Graeme Swinton/News/

Genuine Photo (Grid view)

2008-07-04T14:44:00.004+01:00

Just done a quick update to my Genuine Photo website. The full screen photos, some folk have said are a little cumbersome... So to make the whole process a lot simpler I've created a new section where all 100 photos are available to view as thumbnails. It's a typical gallery really, select a thumbnail, click on it, see a larger expanded version, click the larger version to go back to the thumbs. Easy.

Check out Genuine Photo (Grid view) website.

The full screen version of the site is still available at Genuine Photo.

Make Your Bed

2008-06-15T09:45:00.002+01:00

After many hours syncing and tweaking frames in Final Cut I have just finished the video for the next single 'Make Your Bed' by the truly excellent band Babel. I filmed this late one night in a broken and quite filthy portacabin which was inside a warehouse on the outskirts of Bristol. The band wanted claustrophobia and realism and sweat by the bucketful. Nice. For lighting there was a set of four disco lights set on full orange/red and two broken strip lights which flickered on and off erratically.

You can watch the video in full on Babel's website Babel Music

btw. They have a new album called 'Crooked Timber' coming out immanently and it's brilliant'.

Balancing act.

2008-06-11T18:15:00.000+01:00

It's been another crazy month and updates have been few and far between...

So... I've just finished the website for the Wild Beasts to promote their new single and album. I very much like this band, they're an interesting lot and they manage to balance the tightrope of abstraction and pop very skillfully. They're also from the Lake District so what's not to love.

There has also been a new website for N*E*R*D for their new album 'Seeing Sounds'. The site is based on the video for the new single 'Everyone Nose' which takes it's inspiration from the Last Night's Party website. I've edited a selection of short clips and they randomly appear in a sequence of nine blocks then randomly selected images of N*E*R*D appear also, this is the basis of the site and navigation... it's always different.

Also there have been updates to Tricky's site, Knowle West Boy, The Last Shadow Puppets site The Age Of The Understatement and the XX Teens.

By the way the image above is a sketch by Ellsworth Kelly. 93. Light Reflection on Water, 1950. Ink / Tusche (13.3 cm x 20.3 cm) I have this hanging on the wall of my studio.

The Age Of The Understatement

2008-05-06T17:14:00.004+01:00

The Last Shadow Puppets are Alex Turner (from Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (from The Rascals) and 'The Age Of The Understatement' is their new No. 1 album.

I've been working on this campaign for the last 2 months or so adding new videos and building a variety of websites for both the UK and US markets. The final site includes exclusive videos that fans can embed on their MySpaces/Facebooks/blogs/websites and has been getting an absolute hammering as you may expect.

The video above is embedded and using content from the Age of the Understatement website. Click to play...

The Age Of The Understatement website.

Exit Strategy

2008-04-14T12:08:00.003+01:00

I've just done the sleeve for the new album by Seb Roberts based on an old photograph of the Northwestern Railroad yard in Chicago. The front sleeve shows electric light, day light on the inner and fire light on the back without a glimpse of the train at all. Very nocturnal.

Born of the Canadian prairies, tempered by American east coast, ripened by years on the road, and seasoned by all the sounds he sponged up along the way, he's played in nine bands and self-released as many albums (though almost every one under a different moniker). He's well-liked by those who know him, and is otherwise regarded with some suspicion.

'Exit Strategy' is his first release for SVC Records.

You can buy the album from the SVC Records website.

And there's more...

2008-04-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd add another round-up of the latest projects going on here, gives me a chance to use another delightful old postcard of Bristol. Check out the glitter on this one, what a beauty.... anyway

The Kills campaign is now all live, there's the microsites for U.R.A. Fever and Cheap and Cheerful, the new blog at their official website The Kills and now there's the all singing and dancing 'add-you-own-postcard-for-the-album- site! at Midnight Boom. You register, log-in and then post your own interpretation of one of the tracks as a postcard, then you can send this on to a friend. The site uses some very clever php and mySQL which handles all of the resizing and the database.

