Explode Together

And I said, "Just use these colors." And he did a few things and sent them to me and I just basically picked one and said, "Let's go with that, except turn it upside down from how you've painted it. I think it looks better from the other way up." ~ Andy Partridge
Andy told me the history of the Explode Together cover in December of 2002.

WL: I think you've got the original artwork from Explode Together on the Idea site right now, right?

AP: Yeah, that's one of the few things that Design Clinic ever sent to me. I wasn't too much to do with that one. I basically spoke to Dave Dragon, who used to do anything that involved painting or drawing for us. Like, he did the big "Wake Up" head of Dave. Dave with his alarm clock head for the "Wake Up" single. He repainted the Czechoslovakian target for the "Mayor of Simpleton " and stuff. So anything with a fine art side of it, he would get involved in. And I said to him I wanted a real late fifties, early sixties kind of avant-garde jazz type sleeve. Which, in my experience were usually kind of takeoffs of Jackson Pollock, or something with a very
Original sketch - click to view in full @ the Idea site.
Dave Dragon's "Mayor" & "Wake Up" art.

splatty sketchy kind of look. And I said, "Just use these colors." And he did a few things and sent them to me and I just basically picked one and said, "let's go with that, except turn it upside down from how you've painted it. I think it looks better from the other way up." So it was just an attempt to make people think of those early avant-garde type records. But I suppose the fact that I picked this kind of art style from the late fifties or early sixties, there's more of a smack of nostalgia to it. I think it's important to sort of press the right buttons. I guess that's harder to do with new art.

WL: Sure.

AP: It's easier to do with a style that's borrowed from somewhere else.

WL: Something we may already have an attachment to.

AP: May already have, or it may set the bells ringing because you think "Oh, that reminds me of such and such. Or that tastes a bit like such and such." So yeah, I didn't have too much to do with that. I basically picked the one that he did after I'd suggested a certain sort of colors, and basically turned it upside down. That was really my contribution to that.