Way back in 2009, I illustrated and designed this album for Blunt Mechanic, a short-lived band fronted by Ben Barnett of the acclaimed band Kind of Like Spitting.

Ben and I have been friends for a really long time. We became friends when I moved to Portland in 1995 or 1996.

Ben worked in a café downtown and gave me free food and coffee, which is a helpful thing when you move to a new city, have no job, and have very little money.

Ben and I spent a lot of time together over the years and he was always a giant supporter of my creative endeavors.

I think that most people don’t know that I draw too, because I don’t show my drawings to folks very often.

I don’t like to draw unless I feel inspired to draw, which isn’t very often, honestly.

What you see here in this project is the kind of illustration I thought I was going to make a living off after I went back to school for design.

That obviously didn’t happen.

Nonetheless, Ben likes the way I draw and he’s asked me to do drawings for a bunch of his assorted bands’ records.

These drawings were done on trains in Tokyo before I had a smartphone. I had all of these really long commutes and I would just sit on the train and draw.

I should probably take some photos of the vinyl LP at some point. It’s a gatefold record.

Both the CD and LP were produced by the now-defunct manufacturing company Thingmakers.