Also The Last Shadow Puppets website has been changing here and there at The Age Of The Understatement. Now with more video...

I've just done a sleeve for an excellent new record coming out on SVC Records, it's for a chap called Seb Roberts and the album is called Exit Strategy. He's a Canadian who lives in Hamburg/Tokyo and his biog says that "He's well-liked by those who know him, and is otherwise regarded with some suspicion." So there you go.

Finally there are some exciting developments afoot for Genuine Photo but that's all I'm going to say on the matter for now, so watch this space.

Radiohead Remix

2008-04-01T12:19:00.000+01:00

I've gone and remixed that Radiohead song 'Nude'. Bit of a slow start so give it a chance... there's some quite pleasant strings that I chopped up which begin about a minute in so if you get that far then good for you. Oh yes don't forget to vote!

Radiohead Remix website.
The Palace Lido website.

And if there's anyone out there who'd like the mp3 then you can download that here... Nude (The Palace Lido Remix) (256kbps - vbr)

Fat Truckers - Anorexic Robot!

2008-03-20T17:39:00.000Z

I was going through an archive box of old work DVDs and came across this video I did for Sheffield's finest ever band (yes more so than the Human League!) I filmed it at one of their gigs at the ICA and then chopped it together in Premiere. I was working on their website and also the sleeve for this single at the time. They were quite ahead of their time all things considered and a great live band...

Fat Truckers - Anorexic Robot
Live at the I.C.A Dec 12th 2002
Roadtrain Recordings

Fat Truckers on Wikipedia.
Buy the Fat Truckers album from Amazon. Every home should own one.

Brunch?

2008-03-02T07:58:00.001Z

'Bunch' decided that it was time to rework their corporate identity this year and base it around the overarching theme of 'Made in Bunch'. They asked designers how they see 'Bunch' and to reconfigure their id to get an alternative fresh view point.

So anyone for Brunch?

Bunch website.

Greetings..

2008-02-28T17:39:00.005Z

It's very nearly March already and time is just whizzing by... There's some rather interesting and quite substantial projects underway which are very exciting, more to be revealed soon enough. For now here's a quick roundup of what's just been...

The ongoing Kills website and it's many mutations is live at Midnight Boom. The site plays a track off the new album and shows exclusive artwork everyday leading up to the album release on the 10th, then soon after that we've got something else which is a secret for now.

Here are the other Kills sites from the last two single releases. U.R.A. Fever and Cheap and Cheerful, the remix parts are still available at both. Oh yes and let's not forget the new blog site built so Alison and Jamie can post from their Blackberries in whichever country they're currently touring at The Kills

Then there was the full screen video site for the Mountain Goats with complete album sampler.

What else? Oh yes Nick Cave, well the site is ongoing here, slowly new videos are being leaked on there of Nick and the band conducting seances. If you've not yet seen Nick in a turban then do pop along.

Finally there's a teaser site for a band generating a lot of interest called The Last Shadow Puppets. Featuring Alex from the Arctic Monkeys and Miles from The Rascals, this is The Age Of The Understatement.

Sleeveface!

2008-02-25T13:57:00.002Z

Tonight Matthew we're going to be... Thom as Barr', Danny as Mo' and me as Robin.

Sleeveface at Flickr.

CD Cover Meme

2008-02-09T12:31:00.000Z

Found this mentioned on a few blogs recently. So if you have 5 seconds to spare why not give it a go. Here's a couple I made earlier...

These are the instructions from the Flickr group.

1. Wikipedia random article
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. Random quote
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. Random Image
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

CD Cover Meme website.

Rambles!

2008-02-05T09:39:00.000Z

What a good idea...

Cheap And Cheerful

2008-02-01T16:09:00.000Z

The next single from The Kills is going to be 'Cheap And Cheerful' taken from their forthcoming album Midnight Boom. You can check out the video and also download all of the separate elements of the track to remix at the Midnight Boom website.

