Jonathan Jones - Timeline via Flickr.

This is the album artwork for the new Jonathan Jones b-side, Timeline. He emailed me prior to the release asking me to listen to the song carefully, and pick out an image for the artwork that fit the song.

Little did I know, this would be a hard task.

It didn’t take me days to figure out, and actually, it only took 1 revision. I had initially put on some nice headphones, hit play, and just listened. Nothing else, just listened. The song wasn’t new to me, I had heard most of it before. I actually have more songs and demos from Jonathan than he has. (When it comes time to collect his entire work, I’m pretty sure I’ll be the one with all of it on my hard drive.)

Walking through the simple design process, I started with an image I had taken YEARS ago at the House of Blues in San Diego. It was abstract and colorful, and ultimately directed me towards the pink that you see on the artwork. I finished up, sent it over, and thought it was done. I looked back on it a couple hours later and HATED it. Jonathan seemed a little less than interested too, so that was my sign.

My brain had told me, “Be different with this design, don’t follow your instinct.” which I now see as false direction. When I thought back to the words of the song, and my friendship with Jonathan, I knew what I had to do.

I opened up the folder of images from my trip to Japan in May of 2007. I was in Japan with my band Parker Theory, playing shows with Waking Ashland. It was their last hurrah before calling it quits. When they finished the last show, the band was done. Jonathan and I had become pretty good friends at that point, and that was 2007. We are now in August of 2011 and our friendship has gotten even stronger.

As I scrolled through the images from Japan, I was able to recall every moment of that trip. Well, minus karaoke night with the Gin & Tonic … but that’s a story for another day. Let’s just say the Japanese culture is hell-bent on keeping your glass full. Then all of a sudden, there it was. The photo I was going to use for the artwork. It had sat there for over 4 years with absolutely no purpose. It is on flickr, and after 4 years has only 11 views! That’s impressive when my flickr page has 60,000 views.

View the original image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnyups/515472449/

There you have it. The story of the artwork. I will leave you with a quote from the song.

“timeline, can we talk this through? ‘Cause I still believe in you.”

(you can currently stream the song on the Jonathan Jones facebook page)

GO HERE to be a part of history.

A long time friend of mine, musician, all-around nice guy has had his life changed.  There’s a website called Kickstarter where you can sign up, set a goal, set bench marks where you give away stuff to supporters, and then get your money towards your project.  It’s brilliant.  The project only funds if the goal is met.  At that point, the artist/entrepreneur/whoever fulfills the products each supporter paid for, and it’s all over.

Jonathan Jones set his goal at $10,000.  With 14 days to go, he reached his goal.  Now he is down to 5 days left, and has raised nearly $12,000 towards the creation of his new album.  Amazing!  The more money, the better the album.  The better the producer.  The better the art.  Sure, you can make a good album for $10,000, but you can make a great album for $12,000.

Visit the link at the top of this post, support him.  You get stuff in return, it’s that easy.  Free music.  Posters.  Credit in the album.  Private concerts.  Go, make the world spin just a little longer.