Artist Lawrence Azerrad Discusses the Music Posters He's Made for Red Bull Sound Select's "30 Days in L.A."

Image via Complex Original

“The key graphic of the hand pouring liquid into a beaker, a scientific laboratory image, speaks to the creative mixology, precision, craft, and science of Chance The Rapper's music. As in science and in his music, there are multiple sources, sampling, recomposing, and reconfiguring to build a new substance. The finished, sonic piece and the collage element of the poster artwork take images from different image sources to recompose a totally new artwork. The sparks of fire in the background represent the sparks of creativity in his music. Overlaid with a red/orange LP record also speaks to the sampling and turntablism aspect of hip-hop.”

“This poster art is a reflection of the directness and exuberance in Juicy J's album. Themes of large life, exotic dancers, and living at the top are visually represented by a stack of private jets on a brass stripper pole over an open, cyan sky. Surrounded by executive helicopters, the private jets are painted deep red and purple to reinforce the directness and pop of the rap, in addition to the pure preposterousness of Juicy Jay's lyrical content."

“This art reflects the subdued, tonal mood of the music in color, but through a design treatment as stylized and restrained as the elements in the music. The pattern and sphere as the central visual elements stand for the order and rhythm in Faker's music, in a minimal fashion, while being as stylish as possible—evoking as much as possible with maximum conciseness.”

“A lot of Run the Jewels' lyrical content is about the exuberance of life in hip-hop. Pulling an image of the Los Angeles freeway-interchanges as a backdrop echoes the speed and flow of the music, changing from lane to lane, ramp to ramp, lyric to lyric. The huge diamond and other jewel-like shapes are a direct reflection of the artist's name.”

“The grid of roses contrasting against the rough, dark stone texture is about reflecting the contrasts in the band. The cool, evocative voices of the singers are contrasted against atypical rhythms, tones, and beats. The visual treatment reflects a similar theme, made more interesting when juxtaposed with the raw and unexpected. The plant/roses are in a tight grid over the raw stone, reflecting the the contrasting themes of natural vs. order and openness vs. control, as we hear in their music.”

“The straightforwardness of the jumping figure in the art is to reflect the purity of emotion to the music. Using vintage visual source elements and repurposing them into a new contemporary art context is also about echoing the way the Dum Dum Girls' music has sonic roots in the past but is timeless and totally contemporary.”

“The geometric shape constructed of fluorescent light tubes is a direct reflection of their name—the phosphorescence in the lights—but the idea of luminescence is taken further by putting the context underwater with the scuba diver. The disconnected elements in the underwater collage are a reflection of the dreamscape and ethereal, sonic world of the band.”

“As such a straightforward proto-punk-style musical artist, I leaned into making art totally inspired by classic, new wave art—in form and color—from the 1980s. In making this modern, it reflects the noise and energy of her singing with the action element of the paint. The red snake as the primary visual also serves as something hypnotic and captivating, but as snakes bite, it embodies an element of danger and venom.”

“Evoking the ethereal, soaring tone of this duo, I used for a primary graphic element a giant radar dish, a device that sends signals into space or listens to the echo of signals in the universe, much like the beating echo of the singer's voice and the melodies. Placing the radar dish under swimming pool water was to further the visual idea of echoing a signal through atmosphere. Much like the ping of a sonar radar under the sea, to reinforce the idea of echo through space as we hear in their music. The graphic shapes reflect the sonar radar ping concept, and the additional elements, the shadow of a plant, the profile of a fish, are visually poetic surprises, similar to the kind of lyrical surprise queues and elements utilized in their lyrics.”

“Vile's performance for the Red Bull Sound Select 30 Days in L.A. event will be at a church in Los Angeles, so the gothic window as a central graphic element is a direct reference to this. The pattern of the interlocking triangles of earthy green that intersect with the window graphic reflect the rhythm of his music. The painted watercolor element inside each triangle shape reflects the hand-made, non-digital, and organic craft at the root of his music. The orbiting spheres overlaying all of this are another graphic element to reflect the rhythm of his music. The base background of the wood panel is another visual reference to the organic nature of the craft in his music.”

“The base background to this artwork is a wood panel overlaid with multiple transparencies of painted water colors. The artistic, hand-crafted, and painted element of this art reflects the craft and honesty of Real Estate's lo-fi tone in their artistry. The bleeding nature of the watercolor paint over the spheres containing images of stars and planets reflects the hazy tone of their music. The bleeding watercolors act as a representation of the colors, themes, tones, and passion running or bleeding into each other, as we hear in their music. The central graphic element of the spheres inside of spheres, orbiting each other, evokes the cyclical rhythm of their songs.”

“Both artists on this show poster have a neo-country element to their musical roots. Drawing on this, the graphic of the horse rider takes the central focal point, but by placing the image of the setting sky inside of the silhouette, and placing this silhouette graphic over the image of the Earth below from the sky, we evoke a floating, dreamy element, which exists in their music. The addition of the watercolor-painted base adds another element of artistic craft, to reflect the human analog aspect of their work.”

“The close syncopation of their music is reflected in the oscillating narrow tiles, tightly composed, vibrant and bright, but juxtaposed with a shadowy depth of tone, as in The Preatures' music. The organic elements inside the photos in the tiles reflect the fuzz, noise, and atmosphere in their work, while these organic elements are contained in a constricted, almost digital pattern, dually reflecting the dichotomy between the openness in their instrumentalism and their rhythmically tight production and beat. The pattern as a whole graphic echoes the shape of a digital sound wave, also evoking a digital, computer element to the craft. This shape contains the natural elements of their artistry.”

“This artwork is exclusively about raw power, the kind we hear in the forcefulness of Reignwolf's music. The primary visual is of a giant booster rocket thruster engine. Painted glowing hot, and singularly, powerful alone, it visually speaks to the simple, strong, and thrusting power of the songs. Laid over a rough pattern of igniting fire balls, with black mud splattering from a motocross course, and a red, painted scribble, the elements are sandwiched together to build a visual bed of power and noise—just like we hear in the throbbing power of their music.”