Idaho Music - Message Board

Setting the tone.

RE: Designing the Idaho mystique | from friendMar 07 2001 - 12:32

....and, when you passed
through Bordeaux; France in
november2000, at the same
moment was opening an expo
called "Mutations" by Rem
Koolhaas.

"Mutations" Arc en Rêve
centre d'architecture,
Entrepôt, 7 rue Ferrère
Bordeaux

www.mutations.arcenreve.com
/.

RE: Designing the Idaho mystique | from jeffFeb 14 2001 - 15:43

when i was in elementary school i was pretty into drawing...i would go to my dad's office and use all of his art supplies. the music and the visuals come from the same place. i like to stick to a few rules ive arbitrarily set up but otherwise i dont think about it that much. my dad is an architect and my grandmother was an interior decorator of some merit here in LA in the forties...maybe i have some of them in me?

Setting the tone. | from RossFeb 14 2001 - 06:35

Jeff, when we spoke briefly at the Ottawa show, I asked you who designed the cover for This Way Out. You humbly suggested that it was yourself who designed the album art. I went back, and I'm embarassed to say that, besides those who've provided illustration and photographs, you're always involved in the visual presentation of your music.

So I guess, I'm just curious, do you have any kind of design background? Because, every Idaho CD and record that I have, I find has sucked me in even before I've played it. This Way Out, my first Idaho record, I bought strictly on the power of the cover. I had heard the tail end of the Fuel video, but really it was the way that album looked. I bought it, and then came the music.

It is my feeling that Idaho has a mystique. Everything about Idaho seems somehow carefully deliberate. I love Idaho because it's more cerebral fare than a lot of the music I've come across. It's music that you can completely dissappear into. Shut me up but, I find that there's a lot of care put into the 'supporting' materials to the music. T-Shirts, the Idaho / Idahomusic logo, everything works together to create what Idaho is to me.

All these beautiful covers, these beautifully oversaturated photographs, the haunting photo of that woman who appeared on This Way Out and The Bayonette EP. How much an integral part of Idaho, are these visuals?

Is it intentional, or just a happy accident?