I still love this idea.  Happy Belated Birthday, Kate Moss.

honorsocietymusic:

Inspiration is everywhere. You just have to pay attention.

Different photographs, music, people, (anything really) has the potential to give us a feeling that can inspire songs or new musical directions. In the case of A TALE OF RISKY BUSINESS PART 2 there was an image I came across early in the demo-ing phase that really hit me.

A had seen a picture of Johnny Depp and Kate Moss from when they were dating in the early 90’s and just thought how beautiful and cool she looked. She was really in her prime. That led me to another picture of her taken by famous photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. The photo was incredible. A little bit past her prime, probably heavy into drugs at the time, with a hint of Marilyn Monroe or Madonna. The way it was framed made you wonder what else was going on outside the frame. Just a brilliant photo. Without romanticizing it, it really was an inspiration for the style and vibe of some of the songs on the record.

In a creative meeting with the guys, discussing album title and artwork, we started discussing the Kate Moss picture and how provocative it was. We couldn’t stop staring at it.

It was in that meeting one of us suggested to effect the image to take it to another level (keep in mind we knew full well were probably not going to be able to retain the rights to the photo without paying a huge amount of money, BUT were going with the inspiration and had our lawyers looking into it). The suggestion was the black bar over her eyes and “HONOR SOCIETY” in the bar. Ahhhhh yes. The image was now perfect. The album had artwork and a tile: “KATE MOSS”. 

As certain realities set in, like the HUGE amount of money it actually WOULD have taken to retain the use of the photo, we had to go back to the drawing board. We did agree though that there was no photograph better than that one of Kate, dear Kate. Which is what brought us to the pink and black motif (that we also love) and the continuation title of the A TALE OF RISKY BUSINESS series, but that’s another story for another blog.

-MB

1.16.12

Los Angeles