This cover shoot and interview she did with Honey came out. The look is great (although the transparent photoshopping onto the backgrounds reminds me more of this insane, multi-hour photo shoot my friends in Cambodia went on for kicks while I was there than anything particularly convincing). And I want to join the Wondaland Arts Society so bad it hurts. I mean, come on:
My creative space is the headquarters for The Wonderland Arts Society. We have floating bookshelves, green grass, very beautiful pianos that we write songs on. We have lots of fish mounted on the wall, more importantly we just have really interesting people. It’s a headquarters for artists, who have super powers. We come up and try ideas. We wear black and white and we try to lead by example and try to change the world. It’s a very peaceful environment. Sometimes when we create music it gets very rowdy, it feels like an African tribe. When your artist, you don’t go home, you stay and you create all day and night.
But more than that, I think the multiplatform approach to her album is just right:
We are shooting a video for every song on the album, The ArchAndroid. We are creating a very strong narrative. We have a graphic novel coming out at the time of the release. This is a very special project.
Given the rise of filesharing, and of YouTube (there is just a huge amount of music where I'll loop the YouTube video while I'm working in another window, because I just don't need it enough to buy it), I think it's smart for artists to plan to make their money by catering specifically to devoted fans, and by treating merch as a serious extension of the art, and of the narrative behind the art. I haven't pre-ordered Monae's new album yet, though I imagine I'll pick it up at some point, but given how interested I am in her aesthetic, I'm very likely to purchase the graphic novel. Casual fans just aren't going to be financial engines for artists anymore, except for rare global phenomena like Lady Gaga. That may mean a smaller revenue base, but it may also spur seriously expanded creative output. And I'm all for that.