Project: Emily Greene

Sometimes a project comes along out of the blue and I can't resist taking it on. Around a month ago, I received an email from a young musician named Emily Greene who began her letter with "Dan Romer suggested that I contact you". This is always a good start for me. Dan Romer is Jenny Owen Youngs' producer and a very talented musician himself. He mixed and mastered Emily's record and when he finished the project he asked Emily when the record would be released. She said she didn't know and wasn't sure how to proceed. This is when my name came up as Dan thought I might be able to help with the packaging and offer some advice. The other really great thing that Emily did was to attach two songs. I like courageous artists who cough up the music right away with no apologies or excuses. I liked the songs a lot and told her to send me the whole record.
Emily Greene is an interesting project for me as she has a major label voice and style. I knew that we had neither the resources nor the stomach for a major label style photoshoot. And it was important that the imaging somehow telegraphed that the artist was serious and her style eclectic. I ended up being inspired by victorian graphics and printing posters. They were ornate, complex and feminine which were good adjectives for the music. It seemed like a good fit and I'm happy with the results.
Finally, I am always trying to get artists out of the grip of Discmakers. I know you can't beat their prices but they've screwed up every job I've ever sent them and I'm not a fan of their cookie cutter/column A/column B approach to packaging. And the few things a young artist has is time, inclination and an army of friends to do some hand assembly. So I convinced Emily to use the fine folks at Stumptown Printers and make a letterpressed Arigato Pak. We'll xerox the lyric sheet and fold it into the package along with the CD disc. She can sell them at shows and send them to the appropriate people and it will stand out from the pack.