Making Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s “Sex & Food”
“In the fall of 2015, I met up with Ruban in Mexico City during a tour and shot some imagery for the band in and around the ruins of Templo Mayor. We had a blast running around buying things to use for the shoot and ate some of the best food. Later that evening, all of us gathered for dinner and drinks and it occurred to me that I wanted to take the imagery further and do a proper UMO album campaign for Ruban. The press imagery was no longer exciting enough; we needed to truly collaborate on something that would last. I remember making some sort of declaration to him about this and he seemed up for it.
A few months later, Ruban sent over some of the early tracks he’d recorded: “Major League Chemicals” & “Ministry of Alienation” which got the wheels turning. At the time, we both were referencing a lot of Manga imagery as well as seventies Italian horror film imagery. I’ve always been a huge fan of 80’s Anime and the OVA films of that era - which was the style of animation in my childhood. I love the energy of those movies and wanted the campaign to feel like it came from that world.
I got to work and hired my friend Catrina (from my Pinky series) to pose for this campaign in a series of imagined Manga-inspired scenarios. I had a custom lettermen jacket made for her to wear for the shoot that was partly inspired by Ruban’s eye tattoo on his neck. I wanted a punk, cult, Teen Wolf ’85-looking drawing of an eyeball crying to be embroidered on the front and back, and commissioned a drawing from the illustrator Kaiman Kazazian that we used for this which came together beautifully. In fact, I keep the jacket hanging as a permanent fixture in my living room.”
– excerpt from North Journal No. 17
Unknown Mortal Orchestra | Sex & Food Campaign
Unknown Mortal Orchestra in Mexico City