Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium (2013) [320kbps] torrent

Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium (2013)

"The artwork for The Silver Gymnasium was done by William Schaff, who has done artwork for most of our albums including the great cover images for The Stage Names, Black Sheep Boy, and I Am Very Far.

In the past, I’ve always driven out to William’s home in Warren, Rhode Island to play him the songs personally and get his visual take on the music. This time, we decided to have William fly down to Austin and hang out with us during our rehearsal process. By day he’d sit and watch us rehearse the full-band versions of the songs in preparation for our recording session; by night I’d play him the songs acoustically and talk about the places and people that inspired them, and we’d talk about visual ideas for the artwork.
A week and a half or so after he’d returned to Warren, William sent me the beautiful central gatefold “map” image of my town circa 1986, based on all the discussions we’d had and e-mails we’d sent back and forth. I was astounded by the scope and detail and tenderness of the piece. It is my single favorite piece he’s ever done for us. I had giant print-outs made of it and I hung it on the wall at the studio where the vocals and overdubs were recorded. In the past I always felt like William’s artwork communicated with the music in some way, but with this record I wanted that communication to go both ways; I wanted the music to communicate with the artwork as well. While I would sing these songs or play the instrumental parts I’d look at the image hanging from the wall: I wanted to to feel like all of the music was pouring out of this picture."

- Will Sheff

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