The Visual Universe of Alphanaut

I've been asked how I chose the current visuals to represent the Alphanaut universe. Why venture so far back in time when a more obvious choice may have been to tap into 70's sci-fi kitsch. Initially, I did envision very stark art direction, say in the tone of the film "THX 1138" with a very minimal and suppressed color palate. But as the album's sound developed, that visual style just didn't seem appropriate. Having already hinted at a 'pseudo Jules Verne' vibe with "The Lunar Age", I thought why not continue in that direction, expanding the concept further.

Ultimately what I decided to invoke was that period in time before man rocketed off the planet, before the 50's vision of a sanitized future when our concepts for what might were still naiev. I couldn't be too steam punk or early Buck Rogers either. I knew the most obvious person to help me pull this off was Jimmy Ahlander, the visionary artist behind the "Never Been To Athens" video.

Jimmy and I first tackled concepts for the main album cover and three potential singles. At the same time I had been lucky enough to find Andrew Fogel, a local prop maker, while searching around Craigslist. Andrew specializes in vintage sci-fi props from the era we were aiming to emulate, and had some great gear. For the singles we decided to make the props our main subjects, including a dented bucket helmet, jetpack, welding goggles and a pair of little aluminum robots I own. For the day of the shoot Nils Timm, the director of the "Spontaneity" video, Jimmy and me went on location in the hills above Malibu.

The concept for the "Out of Orbit" cover originally was to be set in the desert. Jimmy had drawn a massive letter 'A' floating ominously in the sky with a huge shadow cast on a lone figure standing small in the distance. Simply due to the lack of time with my printing deadline, we were forced to shoot at our existing location.

To say that particular December day was cold would be an understatement. We had just had a massive storm front pass through the days prior and we were lucky to have even a hint of sun. The early evening temps dropped into the mid 40's in the hills and none of us really prepared for extreme weather. My "THX 1138" concept did carry over for the album cover with my wardrobe which was nothing more than yoga pants, a flimsy shirt and my cap. I insisted on being barefoot for the photos to give a sense of vulnerability, and my feet were nearly numb after standing on that rock for an hour. The crazy thing is all that suffering was for not as you really can't tell I'm barefoot on the cover.

With the Alphanaut website www.planetalphanaut.com , we decided to make our robot couple, (I call then Ru-B and Clank) the main subjects. Jimmy and I came up with the idea of creating images that would represent a scrapbook of the duo taken after crash landing on our version of 1940's Earth. Each page on the site depicts a key moment in their confusing journey.

Thanks again to Jimmy and Nils, I really owe a lot to you guys for helping me solidify my vision for Alphanaut.