behind the album art with Alexei Shishkin
We're living in a golden age of cake right now. Cake Zine has been breaking down the butters, sugars, fats and flours of our favorite baked goods in a literary style for some time now; meanwhile the "ugly cakes" of Instagram have created a surprising amount of Dessert Discourse. Amid this glut of gateaux, we have the art for Alexei Shishkin's new album: a photograph of a rather tasty looking cake, lit with violent flash, resplendent with swirls of chocolate buttercream, crowned with lurid maraschino cherries, and foregrounding a small pile of snack-size Frito bags.
Enough about cake—let's get to the music. You could describe Shishkin as "prolific," and in fact I will describe him as prolific. He released three records last year, and now a calm 10 months after his last project (Greenwich Mean EP) he's putting out Good Times. The album was recorded in just four days at Big Nice Studio in Rhode Island with his collaborator/producer/friend Bradford Krieger, using "surrealist techniques" like improvisation and collage.
Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2017
Though Shishkin is far more content to noodle in the studio than to play live, the impression Good Times leaves on me is that of a lounge singer in a DIY venue basement, performing for anyone who might poke their head down into the sticky-floored zone to see where the semi-easy-listening tunes are coming from. Maybe it's the slouchy piano on tracks like "Tiki Taka (2006)" and "Tough (Ugly Ghosts)", or the cracked, toe-tapping rhythm and loose saxophone of "Magpie," but I'm seeing neon signs, individual trails of cigarette smoke, and Shishkin spotlit in a corner hoisting a kalimba. Good Times Indeed!!
I asked Shiskin some questions about the album and its art, including the provenance of the luscious cake in question, plus his preferred cake/frosting combo...ANSWERS BELOW:...
[Molly Mary O'Brien] Your artist statement mentions you were originally going to name the album Magpie—what made Good Times the eventual winning choice?
[Alexei Shishkin] Good Times ended up becoming the album name through a little bit of serendipity, to be honest. I hate naming albums, mostly because my process of songwriting is very scattershot; I don’t know if I’ve ever gone into a recording session with an album “concept” in mind.
With this one, it was no different. After we had finished recording the album and I had returned home, I dug into the session files and I realized Brad had included a bonus track that I wasn’t aware of. It was called “Good Times.” I opened it, and it turned out to be a solo piano track, and something about it just struck me. I figured it would make a good closer to the album, and the name “Good Times” was a clean, simple way to sum up how it felt to be in the studio for those four days. It was just good times hanging out and recording music with my friend.
What do you feel is the connection between the sound of Good Times and the energy of the album art?
For this album art, I dug through some photos that my friend Graham W. Bell (who also runs Rue Defense) had in his archive. This cake photo seemed like a good fit because it felt simultaneously tender and chaotic. There’re tumultuous moments on Good Times, and there are also tame moments, and this snapshot seemed to mirror that.
You've had a cake in your album art before, on your 2019 self-titled album. How would you describe your album art cake evolution over the last six years?
Wow, I guess I have had cake art before…weird. That one was a bit different because it captured a joyous moment that I was a part of. For Good Times, I was completely removed from that moment; I experienced it purely aesthetically, years after it happened. As a matter of fact, for the next question you have coming up, I had to outsource it to the photographer because I have zero connection with the birthday in question.
Who baked and photographed this delightful looking cake? and what does the icing writing say?
Directly from the source, Graham says: "I just asked my friend Sam since it was her birthday, and she said that the cake was baked by her good friend Alex. I (Graham) took the pic. The cake says 'Flirty Thirty!'"
What is your personal favorite cake/frosting combination?
What a great closing question! I think it depends on the day, but right now I’d say I’m in the mood for a lemon-raspberry cake with lemon cream cheese frosting — one last grasp at a little summer moment. I’m a cake fiend though, so I’ll indulge in any cake that comes along. There’s a place called Shyndigz in Richmond, VA, and they make the most incredible cakes.
Thank you Alexei! Listen to Good Times and check out his link aggregation.
And thanks for reading I Enjoy Music! If you like it, tell a friend.
