. A lot of my work reflects that. Also all the imagery must be strictly  black and white. I think it really stands out. Simplicity is paramount. Anyway one memorable brief to Ed was sort of ; "imagine Sir Charles Babbage finished his prototype 19th century computer, and it was so amazing the city of London made it Lord Mayor" hahahaha! I mean... it's ridiculous! but I sort of knew what I wanted.

So I sent Ed a pic of the very first computer (fig 1.) and after some dialogue we made something I was very happy with (fig 2.). Maybe it's not our most artistic... but this one explains the process best I think?" But I think my personal favourite is one I call "The Weeping Horse" (fig 3.) I dunno if it's art but we do try really hard and that's all you can do innit?

Certainly the ever flamboyant and erudite Mr.C usually has something to say at length on most topics but he surprised us my answering simply ;
Mr. C: "Most of my favourite images are in my head. Things I've seen... as people do them, usually silly or funny things, like this one..."

This snap produced a lot of laughter with our panel! It's nice to see some DJs not taking themselves too seriously these days. So next we turned to our veteran hero Arthur Baker to add some gravitas.

What does he think is the personal highlight of his visual career?
Arthur Baker: "...Well 2 of my most cherished photos involve me and Mr Robert Zimmerman that were taken while recording "Empire Burlesque" - one sitting at a piano in The Power Station studio holding a belltree, with Bob Dylan posed behind me with him in that infamous pose. I learnt alot about posing from Bob! The second was a pic taken at the album release for Dylan's "Biography" - after years in storage I found it and realised I was surrounded by Martin Scorcese, Lou Reed, Ian Hunter, Judy Collins, Billy Joel, and oh yeh, Dave Stewart.

The other infamous one would have to be when I guested in the New Order video of "Confusion" ... driving to The Funhouse studios to play the tape of the track... everyone always figured it was a limo?  nope! good old NYC yellow cab."

Arthur has let quite a star spangled career as a producer and artist! and these days works in Film as well as the Art world. Which leads us straight to  his answer to our second question ;

What is your all time favourite record sleeve?
Arthur Baker: "Oh at one time it was the "Volunteers" album by Jefferson Airplane. It was a gate-fold sleeve which had a full size photo of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! We would clean weed and roll joints on it... while thinking of the sandwiches we would eat once we were stoned."

And we have all been there no doubt at some point. We turned to Mr.C, who took this opportunity to answer our second question by responding to the first question more seriously this time! Confused? we were. Glad to see someone making an effort with a proper vinyl sleeve though. We must forgive him the shameless plug, after all he has been his own living work of art for many many years! The question of visuals exists in the personal image of the artist as well as their work it cannot be denied...

Mr. C:  "I think my new Lunar EP sleeve on Wagon Repair is pretty posh!  I also like sleeves with lots of thought to them like Adultnapper's "Ransom Note" sleeves that tell a story when you put them all together & the title of each track are in the story."

...and what does Mr. Monday consider a great sleeve?
Mike Monday: "I always loved The Pharcyde ; "Bizarre Ride II..." artwork. It was both funny and a little bit disturbing. I love record sleeves that have many elements that at first you don't notice, but which you pick up by looking at them time and again. I also love random things which don't necessarily make sense to anyone but the artists.

"Bizarre Ride II..." was one of the album covers that I used to look at when listening to the album whilst I was shamelessly procrastinating at University many years ago."

Tim Sheridan: "Lord I dunno that is a really hard question! Trying to be objective, I mean do I choose something just as a piece of art? I think loving the record's music itself is a part of it but I always hero worshipped Peter Saville's work. And Factory as a label are just ace!

It's probably either "London Calling" by The Clash or "Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd which are two greats. Maybe they have lost their impact over the decades but to me they are so amazingly simple.

"Blue Monday" is a great sleeve! but mainly because the sleeve cost so much they actually failed to make any money from the biggest selling 12' of all time hahaha! I love it!"

Do you consider yourselves as working in the visual medium as well as the sonic?
Mr. C:  "Yes of course! I wouldn't get dressed up like a dogs dinner if I didn't... maybe just the dogs lunch..."

Mike Monday: "haha...I hadn't consciously considered the visual medium as important in my creative process until "Songs Without Words". I sent Seb Godfrey an early version of the album and he finished the artwork quite some time before I had made all the changes to the music. Some of these changes were as a direct result of the album art.

I remember using the album cover as my desktop wallpaper which I looked at when I needed inspiration. This was unusual for me as before then I hadn't thought that I was heavily influenced by the visual medium."

Arthur Baker:  "Certainly now that I am shifting into film making, yes I am totally in the visual arena... but in the past, really not enough. I was the guy who famously said on the launch of music television that MTV would never work...haha!"

Tim Sheridan:  "hahaha! really?! I am attempting to get into a bit of film work too, so these days for sure I am in the visual. When I write music though I have a lot of imagery going on, my tracks are sometimes the score to an imaginary little movie.

I certainly have a visual lexicon in the studio... "this sound is like a stupid robot with one leg shorter than the other" sort of bollocks. I think to communicate with musicians and engineers you have to be visual as well as verbal. 

Some of the VVWI sleeves are part of the idea process while the track is not even finished. I draw doodles and even little nerdy charts and graphs for the stereo spread. Embarrassing but true hahaha!"

What imagery has made the most impact on you? from any medium?
Mr. C: "The imagery from Movies I think have the most impact. The way someone drops a line with the right setting or dramatic music can stick with you forever...'...Right turn Clyde..."  (from "any which way but loose" with Clint Eastwood and "Clyde" the Orangutan, helpful Ed.)

