Agent Attitude - Deranged Realities LP

I did most of the work for this LP while on the road with Nick Tape in the US last spring/early summer. The lyrics were handwritten in Portland, Oregon, occupying the home-office desk of Justin who used to play drums in Time To Escape. A whole lot of Photoshop editing was done in Jasmine Torso's punk house in Oakland, where we stayed for two-three days during Coke Bust's gigs in the Bay-Area. I did my best to take sharp photos of lyrics while cramped into a very tiny touring vehicle, and spent endless hours of trying to edit the photos to make sure it didn't come through that the sun had been shining in differently upon them depending on what direction we were driving and what time of the day it was. Plus the occasional cloud. I printed everything in DC, and then took new photos of the lyrics taped onto pizza delivery boxes. To sum up: not the best of circumstances, but a lot of cool memories.

I have previously done Agent Attitude's EP from earlier this year, for which we opted for a more clean, straight forward design. I am happy with parts of that, but I don't think the front cover worked very well. This time around the band supplied me with the front cover drawing, plus the drawing on the lyric sheet. The big photo of Jakob on the lyric sheet was taken by James of Coke Bust in Europe the summer of 2013.

For the labels, we went for a classic design, and exchanged the usual copyright yadda yadda text along the edges with two longer quotes from classic bands from Uppsala, the city Agent Attitude comes from. The A-side is a quote from Äppelkarters, the B-side from Diskonto.

Thanks to Johan Monument, Jakob Adult Crash and the band for letting me do this!

Ego Trip - Alter Ego 7"

Here's a record that has been out for a while now. I also did some work for Ego Trip's demo last year. I'll admit that I struggled a bit with the front and back for this one, and when looking at it now, it might look a little too computerized. I am not a fan of when cut and paste stuff gets edited in a way that makes it look like it was faked. Also, the brick wall should have been limited to just a small part at the very top of the canvas, The inlay however looks a lot better.

In usual fashion I combined different things here. Pen in hand, printing photos and re-scanning them, editing in photoshop etc.

For the labels I had some fun with a photo I took of Pat (of Ego Trip) together with his CTW label mate Tomas in Helsinki, Finland. The guys are actually standing by a statue that resembles the logo of the label, but that can't be seen. I like such little references, especially on labels, where I think it's more than okay to fuck around a little bit. Also putting Pat into a photo of Public Enemy just seemed like a fun thing to do.

Ego Trip on facebook.
Ego Trip on bandcamp.

Damaged Head - Tunnel Vision LP (Adult Crash / European version)

Long time coming (I did the basic design for this in early spring but various screen print matters delayed the finished release), the European version of the Damaged Head LP is finally out on Adult Crash Records. This is probably one of the coolest things I've done, but it definitely demanded a shit load if time and effort, especially the type writer stuff. I used a type writer at a friend's place, and it had something wrong with it causing some lines to be red instead of black, and some a mix of the two. That happened by accident but I rolled with it and created the whole design around the colors. It was the same type writer I used for Damaged Head's 7" from earlier this year, and similarly I re-used the idea of tearing photos into pieces for both the back cover and inlay of this LP, like on the back cover of the EP. I like the idea of linking the releases in that sense. The DxHx logo on the poster side of the inlay and back cover, as well as the band name and record title on the lyric side of the inlay, were done with brush and acrylic paint.

The little dragon is painted by Xaveiro from São Paulo, from the band Disxease.

The US version on Man In Decline should be out soon, too.

Order the record from Adult Crash.

Damaged Head on facebook.

Damaged Head on bandcamp.

Sectarian Violence - EP tour cover 2012

This is something I did for the UK weekend we did in 2012 around the release of the 7" on Grave Mistake. I've probably never been as ashamed on stage as when we fucked up a Discharge cover in Leeds, but in general, it was a nice start to Sectarian Violence as a live band. 

Blind Authority - No Future EP

Funny facts: the front-cover is drawn by Lloyd from Brisbane, Australia, who released the Correction demo tape over there last year, and the record label logo is designed by my flat-mate Jacob. Family affair this, in other words.

I did a lot of work on this debut EP by Blind Authority out of England while I was on the road in the US. Thankfully, I was able to make use of my archives of scanned photos for the back, after the band decided to scrap the idea of a band photo that I had massive problems getting to look any good at all. Everything in the inlay and on the back cover was printed and then re-scanned before being placed in the design, which gives both the photos and the text a special edge.

Listen to the EP here: http://blindauthority.bandcamp.com/
Order it here: http://selfacceptancerecords.bigcartel.com/product/blind-authority-no-future-7

Damaged Head - Self Titled 7"

Damaged Head is a rather new band from Uppsala and Stockholm featuring members of bands like Nitad, Herätys, Agent Attitude, Forced Into and a lot more. Adult Crash picked them up directly and the band's first release is this EP on the Danish label, which is also going to be a one-sided 12" in the US on Man In Decline Records. I had the honor of doing the design for both. The 12" is not out yet, but the only difference - except for the size obviously - will be the screened design on the flipside. I'll post that later once it is out.

This design took a lot of time to get together. I am extremely thankful that Mike Tommyrot from Syracuse of Black SS fame (he drew the cover of the second Path Of Resistance cover!) agreed to draw the front cover, not only because it turned out better than I had expected, but also because it allowed me to focus on the rest of it. I typed all the lyrics and credits on a type writer and then spent hours and hours editing it, finding new ways to combine lines and work with margins. At first, we had a silly idea that all members would be presented on a fake psych ward registration card, but it was hard to make it look good and I am thankful the idea was scrapped. Sometimes you have to invest x amount of hours into a bad idea before you can actually move forward and create something you're happy with. And I am happy with this one. Much of the images deal with lobotomy: the front cover, the b side label picture, the boy on top of the lyrics and the big hand and skull beside the credits. I like how that theme worked out so well.

I am currently working on the layout of the Damaged Head LP, due on Adult Crash this spring.

Damaged Head on facebook
Damaged Head on Bandcamp

xRepentancex - 90s design

I was asked to do a shirt that looked as 90s as possible for my mates in xRepentancex from the UK, possibly my favorite current band reaching for that typical 90s vegan metal sound. I think both colors and design worked well here. I worked with pens and brushes to write the text with help of printed fonts, to make it look a little bit cooler than "just" a font. The band logo was fixed with pencils and then touched up in Photoshop, giving it the thick outline. Once again, I love mixing different tools. 

Check out xRepentancex here:

On Facebook

On Bandcamp

Buy stuff here:

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