Entrevista a Chris Cooper

Una de las entrevistas que mayor ilusión me hizo lograr fue la realizada, en ‎enero‎ de ‎2005, ‏‎a Chris Cooper, el autor del diseño de portada/contraportada de This Is The Event, que, posteriormente, se ha convertido en una "celebridad" en el campo del dibujo y la ilustración. Pocos, probablemente, hubieran imaginado que Coop, como se le conoce hoy, tiene pasado "garajero".

1) How and when did you meet up with The Event? Were you a music scenester back then? Were you into sixties music?

In 1988 I moved from Oklahoma to California, with the intention of starting a silkscreening business with my friend Mad Jon McKinney, who was in a garage band called The Royal Nonesuch, and later played in the second version of The Tell-Tale Hearts. I was involved in the 80's garage music scene, both as a fan and artist, and after I moved to California, I started doing artwork for Ugly Things magazine, The Tell-Tale Hearts, and a few other San Diego bands. I also started doing LP covers for Greg Shaw, at about $200 bucks a pop. (Not much, but it paid the rent!)

2) What was your personal relation with the members of The Event? Were they nice, friendly people? Who were you the closest with?

I knew the guys in the band only casually, as part of the San Diego garage/Mod scene. I mostly hung out with Mike Stax and the rest of The Tell-Tale Hearts.

3) Did you see The Event live? How was the band live?

I did see The Event play several times in San Diego, as I spent a lot of time there during the first year or so that I was living in California. They were good live, pretty similar in sound to what ended up on the record, actually.

4) Who entrusted you with the cover artwork for The Event's "This Is The Event" LP?

I can't remember if the Event cover came directly from the band or through Greg Shaw. I was doing LP covers pretty regularly for Greg at that time, but mostly comps of 60's stuff.

5) What was the concept behind the artwork for the cover?

Greg Shaw wanted the photo for the front, but didn't care what I did with the back. The front was a pretty basic retro-style layout, with hand-drawn logo. I wanted to do a Pop Art thing on the back, so I did all the panel illustrations, and hand-separated the 4 colors with plenty of Benday dots to get that comic book look. At the time, I was really obsessed with the U.S. cover art of "The Who Sell Out", so that's why I drew the can of HEINZ Baked Beans.

I just went and dug the LP outta my collection for the first time in years, and it doesn't look too bad, I guess!

6) Was the band happy with your work?

I seem to remember that they really liked the crazy back cover. I could be wrong!

7) Musically speaking, did you like the Event's album?

Yeah, but I have to admit that, at the time, I was a horrible snob about 60's garage music, and always preferred the old stuff to the "new guys!" I'm a little more open-minded now...