Q: Which makes me wonder how differently or similarly do you look at the stuff you do for Esquire say, from a project like that. Is it two different approaches?
A: Well, there’s so many different mediums but when it comes down to it you’re just trying to communicate with people visually.
Q: What I mean is the latest cover especially seems like it’s coherent with the aesthetic you’ve established in Esquire…
A: Well, I personally like–and Esquire as a magazine–we look for those unscripted moments. We look for the weird shit in a photo. Because its differentiated from every other photo you’ve seen of George Clooney or whatever. George Clooney doing some crazy shit like, holding up a mask or grabbing his balls–we look for something to be different, a little bit off. Not off in a bad way but more natural and more revealing about the person you’re looking at. In a magazine you’re dealing with celebrities and celebrities have been shot before a million times so you’re trying to find the photo that’s different, unique. That’s how I approach it and I think I brought that to specifically this last album cover.
Q: Which is kind of a departure for a reggae album. Usually there’s a limited set of associations you have about reggae that people draw from.
A: Yeah, I definitely wanted to go against that. Even the cardboard case, I was like, We should just do cardboard packaging instead of the plastic, typical CD case. Just cause it was different and also to get that almost like retro feel, that’s something I hadn’t seen in reggae at all. Except for what Island did with the Bob Marley reissues, which were all dope. That was the only really kind of unconventional reggae packaging I had seen for a while. You know like when Bob Marley first came out and they had the Zippo sleeve…that was some cool shit. People don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. I was just trying to do something like that, so if you open it up there’s a little mini-poster with all the lyrics. I wanted it be something that people were actually gonna hold and explore a little, and not just toss in the garbage.