Vegas With Randolph – Side Trip Cover Art

My friend Eric has always had or been in a band. Most usually with my other friend John. A great while ago, even I was in the band; be happy you never had to hear that.  Over the long years since I sold my Rickenbacker, I have had the opportunity to produce cover art for many of Eric’s bands.  The 1st one was for a cassingle (yes, I am very old) called Silhouette.  For that cover, late one evening, I set up a few monolights in the backyard of the house next door to us and handed Kristi (the model) a loaner Kramer guitar and shot several rolls of Tri-X (Yes, film.  You read the cassette part, right?).  I had been given no direction other than, “shoot something cool” so my intent was to backlight the form of the model, resting the guitar out to her side.  Towards the end of the shoot, I thought it might be fun to try for a double exposure as well.  Since this was well before digital camera systems and I wasn’t shooting Polaroids, I had to rely on my skills.  I think I had 2 frames left and came up with this.  (The green grain was added in post by the band.)

Many bands later, Eric and John had formed new band called Vegas With Randolph. Randolph being another mutual friend and Vegas being a city I cannot imagine him wanting to visit. They needed cover art for an un-named four song CD. No name, no instruction, shoot something cool. I have always thought that one of the worst ways to travel would be by cross country bus. Consequently, it then follows that the worst way to travel to Vegas would be by bus. As it happened, my wife and I had recently purchased a 1958 Trailways Bus. A picture of a certain steering wheel started to gel in my brain. The final results are pictured at the beginning of this post. I was quite pleased by what I came up with as was the band. (The title, Side Trip, was mine also :)) Euphoria later changed their name to Cherrysmash. Music by Cherrysmash and Vegas With Randolph can be heard on both CD Baby and iTunes.

Thanks for looking and listening.

Darren