Q&A: LANY album photographer Kevin Sikorski talks creative process and possible Grammy nod
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY AVERY HEERINGA ☆
WHEN LANY CALLED UP PHOTOGRAPHER KEVIN SIKORSKI—the decision to shoot the cover for the band’s sixth LP Soft was a no brainer. On a rural farm in Ojai, CA in April of last year, Sikorski tore through several rolls of medium format film and got what ended up as the record’s vivid, evocative cover depicting frontman Paul Klein’s bruised and bloodied hands holding a dainty lamb.
As a child, Sikorski began photographing just about everything he could before studying both photography and film at Parsons School of Design while developing freelance work on the side. Now based in Los Angeles, Sikorski first formed his bond with the band a few years ago at a magazine shoot, which later evolved into a creative partnership that revolved around Soft. The cover is LANY’s first to be an actual photograph rather than an illustrated design, which is not lost on Sikorski. “I always appreciate artists that are involved in the conceptual aspect of making [a cover], but also more of like the fine details of it too,” Sikorski says.
Now, he and his newfound creative partners have submitted the cover art to the Recording Academy for consideration in the Best Album Cover category at next year’s ceremony — a category being brought out of retirement for only the second time since 1973.
Read Luna’s conversation with Sikorski below.
LUNA: What was the creative process of working with the band like for this shoot?
KEVIN SIKORSKI: Paul [Klein, frontman of LANY] was the one that came up with the initial idea and the shot that we ended up using for the cover. He was very specific about that vision in his head already. Once we got up to the farm, we shot at different parts of the day. We shot in the direct sun, we shot at sunset. We did like different variations of it to see what we liked best. It was really cool. The funny part [is that] I hadn’t heard any of the songs prior to us shooting. Sometimes artists will send me things ahead of time, sometimes they won’t. But we were going back and forth so much about the idea and the vision, and right away when he sent it to me, it kind of clicked in my head. The final photo that we have is very much kind of how I envisioned it being.
LUNA: From a photography standpoint, what do you see being captured or represented in the final cover shot?
SIKORSKI: Like I said, I hadn't heard any of the songs prior to it. I'm shooting it almost blindly, even though I know the ideas that we talked about. Now after getting to sit with the album for over a year and hearing it, I think it very well reflects what you're hearing. I think that the title “Soft” is very literal, in a sense, with the album cover and everything. The first word that always comes to mind is “innocence.” I feel like the album has lots of themes of growing up into adulthood, and how that manifests into adult relationships, letting go of certain things. I feel like that's very representative of the album cover. You're kind of bloody and battered and bruised, and then you have this very innocent-looking newborn baby lamb that we shot with that was born like a week prior to a shooting. It’s kind of that contrasted idea of what you think one thing is going to be versus what it actually is, or kind of that like protection of innocence a little bit too.
LUNA: How did you feel the music connect to the photos you shot for it? Has it changed at all in the year since the record came out?
SIKORSKI: I'm someone that likes to listen top to bottom; I'm a big album person. I don't want to just listen to one single because I feel like it kind of skews a little bit. But the title track, [“Soft”] is one of my favorite songs in the album. I feel like I relate a lot to it. The whole album—it's very much [about] this idea of adulthood and what it transitions into, and then also protecting your peace and energy. I actually relate to it a lot, and it's interesting because it definitely sounds like other LANY albums, but it also has a more mature take on it. It’s just a great body of work to listen to start to [finish]. I constantly find myself listening to it.
LUNA: What was shooting on location in Ojai like?
SIKORSKI: There were hundreds and hundreds of lambs running around this farm, it was probably one of the best spots I've ever shot at. There was a full moon and the sunset. When we were shooting it, I could just kind of feel something in the air as we were creating it. It's very hard to describe, but I feel like sometimes everything perfectly aligns into one as you're shooting.
LUNA: What would a nod at next year’s Grammy Awards mean to you as the photographer for this record?
SIKORSKI: It’d be such a huge honor. A lot of times, the visual language of music, aside from the actual audio itself, creates such a world. If you think of any of your favorite pop stars right now, you could probably imagine the world that they've created for specific albums or eras or something like that. Getting recognized for that, I think, is a really cool thing because it does play a big part in the music world on a different side of things. It’s cool to see that be recognized at an event so special like the Grammys.
LUNA: Now that the album and cover have been out in the world for a year, what do you hope somebody looking at the album cover—whether online or in a record shop—takes from it?
SIKORSKI: I feel like the idea of innocence and protecting your youth is very present in it. I also really like the idea of how this can be seen in a physical way. Seeing so many fans buying the physical vinyl and holding it up or having them sign it. It's so cool to see it in the physical world when we live in a world where a lot of things are very digital. I love this idea of it coming to the Grammy’s category because there's a lot of album covers you think of that are very iconic that are almost art that you frame. I really like how it represents this whole world in one image and it represents a sound in a visual language.