Tim Sheridan:  "Haha! not enough cool apes in films anymore! I am trying to think of something really cool to say but I honestly think I got a lot of my childhood influence from comics. The British comics like 2000AD in particular. But mainly it's Victorian. Steam, cogs, gaslight and freaks! Don't ask me why, I just love it. Lately I am deeply into proper art and help run a small co-operative art gallery. I think that has made me take it all much more seriously these days"

Arthur Baker: "I too have recently be taken with the art world much more than in the past. I love getting lost in a Picasso. Or a Basquiat! such a shame I never paid attention to him when he was standing next to me at Paradise Garage haha!"

Mike Monday: "While I can't think of any imagery in particular that's impacted me on the same level as music does, I find the Japanese anime of Hayao Miyazaki utterly spellbinding . Particularly the magical imagery in "Spirited Away" which has to be seen to be believed. I'm also very excited as his new film "Ponyo"" which came out recently."

Does that imagery manifest itself in your work?
Mike Monday:"The specific imagery doesn't, although what Miyazaki does in his films resonates with me. When I'm writing music I constantly think about placing people in a fantastical place or atmosphere which may be unfamiliar to them, similar to my experiences whilst watching a Miyazaki film. But I certainly don't think or try to convey particular Miyazaki images (or any particular images in fact) whilst I'm writing music."

Mr. C:  "It does now I've moved to Los Angeles and started acting... but in my music not so much. Although I think as entertainers & performers, we should make our images a part of what we want to express, which is very important."

Arthur Baker: "Mmm. Not yet. Hopefully when I start making films the marrage will begin."

Tim Sheridan:  "Sometimes I am trying very much to get across a visual image in my music. I was blown away by a track called "Underwater" by Harry Thumann in the early 80's because a friend played it to me and it gave a real impression of an undersea scenario... but he hadn't told me what it was called! That always stayed with me, that a strong and emotional piece of music made well can actually convey pictures, or at least an atmosphere. When I was a kid I listened to music on my own with gigantic headphones on and it was very much about the images that came in my head while immersed in the soundscapes. I don't know if I achieve that in my work for other people but sometimes I try very hard to do it."

Everyone has an image, even it is a studied nonchalance, how did yours come to be?
Arthur Baker:  "When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a pirate. I've had my beard since I could grow one...  and black hides a multitude of sins."

Tim Sheridan: "haha! yeah I sort of have that thing too. In my head I am quite anti-fashion but I have been something of a freak since I was a kid so I can see that people would think I have a carefully cultivated thing going on, when I don't think I have at all. I think the main thing is I don't give a flying fuck what opinions people might have of me unless they know me. And not many do really. I mean for a while I had pretty bad arthritis and people thought I had a walking stick for fashion reasons hahaha!

I get on with people who are individuals, and that can be very scruffy or high fashion, as long as it is unique...I don't have time for whatever is currently 'cool'... after all it's just another uniform. I think one should embrace their inner spaz and be ready to be laughed at a little."

Mr. C:  "...I like to have fun & I have expensive tastes. Lots of people not into fashion scoff about my image but I have a lot of fun with it as both an entertainer and an individual expressing my joviality. I mean if you can't enjoy your image as a performer then what's the point in bothering at all?"

Mike Monday: "I suppose mine came to be as an expression of who I am and as a reaction against that "studied nonchalance". The image that many house or techno DJs and producers gravitate towards leaves me very cold and I don't understand it. While some may naturally be very cool and serious people, this default DJ image is a way of avoiding undue criticism by conforming to stereotype. While I can understand a wish to be judged by music rather than image, we as producers and DJs are not saving lives or splitting the atom, and shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. If I have one, my image is a reflection of me - rarely 'studied' or in any way 'nonchalant'. "

Should the visual be a stronger or lesser factor in electronic music?
Tim Sheridan:  "Stronger in the art that accompanies the music for me. I'd love to see more home made music videos on Youtube for example. I'd like to see more art and a bit less design in sleeves. In the clubs I am more into keeping it dark and then flashing up something really impressive and returning to the dark as if it never happened. More impact. I think the visual element should have as much care and attention as the music. After all the visual aspect shows you care and is another aspect of how people perceive your work..."

Arthur Baker:  "I think it could be stronger in a club setting, considering the state of mind ...haha!... of the audience. I think a club night like Cocoon always benefits from the strong visuals they have...in the past, I had great images projected and manipulated from the crowd on big screens for a few of my "Return To New York" nights, that definitely creates a strong vibe.  But often great music makers have no taste in the visual medium... and DJs on billboards? haha! usually not so nice. I still think the image that a band puts out can spoil the song for me. We all have our own inner images that we produce in our minds for our favorite songs... the wrong visual can ruin the intimacy you have with it."

Mike Monday: "The visual" isn't something that I think about a great deal in electronic music, but I do try to express things in my music which I'm told people often interpret visually. For me anything that avoids the humdrum, faceless, nondescript side of electronic music should be encouraged. Whether this be visual element or something else doesn't matter."

Mr. C: "I think good visuals in clubs enhance the experience for the clubber but also a dark room & a strobe light can be pretty mental too & I also think it's really important for DJ's to have an individual image, it serves many of us well, but at the end of the day the music is the most important factor in dancing to celebrate life."

I Voice thanks our panel and hopes that the visual element of our scene will grow strong and mature to match the ever-increasingly complexity and quality of the music we love. 

Arthur Baker | Mike Monday | Mr.C | Tim Sheridan