U.R.A Fever is still available to remix here

Erasing David

2008-01-28T10:25:00.000Z

UK independent production company and all round great chaps Green Lions asked me to rustle up a title card for their latest film 'Erasing David'. Shhh! you ain't seen me right....

A Press of Suspects No.2

2008-01-26T10:32:00.000Z

New poster for Bristol promoter A Press of Suspects, which as you may have guessed following on from the post below uses a wonderful old image from the Library of Congress collection.

Come Back to Camden

2008-01-24T15:26:00.000Z

Went to see that Morrissey fellow last night at the Camden Roundhouse and really rather good he was too. The highlight for me was the cacophony of noise at the end of 'Death of a Disco Dancer' that shook the very foundations of the room followed by Tormentors favourite 'Life is a Pigsty'. Here's one of my snaps taken with my trusty Ricoh GR1 which I brought out of retirement especially.

Library of Congress

2008-01-22T11:41:00.000Z

The always brilliant NOTCOT website directed me to this amazing collection of photographs on Flickr.

It's the National Library for the United States 'Prints & Photographs Division'. Based in Washington, DC. the library has more than 134 million items preserved on some 530 miles of bookshelves, the 'Prints & Photographs Division' itself takes care of 14 million pictures and features more than 1 million through online catalogs and now much to my utter enjoyment, Flickr.

The picture above was taken by Jack Delano in 1941, backstage" at the "girlie" show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland.

The Library of Congress photos on Flickr.
The Library of Congress website.

Use your instincts...

2008-01-21T16:16:00.001Z

New video website for the next XX Teens single How To Reduce The Chances Of Being A Terror Victim. Now that's a video!

Midnight Boom

2008-01-07T11:41:00.000Z

The ongoing Kills site Midnight Boom is taking shape, currently based on the single U.R.A Fever. Video, news and most importantly the chance to download and remix the latest track.

The site is going to change over the next few months right up to album launch...

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

2007-12-29T23:06:00.000Z

Working right up to Christmas on this one it was a dash to get all the pieces together and online. The video was shot by British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and features Nick and the Bad Seeds conjuring the spirits!

Check out Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds official site.
Also the Mute YouTube channel.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds release their 14th studio album DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! on 3rd March 2008 on Mute. Produced by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Nick Launay who worked with the band on their last album Abattoir Blues/ Lyre of Orpheus. The album features artwork by Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

Deleted Images

2007-12-20T10:26:00.000Z

A favourite website of mine is Deleted Images. I just love the idea of people sending in images that have not met their expectations or are 'faulty' in some way. Many of the images are quite brilliant and to have them all in one place which celebrates mistakes really appeals to me. Oh yeah that and one of mine is on there too! I nearly lost my head taking the picture, didn't notice the huge concrete block appearing fast.

Rijks!

2007-12-14T11:27:00.000Z

Just made a poster for the next Press of Suspects night in Jan, which is going to have Meg Baird from Espers play amongst other varied acts.

All of the images are 'borrowed' from the very excellent Rijks Museum website. I wanted the poster to have a classical feel and be quite detached from your typical band night as The Press of Suspects plan to create evenings that are far from usual.

Not here for your entertainment

2007-12-07T14:39:00.000Z

Finally the Black Melody site is live. Julian built the complicated content managed stuff and so now we have a great resource that Richard can update to his hearts content.

Streaming mp3s of all the hits and more!

It's a megablast...

2007-11-28T18:34:00.000Z

Poster design for a New Years Eve party in Bristol curated by 'A Press Of Suspects'. I bought a pamphlet called 'Bristol and the Bomb' from St. Nicholas' Market which was printed at the height of the cold-war. Great, terrifying diagrams of the damage Bristol would incur if a bomb were to be dropped on the centre. So I replicated one for the poster.

Should be a good evening also, Principal Participant is playing live!