An interview with Will Morrison, artist and friend of Bastien Keb’s

Will Morrison is the visual artist behind the artwork for Bastien Keb’s upcoming album, ‘The Killing of Eugene Peeps’. His multidisciplinary association with Bastien Keb spans 15 years, and they have worked collaboratively on a multitude of projects. He also wrote the lyrics for Lucky (The Oldest Grave) and Lucky (Reprise) from the album! We interviewed Will to find out more about his artistic process.

‍How did your association with Bastien Keb begin?‍

I’ve sort of known Sebby fifteen years or so, he was friends with my then girlfriend’s little brother. I started getting guitar lessons off him after a while, and we generally spend an hour or so learning country licks, then another hour or two cooing over Tom Waits. Within another couple of years we found ourselves doing projects together. And have ever since really…

‍What themes and emotions do you think your style of art shares with Bastien Keb’s music?

Erm, don’t know, I suppose we are both drawn towards melancholy, longing, nostalgia, etc  in our work, though I think we have both always done such a wide variety of individual projects, we have drifted across and away in pretty different areas from each other too….

Could you explain the process behind creating the artwork for ‘The Killing of Eugene Peeps’?

Yeah, he wanted it to feel like an old film poster illustration, which is a bit more graphic than my normal style. I had a borrow of a nice old barn for a bit, and set up two sixteen by eight foot walls, facing each other and would work on eight or ten designs at once, and then just waited for one character i believed in, to step forward and become it…

Would you say your work is somewhat inspired by any cinema or films?

I don't know, in feel maybe..? I make videos and stuff as well, so never really see everything in clear seperate fields, it all sort of blends together. I wouldn’t generally say films have influenced my 2D work particularly, but I do want you to feel the characters you see in my work, and imagine them. But that could come from real life dudes, as much as cinema….

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