Fabric’s main lady Danna speaks with the men who make up Give Up Art. Read on as designer Stuart Hammersley and photographer Shaun Bloodworth talk about their visual creations for FWD>>, Tempa, and Bleep’s transatlantic project North / South / East / West. There’s an excerpt below, visit Fabric First to read in full.

When you listen to music, do you picture it visually? And vice versa – do you ever attribute songs to things you see?

SB: Yes, there is a visual sense – I think there’s a lot of mischief and darkness in electronic music and I’m drawn to that. I also think there’s hope and positivity, all of which reflects the rollercoaster ride and highs and lows artists live. It’s that tension that makes the music interesting and I hope that in a small way that comes through in some of the pictures.

SH: I pick up on a feeling or mood from things… nothing too specific or literal. Part of a designer’s job I suppose is to try and distil, or filter, the feeling produced by the music and then translate that into something visual – that will also hopefully entice people to notice the sleeve and hopefully buy it. The fact that we meet a lot of artists who we’ve made sleeves for must have had a bearing on how they turn out, I think. I personally found lots of them interesting and inspirational – their do-it-yourself attitude etc.

How did the N/S/E/W project come about?

SB: I’d been to Los Angeles with Stuart on a personal project after being inspired by Mary Anne Hobbs’ LA Rocks documentary. We were really lucky – nearly all the big names were there and gave us so much help and cooperation, and we ended up with a unique document of what was happening around Low End Theory. Bleep saw the pictures on our websites and asked if we’d be interested in producing posters to sell, so we went to see them, the project expanded and Bleep commissioned us to travel to NY and Glasgow to take portraits on location of notable musician/producers. Bleep then organised the music for the compilation CD (one track per portrait), Stuart designed the packaging and we had an art/music document. It’s certainly something we’d look at doing again.

Read on at Fabric First.

North / South / East / West

www.giveupart.com

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