ALBUM ARTicle: HANISHA TIRUMALASETTY

Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and music?

My name is Hanisha Tirumalasetty and I’m a visual artist based out of Mumbai. Originally an architect by education I decided to pursue art & design as a full time career. This involved a lot of self learning and I’ve been working in the industry for about 3 years now. Art and design have always been a passion for me growing up and I’m glad I’m able to do what I love everyday.

Tell us about your collaboration with a client from conception to creation and the end product.

My most recent collaboration was of course with the band The Koniac Net for their album ‘They Finally Herd Us’. They sent across their new music and a few ideas they had as a band for the artwork. So I listened to the music to understand the vibe of the album and came up with a composition based on the ideas they presented in their brief. They were very easy to work with and the fact that they had a vision which completely aligned with my own interpretation meant that the process of creating the artwork was pretty smooth. Making sure all of the various elements worked together to create a composition that told a story was probably the most fun part of creating the album art.

What are your thoughts on how other art apart from music is perceived in our music scene? (Like visual arts, album arts, photographers and the likes)

I think at this point in the indie music industry, you can see a lot of merging of talents. It’s become such a huge collaboration of media, whether it be animation, music, art, video or photography, everyone is coming together to create a more wholesome product. This in my opinion allows for all these art forms to have symbiotic relationships with one another while standing out in their respective fields as well. At the end of the day we are all looking to express an emotion or an idea and that commonality is probably what drives us to expand beyond what is expected.

Tell us a little bit about the process that is involved in making a piece by Hanisha.

I do think more often than not it’s more madness than method. Sometimes I have ideas at the oddest of times and I end up thinking about it for days until I finally decide to piece together a composition. But then there are also moments where I just start drawing something at random without any idea of where I’m going and I just eventually find myself at the end. It’s completely just dependent on where I am in my head.

How is creating an album art different from creating other art?

When I’m approached by bands to create album art I do try to make sure I know their intent behind the music they’ve created since it’s their expression, and then I work on combining it with my own interpretations of the music. I definitely think it’s more of a collaborative effort than when I create art for myself.

Tell us about your art style and the concepts behind your artworks.

My art style is quite eclectic. I don’t like to stick to one style so I make sure I sort of dabble and create something different every once in a while. I think I make it a point to not be too recognizable which also lets me take up varied projects. I do however love to draw women and I think that’s a recurring theme in my work.