As we get ready to celebrate our incredible Finger Lickin’ Silver Jubilee (join us - tickets selling fast! Link in
@finger_lickin_records biog) we look back on some amazing times…
One of the biggest thrills of Finger Lickin for me was being able to combine my music and my art simultaneously by recording, DJing with making record sleeves and branding. Surprisingly, other than occasional flyers for my DJ gigs over the years, it was the first time in my life I was able to bring the two forms together, prior to that they were for some reason weirdly competitive and I found myself in a bit of a schizophrenic state trying to decide which to prioritise.
When Justin and I first started getting ideas for the label together it was a vinyl club music world of generic sleeves and disco bags, the label was almost king over the artists that were on it and so at the time we saw the imprint as an umbrella for our various aliases (
#SoulofMan ,
#2indaBush ,
#Osmosis ,
#FreakyJalapeno etc), the intention was to have a strong visual brand, vibe and a musical identity to latch onto to give us free scope musically.
The first few sleeves were the logo in varying colours but as time progressed, and we started signing some new exciting acts, the sleeves became more illustrated, duotone at first and then by about the 12th release became full colour. These were not cheap to produce, around 80p a sleeve, but worth it!
Back then there was little or no worldwide web so I never really knew who had seen what and where, you can imagine my thrill now when regularly I get sent photos of tattoos, graffiti and some truly other remarkable things with my artwork from all over the world, I’m very grateful. Got a favourite sleeve?
Celebrate with us at the Finger Lickin’ Jubilee - link in
@finger_lickin_records biog. We’ll all be there!
You can buy prints of these sleeves on my website, link in my biog
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