William Scharf wears a mask while talking to the media. Sometimes the mask is a skull, sometimes the mask is a skeleton. Sometimes it is a monkey or a piece of cloth. “It seems to me that knowing how I look is a distraction from my work, especially in today’s world of social media. A man’s face is easier to stain than his work of art. So, if you’re going to look at my face, I’d rather have it created too. Whether I’m big, tall, fat, thin, bald or hairy… I feel like my appearance doesn’t matter. It’s all about what I do. Schaff’s face may not be recognizable, but his work is recognizable. The multidisciplinary artist and musician is the creator of the iconic Godspeed You! album cover. Black King’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Song Magnolia Electric Co. from Oia and the entire Okkervil River record. Visually, Schaff’s work touches on themes of angst, loneliness and debt, all familiar territory for touring bands.
”Initially, when I started making art for musicians, all I went to was people I knew from concerts. They saw one of my pieces and asked if I could do something for their record. Then someone- then he saw this record and came to me to make them.” Schaaf spent his twenty years working odd jobs and occasionally working as an illustrator for advertising, making a living as best he could. The success of the album cover allowed Schaff to concentrate completely on his work. he lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has a studio and an apartment he affectionately calls “Foreclosure Fort.” Noisy recently had the opportunity to speak with Schaff to discuss the history of his covers and what it means to create art. art for other artists.
NOISEY: One of your first albums was Lift Your Skinny Fists by Godspeed. How did this collaboration come about? William Schaff: I didn’t know Godspeed until I met [guitarist, vocalist] Efrim Menuk. The band I was on tour with stayed at the [Montreal venue and studio] Hotel2Tango, and I think Efrim was living there at the time. Not knowing who he was, I immediately became interested in this tattoo of his and started poking at it and asking questions before the poor guy woke up. Efrim is such a nice guy, he still talks to me even after my annoying approach. We talked about the history of Zionism and the Holocaust. We talked about the workers and their struggles, topics that have little to do with our work.
I left him and the people present there a few copies of my booklets. When he approached me to do something for the upcoming Godspeed album, he didn’t have enough time to meet the deadline. He asked if he could use the image from the book I left. I said of course. At the time, I had no idea who Godspeed was. To me, they’re just another band doing their thing. This album got a lot of attention from all of us. While it was strange to see the artwork I published in publications like The New Yorker or Rolling Stone, I was even more amazed when I started receiving emails from people all over the world. It introduced my work to more people outside of the US. There were also a few times when I was criticized for stealing from the people who made the Godspeed records, which of course is very funny.
The way art is created is very different from your normal process. You talked about taking general ideas from musicians, then listening to their music and creating compositions based on them. You don’t give people thumbnails. The artist cannot see the work until it is completed. I’m not interested in being someone’s hand. It’s never worth what they pay for the amount of rework that ends up happening and I’m left with just a bunch of drawings and sketches that I don’t care about. On the rare occasions when a piece I was commissioned to do was not accepted, at least I left something that I still feel strongly about and proudly display somewhere. I’m lucky to work with people who know and love what I do… so I tell them if they like what I’ve done in the past, believing they’ll love what I do for them. These are my conditions.
Has your work for The Mighty Mighty Bossstones been commissioned? They worked with a friend of mine who brought me in when he told him what he wanted. I had to approach this as a commercial illustration rather than my usual terminology. I have to admit that the main reason I wanted to do this job was because they wanted to recolor their iconic bulldog logo in the style of an old beer coaster. I grew up in Boston listening to the Bossstones and watching this dog for years. I feel like someone just asked me to redesign the Nike logo. I had bad luck and although I thought the resulting dog was good, the one I originally voted for, I felt it was much stronger. If I remember correctly, Bossstones vocalist Dickie Barret thought the dog looked too sick. Pit Bulls have never seemed healthy to me. However, I am grateful for the opportunity to make my mark on the life of the Bosstone dogs.
Some of your work for Okkervil River’s Black Sheep is one of my favorites. You said you want to give these images a fabulous touch. Will Sheff (Okkervil River vocalist) mentioned the fabulous approach. It’s a great phrase for him because I’m a fan of old Lewis Carroll paintings and books like The Struwelpter. I really think Black Sheep Boy is a great example of how well Okkerwil and I can work together. They knew me for a long time and took all my work seriously. I feel like they know how to get what they want from me without interfering with my process.
You also created an image of an owl for Magnolia Electric Co, owned by the late Jason Molina. The owl appeared because of Jason. Before I started writing these pieces, Jason told me that when he was writing the songs, he thought a lot about owls and pyramids and magnolias. That’s all he asked me to consider when creating art. I just went through a particularly scary period in my life when the owl character became a reflection of a different side of me.
You also designed the newly released 7″ Secretly Canadian. After Jason and I meet, I send Jason the drawings and he sends me the music. We sell art by mail. When he drove through the city, we sat down, ate dinner or something and discussed what we ended up publishing. In the end, we began to raise the rate. I remember at one concert he played “Tower Song” and I didn’t even know it was a cover. I don’t know who Townes Van Zant is. After the performance, I asked what record this song was on, and he laughed at me. He said he never recorded a cover version.
Later that evening, he said he would like to see himself, one of my skull-headed creatures. The next piece of art I mail him is drawings of skulls. In the photo he sings to me. I told him that if he liked the picture, I would be glad if he recorded this Townes song. I don’t care if it was recorded on amps or at Abbey Road Studios. I just want this song. The next thing I got from him was a cassette of not only that song, but a few of Towns’ other songs as well as what would become Magnolia Electric Co. I drew art for this album. The recordings on this cassette have just been released by Secretly Canadian. I am honored that my work has been documented. This work is one of many that I created immediately after his death… or rather, in response to his death. So, using this piece means a lot to me.
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Post time: Aug-31-2023