Caitlin is an illustrator based in Dorset, UK.

Hi Caitlin. Can you tell us a little bit about your tape and your song selections?

Hello there! This mish-mash of a tape shows my journey through a year of musical frustration, beginning with the bands I missed seeing in 2020, followed by a selection of songs that make me desperate to be in a sweaty packed venue full of fellow fans having a proper boogie (or alternatively really feeling the full emotional force of music as it’s supposed to be seen and heard).

Then there are tracks that have inspired my band’s own songwriting, making us desperate to be in front of an audience ourselves, moving onto the live concerts and sessions that have had to replace the real thing, and finally, a few examples of brilliant home recordings by a couple of my favourites.

What direction did you take with your cover art, and what was your process?

As my uni tutors would love to hear, I did a good amount of thumb-nailing, trying to best capture the divide and isolation the pandemic has caused between me (and many others) and the unreachable things we are most desperate to experience again.

I’m classic Caitlin style, I focused on the detail, with a lot of symmetry and colour, trying to express the general feeling of distance and dystopia, whilst hinting more explicitly towards the pandemic with hand sanitiser pools, mingling breath and two metre rulers.

Although it's not necessary to know, I’d also like to point out that the band at the top of the piece are modelled on my own (all bald of course…), so it’d be cool if anyone managed to guess what make the guitars are!

I think this may be quite a generic answer for anyone into the jazzy/psych-ier side of music but I have recently become obsessed with La Planete Sauvage; as can probably be seen in how I’ve drawn the weird alien characters in my artwork. I knew about the artwork before I realised how incredible the soundtrack is too. Both these elements paired with the story and animation is an absolute treat for the senses, and any musician or illustrator really has to add it to their watch (and listen) list!

In a similar vein, I recently purchased a copy of The Point by (Harry) Nilsson, having no idea that the artwork was crosstiched and not illustrated until I saw it in the flesh! It’s such a sweet album/story and my record happened to come with a comic to go with the musical narrative, illustrated by Nilsson. It’s such a cool thing to own, and although, for me, it has difficult emotions tied to it, on the occasion I bring myself to put it on, it’s really cool to have such strong visuals to go along with the tunes.