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“Heart On” Cover’s Artist: Kii Arens
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We have an abundance of happenings around Core One. I have woken up some mornings with a list of some-what-priorities for the day, only to have more important and exciting moments happen that shift around my schedule that same day.
Kii Arens, Designer
That is what happened on Wednesday of last week.
Call it procrastinating if you will, but I had sales figures to evaluate, a purchasing report for new items to submit, and a few overhead bills sitting on my desk requiring attention and I was earnestly trying to play out the KM-is-responsible roll that I am most noted for but feeling really uninspired.
Ted Skyped me and a message came up on the screen, “We may have moved toward cult icon status…”
Hmm. CULT. ICON. STATUS.
Like I said, in the world of Core One anything can happen on any day of the week that makes a big turning point difference.
He sent me a link to the Eagles of Death Metal site. It looks like EODM has a new CD launching at the end of the month. The swaggering barroom blues jam session we get from EODM in “Death by Sexy” gives us a nice intro into their new album “Heart On” which plays on living maximum life and maximum love being lived. In fairness to a CD, I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing yet (Release on October 20), you can catch a sort-of-review here and here, and finally get other’s reviews here.
The artwork, very gothic love crime, is the point of this writing and the summation of how I got to get out of paperwork and do something fun on Wednesday.
Eagles of Death Metal: “Heart On” Cover
The cover has a solo vixen manicured hand holding a very meaty heart. Piercing the human symbol of love is our Red Coil Bullet Cable!
I immediately directed myself to google.com to find out the name of the cover’s designer.
Kii Arens, who happens to be very much in the realm of my beloved Los Angeles Lowbrow art scene, is the creator. A native Minnesotan (and place where this artwork was created), he has designed artwork through Niceman for Cheap Trick, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., Helmet, Liz Phair, Soundgarden, Seal, Van Halen, Marliyn Manson, Everclear, and recently he has created work for Dolly Parton, and his upcoming gigs include artwork for the Who.
Kii, it seems, knows DJ C-Minus who knows EODM. C-Minus thought that the trio should meet so he introduced Kii to Jesse ‘Boots Electric‘ Hughes and Joshua ‘Baby Duck‘ Homme who shared their rock and roll philosophy of life with the artist. “Life is to be lived with your Heart On—full on!” (Which is so weird because that is the cover song’s name…)
I was curious about Kii Arens and how he got started doing art for musicians and how he landed his other gigs. I found that he shares a common trait with my partner, Ted. Talent set aside, it’s just a haul ass sprint into wonderland with the can-do attitude of conqueror even though need of any sort of formal training may be required.
His first paid project was for Woodstock in 1999. His story is that he got the job because he was one of the only artists to not use tie-dye as a graphic.
[--Think differently and forget about the box, because the box is the same old idea--]
For Heart On, Kii got an immediate gut-feeling type of instinct about the direction to take for the cover. Back in his home town in Minnesota for the shoot, Kii’s dad, Bob, bought the meat from a butcher in White Bear Lake (“… go bears!”), Brynn, Kii’s musician brother supplied the coil cable from his own gear, and hand model, Sarah Wood, got the $50 manicure, and the image became a reality.
When Ted sent me the link to check out the cover, he interpreted it as the silver bullet through the heart like the aftermath of raging passion , but when I asked Kii about the image it he sort of missed that one.
“The feeling I was going for was a woman that just ripped a man’s heart out. You can almost see her gritting her teeth with satisfaction.”
Well, maybe not passion. More bipolar-esque downside.
“If the Eagles of Death Metal hadn’t use the image I would’ve contacted The Scorps in a heart beat, pardon the pun.”
The use of meat sort of reminded me of the original artwork for the Beatle’s White Album. I mention the observation as I reflect on the act of censorship and how we don’t have to cover up images that are disturbing anymore with plain jackets.
Original Artwork (later to become the “White Album”)
“I would never let the word censorship enter my mind in the creative process.”
“I think it’s great that the art for rock is coming around to the artist again as a result of the decline of the music biz. No more focus groups making art decisions… that was such an art kill. On the other hand a lot of bands have great artists within them and it’s giving them a great opportunity to show their art. Perfect example would be Tim Presley of Darker My Love.”
I’d have to agree.
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