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It had been my dream from the getgo to have a really nice fleshed out booklet - which is one thing I always lamented about "That Album!" - and so I really pushed that idea. The ideas came about well before recording had even begun, one day when I had been talking to Josh Bains about his cousin's a cappella group The Pitchforks. In addition to playing me a few of their tracks - all of which were quite impressive - he also showed me the rather professional artwork for one of their discs. "You guys ought to do something like this," he said, pointing out the multi-page booklet full of text and pictures.
Josh came down for one of the sessions and snapped many tasteful black and white shots, about half of which made it into the gatefold booklet of the album. Gary Castillo came out one hot summer day and snapped a number of shots of us around the U of R campus, two of which ended up being the cover and back cover. The familiar cover shot was snapped on Colton Avenue - at the crosswalk between Holt and Larsen halls - and actually pays homage to two different bands. The most obvious one is The Beatles and the aforementioned "Abbey Road," but I also suggested to the group that we try and incorporate the "Madness walk" in there. I think the first four of us in line got it, but after that it starts to look like a bit of a train wreck.
Madness doing their nutty walk, 1979.
Since we couldn't technically stop traffic, we had to time our crosswalk shots strategically. Gary couldn't shoot from the middle of the street - lest he get hit by a moving vehicle - so he stood at the side of the road and set up a tripod. We did several versions of the front cover, some with us walking normally, others with each member doing their own random thing. One had Ross crawling across the street rather melodramatically, reaching out as if he was stranded in the desert and had just found an oasis. Gary also took many classy solo shots of us near the Casa Loma Room on the U of R campus, and those made it into the "Colton Avenue" booklet as well.
Josh Bains was also at this session and took many fun color group
shots of us around campus. Some had us running and jumping around
the Quad a-la "A Hard Day's Night." Another one had us all laying
on our stomachs in a circle, staring at my Devo energy dome. One
of the shots from this session leaked out into the 1999 U of R yearbook,
with us all crowding in together for a tight head shot.
Click here to view the "Colton Avenue" outtake photos.
I was especially keen on assembling Josh's black and white photos into a "gatefold collage." Our plans for the booklet began with an 8 page booklet. After monetary considerations, this shrunk to 4 pages (which would have been a fold-over book like "That Album!"). Then after consideration this expanded again to 8 and then 12 and finally 16. We finally realized that with the company Ryan had chosen - PacificNorth out of Vancouver, British Columbia - that this booklet really wouldn't cost that much to produce, and so we ran with it. Brandi Boughey and I worked for many months on the colorful artwork and her talents at graphic arts and Quark Express really came in handy.