“Like” Aaron Glass and Friends on Facebook and pick up a copy of his new album.

Hawaii is a beautiful place and I am grateful for the opportunity to go there with one of my favorite bands of all time. Friday we got in a little early and rented a car to explore Oahu. Here’s a few photos from our time off the day before the shows.

There was some controversy when I created the cover for “Yours Truly” for Sublime with Rome and a couple people have commented here asking what the cover means. As I wrote back in June, the cover that was chosen was one of twelve concepts I created for the band. This one was chosen without much consideration otherwise. I worked on a couple variations of it but ultimately the original was selected.

Initially, Rome called me up one morning and said, “What if we did a guy in a Joker suit”? I am a big fan of the Batman series and punk artwork from old posters and skateboards and already had an idea in my head as soon as he mentioned that. The tattoos were something I added to convey an obvious sense of going against convention. I can’t speak for the band about why they chose this cover over the others, but I can explain what it means to me.

Over the last few years and even more now, there has been a lot of people in news for fucking everyone else over: bankers, politicians, corporate executives. These assholes all wear suits, and even more importantly are involved in clandestine conspiratorial organisations that the tattoos on the neck illude to. These are used not as a specific reference to occult organisations but to arose distrust in convention. The Joker says is best in The Dark Knight when he says, “Why so serious?”

We take ourselves seriously, and as a collective are overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. That anxiety is completely manufactured by the 1% to keep the masses under submission. I say FUCK their fear and negativity. We are living breathing beautiful creates of love, who want nothing more than to be happy and have fun. By using imagery that connects to our natural fascination with evil, we are exposing it and turning it into something funny that can no longer scare us.

In the end, there is no great conspiracy about the cover art or the tattoos on the neck. The main reason they are there is because they are symbols that I use in the majority of my art. Most often, for the reason I mentioned above: that when you face what you are scared of fear can not control you any more and you become free.

There is however a secret hidden in the artwork. In the PDF file you get when you download the cd from iTunes, there is a hidden link (that I guess I hid too well considering no one has found it yet). This link plays off the masonic conspiracy and extends the content of the album a good deal further. The only clue I’ll give you is: What is the name of the Producer of “Your’s Truly’s” band?

Happy Hunting :)

I haven’t surfed since I was 16 but I’d love to get out there again and catch a few waves myself next time.