Behind the Scenes with Polygondwanaland - February 2019 Copper Feast Blog

This month's blog was written to the sounds of Prehysteria, the new album from New York punk rockers T-Rextasy. Buy the full album from their Bandcamp page now! This record was Bandcamp's album of the day on January 9th

Behind the Scenes with Polygondwanaland

Welcome back to our blog for February. I hope that January served you all well, with those post-Christmas blues not kicking in too hard. By way of a quick update on things here at Copper Feast, all systems are go and we are very busy working on a handful of amazing releases if we can get things finalised with the artists. We will also soon be seeing the first brand new release out on Copper Feast, which I for one am massively excited for!

In other news, Buffalo has arrived with me now and the shipping process is well underway. The majority of these should have all been sent out by mid-February. If you still need to pick up a copy (hint: you do) then click here to head to our webstore.

Now onto this month's blog where I'll recap our release of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's 2017 album Polygondwanaland and give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at how we put together such an awesome package for you guys.

So as I'm sure a lot of you are aware, King Gizzard put out their 12th album, and 4th of 2017, Polygondwanaland for free, with groups of mates, labels or indeed anyone able to press/produce their own variants of the album. All that was provided was the music, standard album cover and some rough ideas for rear art, which was intentionally left uncompleted to allow for a bit of creativity for those creating physical copies.

This bad boy came out at the end of 2017 while Copper Feast has only been around since mid-2018. Unfortunately that initial rush for variants and our late arrival to the party meant that we would have to produce something very special to be able to get any sort of interest whatsoever. By this point, most people had at least one, and often multiple copies, of Polygondwanaland. So the solution...alternative artwork and an awesome colour variant.

First I needed an artist. This actually proved really simple to sort out. I had already worked with Jase Harper as he created our fantastic logo, and after floating the ideas I had for Polygondwanaland, he was really keen to get involved and things were now in place to press on. Also a big shout out too to Tim Girdler, who managed to capture the ideas I had for the coloured vinyl into an excellent mockup which turned out to be bang on what was pressed in real life and really helped get some of those order in.

The pre-orders were put up in late-August, but with absolutely no artwork previewed at this point I was taken aback by the support from the Gizz community who snapped up almost half the copies without even having seen a hint of what was to come! Amazing faith shown in us, a very small label, which made me feel fantastic about the project we were undertaking!

Not long after, I received the draft artwork from Jase and I was blown away by what he had produced. I had left the canvas pretty clear for him, eager to see what he would create. All I asked for was that some elements of the tracklist were captured in the art, while going for a dark and creepy colour scheme. Have a look below for our initial draft of the Polygondwanaland artwork.

With the draft approved, Jase set to work refining our front art and adding colour with Tim updating the mock up with this in September. All systems were go! Orders racking up and soon we had to expand our order from 250 to 300 records to match demand for our pressing.

Eventually Jase finished the rear artwork too and by early-October, the order was in with Breed Media who set to work creating the tests and full run of LPs. By this point, we had pretty much sold out of the guaranteed amount of records, with pre-orders stopped to avoid any refunds due to a production shortfall. Luckily this wasn't an issue in the end anyway as we actually received well over the 300 I ordered!

The hard bit was over...or so I stupidly thought. As it turns out, posting 300 LPs takes a hell of a long time for one person. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and then eventually, after working non-stop over the Christmas period, I just about beat the New Year and got the last of the orders shipped out on the 29th December. Fuck me, I was knackered.

It was finished, and what an amazing experience it was too. The best was yet to come as well, as we have had loads and loads of images cropping up across the realms of the internet with stacks of happy customers. We’ve been sharing these as we get them so go and have a look over on our Instagram page. I love seeing everyone’s record and getting feedback so keep them coming everyone, and remember, we will credit £5 back to LP orders made by those that have shared pics of their previous Copper Feast orders, so get in there!

Not only that, but as I finish writing this on the 6th February (late I know!), I received the best feedback yet, with Jason Galea (Gizzheads will know the name) messaging me out of the blue on Instagram to say he’s digging the alternative artwork and to request a copy for his Poly collection! I was absolutely blown away and has made my year and put the cherry on top of an already worthwhile project.

So what’s next, I hear you ask. Well we ain’t stopping there. I’ve got plans for a deluxe edition of Polygondwanaland later this year featuring even more art, even better packaging and an even cooler colour scheme for the record! Stay tuned. And if you can't wait that long, we still have a handful of copies available here in the Copper Feast 2018 Bundle.

The 2018 Copper Feast Bundle

Also, I’d love it if you could share this blog around too, tell your friends, family and anyone else that can read for that matter. Every little bit of help is appreciated.

But for now however, I’m signing off for this month. Have a great February guys and I’ll catch ya next time.

Thanks

Callum

#vinyl #music #bandcamp #copperfeast #kinggizzard