Tales From The Old Mill is an interdisciplinary body of work that spans music, visual art, film, video, and product. From the outset of this project I wanted to tell a complete story through the varying mediums, and to achieve this created a 59-minute album, 18-minute short film, 30-page illustrated lyric book, animated lyric videos, tour flyers, cinemagraphs, teaser assets, and a merch collection. To connect the different pieces of the project I developed a visual language that focused on the nocturnal, surreal, and dark aspects of growing up, and drew inspiration from old children’s book illustrations, Cooper Black font, and the woodland surroundings of the Bay Area. The album portion of Tales From The Old Mill was released in 2021 on EveryDejaVu Records, and received support from BBC, KEXP, and Bandcamp, while the accompanying short film, Winterlude, premiered in February 2022 at the Snow Town Film Festival and also aired on WPBS.
In 2024 I’ll be releasing the illustrated lyric book, which sees all twelve songs of the album receiving an accompanying illustration, and will include a CD of the music in the back cover. Above are select images from the illustrated lyric book that were used as singles during the 2021 release cycle, as well as the album cover. Below are some of the lyric videos and the album trailer, which include hand-animated lyrics and footage I filmed on an old VHS camera, as well as selections from the merch collection I designed and produced.
Physical location was a central element of Tales From The Old Mill and the narrative of the album. To properly capture that I worked with photographer Dante Graziose on multiple shoots across the Bay Area landmarks that inspired the music. I conceptualized, art directed, and styled these series of photos, then edited them and created slideshows, cinemagraphs, and social media content like Instagram reels, and Spotify canvases.
Click here to see a sample of teasers and social media assets created from photos and animated illustrations.
