Fjord Audio

When Spencer Tweedy reached out about a logo design, my mind went to the clip of the kid sitting with his dad on the tour bus, playing the drum beat to “Heavy Metal Drummer” on his little knees. Way back in 2001? He was five!

But he wasn’t a kid anymore. He was an accomplished drummer, member of a handful of bands, collaborator with his dad and brother Sammy, whipsmart writer and all- around cool human being! He briefed me on the project and I dug in.

And as part of the deal, I made the poor kid promise me that his dad “would sign all my records.” And he did! See below!

It was awesome to make a logo for Spencer and get to meet him and his dad and see Wilco’s loft up close. Cool folks, all around!

Fjord Audio Identity

Project Details:
01. Logo, wordmark and supporting graphics for high end audio cords.
02. As directed by Spencer Tweedy.
03. 2017.

Meet Jeff Tweedy
(And getting all my records signed!)

MAKING FRIENDS IN CHICAGO: We got to tour the Wilco loft today! And eyeball the endless guitars, carefully-labeled guitar cases, soundboard masking tape diagrams, rows and rows of guitar pedals, microphone flat files, road cases, piles of picks, neatly-coiled cords, oddities, stacks of records, backstage passes, years and years of Wilco bric-a-brac and assorted remnants of Nels, Glenn, John, Pat and Mikael all over the place. And Bob Dylan’s harmonica!

And, stand back and watch Jeff work on a song. Hear the snippet, tune something, hear it again, tune another thing, hear it a smidge differently. I was completely blown away. At some point, I’ll be playing that song in my shop. Can’t wait.

This shit is MAGICAL to me. I listen to those records all the time. I’ve learned their songs on my guitar, and promptly forgotten them. I’ve seen Wilco at First Avenue in Minneapolis and a mile away at Bonnaroo, in 666-degree Tennessee summer heat. And this is the place where they make the stuff. And then tour the hell out of it. And all from a loft in a quiet neighborhood in Chicago. Pretty fucking cool.

Jeff signed all my records! I mean, how many is pushing it? Three or four? A.M. through Sky Blue Sky? Well, this fan brought sixteen. All my Uncle Tupelos, all my Wilcos, even Sukierae and Jeff’s recent solo offering. In the spirit of not crossing over into the “20-plus records to sign” danger zone, I left behind my Loose Fur, Golden Smog and Wilco/Billy Bragg stuff. Ha. You can see me inspecting the process from “signature level.”

One of my very favorite bands. And I got all my records signed by Jeff Tweedy. That stuff will be in my record collection FOREVER. So cool.

Thank you, @spencertweedy. You are one impressive young man, with so many talents. I was proud as hell to make your @fjordaudio logo. Thank you so much for the hospitality today. And thank you Jeff for being as cool as I knew you’d be. Fuck it, go and meet your heroes. Thank you, Wilco.

(Thank you to my sweetie @leighola77 for keeping her cool while I was losing my shit, trying like hell not to scare anyone. She took all these shots, cool as a cucumber.)