ART BLANCHE: Malibu
The metaphor practically writes itself. Anderson .Paak’s music fuses together different genres and influences into one swirling, beautiful concoction. The end result: a sonic collage.
So says even the man himself.
Dewey Saunders, meanwhile, frequents in more literal forms of collage, preferring paper and scissors (and occasionally Photoshop) to Anderson’s microphone.
As collaborators, they have brought together the metaphorical and the literal, with Dewey’s compositions adorning the covers of Anderson’s records.
Anderson .Paak - Malibu (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)
“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”
“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”
Most recently, Dewey created the artwork on Anderson’s critically lauded record Malibu. Just like the album, Dewey’s art has also earned a deal of critical acclaim. But for Dewey, the process of working on Malibu was different than past collaborations with Anderson.
“So Malibu came around and that was different than Venice because he had gotten this art director named Cory Gomberg and Cory basically art directed the whole campaign for Malibu,” Dewey said. “It was a pretty long process of back-and-forth even though there was... a pretty hard deadline we had to meet. And it just, we dialed it in so precisely... working with Cory made my work get tighter and just added a level of polish, I think, just by having so many edits and having everybody look at it and critique it and everything. So it was definitely a group effort.”
Anderson .Paak - Venice (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)
In total, Dewey worked with Anderson and Cory to put together art for Malibu’s cover, gatefold, singles, and various other associated pieces. Strangely enough, Dewey’s work on the project didn’t start with the album or singles, but with the European tour poster.
“I actually had done the poster and then Cory came onto the project and we redid it and [then] did all the singles for Malibu,” he explained.
Redoing the poster allowed Dewey and Cory to build a cohesive aesthetic for the art that matched Cory’s vision for the record cover, which they would then use as a blueprint for the rest of the artwork as well.
“Cory’s initial inspiration that we were kind of looking at was this 10cc cover from the 70s I guess. It was this diver with a diving helmet and he was carrying this girl out of the water… That just kinda sparked the idea [that] we wanted it to have it this 70s classic LP feel to it. So that was the jumping off point as far as the composition.”
10cc - Deceptive Bends (Via discogs)
Originally, they used a photo of Anderson merging from the water, carrying a woman, just like on the 10cc record, but a last minute decision -- due to the photo being, as Anderson put it, “a little too Fabio-ish” -- had them change the image to Anderson at the piano instead.
Looking back, it “was [a good decision] in retrospect but at the time was a big change for the cover,” Dewey said.
Surrounding Anderson on the cover are a myriad of images that relate back to the record’s lyrics. As Dewey and Cory were initially working on the artwork, they would listen to the album, digging into the music for imagery to pull out. Dewey would then look through old and rare books and magazines for material to use, scanning them into his computer and compiling the piece together digitally.
Some of the images they used were overt: the car, the suffer, the “Cali-beach feel”; but many of the things they pulled out were hidden deep within the art, ready to be discovered by those willing to hunt for them.
Anderson .Paak - The Season (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)
“The picture of Anderson in the top hat is really surreal and absurd in a way, so we added all these other elements that go with it, but also are kind of popping out: the ship and the whale and everything happening at once is just this epic scene that would never really happen but it’s this alternate universe. That’s what’s so great about collage is that you can make this semi-believable thing happen, this magical moment.”
“A lot of thought went into the imagery. So everything was very specifically placed and there for a reason,” Dewey said. “And a lot of little elements that are there for the people that are really looking, especially if you get the printed versions of the record -- a lot of little, hidden little elements.”
To match the cover art, Dewey and Cory then worked on the record’s gatefold, which they would also use for a poster that accompanied some of the physical releases.
Anderson .Paak - Malibu gatefold (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)
“That’s a scene with Anderson underwater on the piano again with all the naked girls surrounding him and there’s all the divers and fish swimming around -- so it’s a pretty complex scenario,” Dewey said. “So the whole concept was very beach-y and then going into the underwater, very psychadelic as well and just having the collage elements made this a very surreal atmosphere.”
Key to art was Dewey and Cory’s ability to capture Anderson’s aesthetic and create visuals that felt authentic to his unique musical voice.
“It was an interesting process because I wasn’t really used to working with such close art direction and we were just able to spitball and brainstorm and create really specific feels of imagery that [feels] cohesive with the music… [We made] this psychedelic landscape that was for Anderson that was kinda a unique aesthetic that [matched] his,” Dewey said.
“I think that’s a thing that I kinda pushed [for, and] that Cory kind of pushed me to do, to really create this perspective and depth through so many layers and so many different things happening. ... it elevated my collage game, I would say.”
-Dylan Singleton
