Nathan Cavaleri is an Australian blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and a former child actor. Nathan was first introduced to Australia aged just seven, when the Today show covered his meeting with one of his guitar heroes, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. This came about after Nathan was diagnosed with leukaemia aged six, a year later (while still undergoing treatment) he was granted his wish to meet Knopfler through the Starlight Foundation.
By age 12 Nathan Cavaleri was basically a veteran. He’d toured around the world and befriended another hero, blues legend B.B King. In 1995 King asked Nathan to perform for him with Bonnie Raitt, Dr John, Etta James and Joe Lewis Walker at his Presidential Award ceremony in 1995. That also meant Nathan got to meet Bill and Hillary Clinton at the White House.
It was a great honour when Nathan asked us to bring his vision to life by developing the cover art and design for his first solo release ‘Demons’, in almost 20 years. Our job was to extract the story and develop a design formula that represented it – inner conflict with blues psychedelica. Shot underwater in a cold ocean pool in the peak of Sydney winter we were able to capture everything in camera (#noretouching). It was also a conscious choice to employ a 'Wabi-Sabi' philosophy within the art direction. We spent hours in the water experimenting with textured backgrounds and light play until we were satisfied we were able to distill the core idea and reflect the inner emotional state of the album.
Nathan says, “There were many layers to consider when deciding on a creative direction for the cover of my record, which is my first solo release since the late 90's. The idea not only had to reflect the style, mood and lyrical content of the songs, but it had to suit my personality and indirectly dissolve any conflicting pre-conceived ideas that the audience might have had from my history. Rather than allowing the complex criteria to dampen the creative process, the BONSTA team intuitively worked outwards from the songs and their purpose. Once the idea aligned, everything else fell automatically fell into place.
Download and listen to the “Demons” single
The organically captured image reflects the peace that can come from turbulent times as well as the psychedelic production that supports such messages in my songs. The whole cover art experience was not only cathartic but it forced me to re-connect with the record's purpose.
I'm still trying to get my body temperature back up from the hours of being held under the icy cold, cold ocean pools. No pain no gain, right.”
“Rather than allowing the complex criteria to dampen the creative process, the BONSTA team intuitively worked outwards from the songs and their purpose. ”
The album was only launched a month ago and is attracting a lot of attention as Nathan Cavaleri begins an Australian tour. We wish Nathan and his album ‘Demons’ much continued success.
