Wow, this could be the beginning of a new series looking into the world of graphic art that would surely please diehard concert poster collectors. Praising rock, metal and punk art designs has been a passion of mine for quite some time, and with each new effort that an artist put out, there was always this huge part of the anticipation in seing what art was on the cover. Similar feelings and experience apply to gig flyers. Today’s poster artists can be credited with recreating many types of printmaking, using modern digital methods, inventing and blending different styles, or simply exposing some of the best features of certain style. The one I’d like to expose through this entry is exceptional and I thought it would be fair to give it some space on IDIOTEQ. We caught up with Benedikt Demmer of Trier, Germany’s Druckwelle Design and asked him to share hims thoughts on his new project of a poster advertizing the upcoming tour from UK experimental post metal band EARTH MOVES (interviewed for IDIOTEQ in late 2016) and Leipzig hardcore band WAYSTE that will take place in mid-April (see the details below). Both bands have also shared their thoughts on the tour and its visual presentation.
German hardcore band WAYSTE released their debut EP ‘No Innocence’ in late 2016. Brighton’s EARTH MOVES unveiled their debut album ‘The Truth in Our Bodies’ in November 2016 via Truthseeker Music and Through Love Records. The band will perform live at the upcoming Sonorous Festival in Sheffield, UK (March 10th/11th).
Benny of Druckwelle Design shared his thoughts on his work above:
All I got as information from Manuel and Sam was that the illustration should be somehow dark, but not so much of a “hardcore stereotype” and I knew we only had a couple of days to finish the artwork, since it was really urgent. So I decided to choose a colour scheme different from the usual black and dark designs. There are plenty of great contemporary and genre defying designs using pink as a main colour, like for example the “No One Deserves Happiness” Artwork for THEBODY. As for the illustation a friend of mine is using a lot of illustrations from animes like Riki-Oh for his latest designs and flyers. I always liked the raw and more emotional brushwork, especially on comparison to western comics. I stumbled on those illustrations a while ago and the imagery immediately reminded me of the legendary MINOR THREAT cover. There were not many words used on these pages which struck me and showed the simplicity but still a certain emotionality. I just assembled the illustrations I thought of most fitting in a new way to create a different storyline. I like that it still shows some kind of “hardcore” stereotypes but hopefully in a new and surprising look but still leaves the viewer in the dark about what actually happened. And I hope we dont violate any copyrights with the poster, since it’s more of an homage and my own drawings just wouldnt embrace it enough haha.
Manuel of WAYSTE adds:
For me being the one in the band doing the booking, I am always a friend of starting to book tours as early as possible. So when we got back from our release tour in October last year I already wanted to start booking the next one to keep things stressless. So we started looking for a band to tour with and it was around that time I saw Through Love Records were publishing a new release of the band EARTH MOVES. I gave it a listen and instantly liked it a lot and found it very special. That’s why I wrote Paul of Through Love Records asking him if he could arrange some contact between the band and us to find out if they’d be interested in touring with us. As he told me they’d be down with it the whole booking process started and as some of the readers might know it can be a quiet protracted thing. So a couple of weeks ago the tour still wasn’t fully booked, but we premiered a new video and wanted to use that to promote the tour a little. All of a sudden things like a tour poster had to be done and we didn’t really know what to do. Especially after some failed and frustrating efforts to make our own poster we decided to ask Benny again, who already was involved in our cover artwork for the EP with his collective called Nacho Lab. In the end he is the one we always come crawling back to if we need something good in a very short time span. To be honest it already starts to be a little awkward since we never manage to think about that kind of stuff early enough, haha. So yeah, we basically asked him for a little more colorful tour poster with our band logos on it, trying to avoid clishes that are being used a lot within the hardcore genre. He sent us the result on the very next day and everybody just loved it. So you saved our asses again Benny, you’re the best, thanks!
Sam of EARTH MOVES concludes:
‘I don’t think UK bands make any secret of the fact that touring mainland Europe is one of the most exciting and enjoyable experiences you can have as a band. This will be our first run of shows outside of the UK as EARTH MOVES, and we’d like to thank everyone in advance for what should be a fantastic week. In particular we’d like to thank Manuel (WAYSTE) for kicking things off and bringing us all together, Benny for his fantastic poster (we’re big fans, so it’s great to see our name on one of his pieces) and Karol for his support yet again. See you all soon x’
EARTH MOVES / WAYSTE Spring Tour Dates:
13.04.17 – Hamburg – F115
14.04.17 – Wiesbaden – Sabot
15.04.17 – Mühlheim – Fiducia Fest AZ Mühlheim*
16.04.17 – Saarbrücken – Horst*
17.04.17 – Karlsruhe – P8*
18.04.17 – Strasbourg – The Mudd Club*
19.04.17 – Frankfurt am Main – Secret Show
