Interview with Alicia Gaines

We’ve just released a new Lonesome Rose T-Shirt Club featuring artwork from Alicia Gaines, grab one before they’re gone! Check out this quick interview with the artist behind the latest design, conducted by LSD art director Drew Ryan.

Hey Alicia what's good?
Oh, trying to make as much design and music as I can, knowing that I can only plan so far ahead. It’s kind of comforting for this control freak knowing none of us know what’s going on. No one is ever really in control, but the universe has showed us all that our plans are fragile and frankly a bit quixotic. You’ve gotta work with that in mind.

You're a musician too (apparently we like to pick musician/designer hybrids for the Lonesome Rose T-Shirt Club)—do you rehearse in the same space where you create visual art?
We have a practice space for the band, but my personal songwriting station is the same as my design desk. It gets a bit crowded with mics, Wacom tablets, etc. but I think of it all as pretty similar work. I often have Ableton and Illustrator open at the same time.

Did music introduce you to graphic design?
Not necessarily, though my appreciation of both grows from their constant interaction in album artwork, music videos, that sort of thing. I think I still have some jewel cases from the early 2000’s memorized because I’d pour over the liner notes’ design and photography.

Most people know you for your design work and your band—i'm not sure that folks know you as a painter. do these three worlds intersect in your mind, or do you keep these practices separate?
To me, design is art in service of a problem. If a design isn’t solving a problem, it’s not design it’s art! It’s a fine distinction, but I think it’s important to apply to something like music. What are you making the soundtrack to?

You can only use 5 typefaces for the rest of your life: what fonts do you choose?
I’d have to go with some classics. Akzidenz Grotesk, Avant Garde, Museo, Cooper, Bookmania

Where'd you grow up? what brought you to Chicago?
I grew up in the suburbs around Portland, Oregon, and came to Chicago at 18 to attend The School of the Art Institute.

First song you learned on bass?
Probably something off Doolittle by the Pixies. I was always into the Kims, Kim Deal and Kim Gordon.

Do you like working on your own band's visual aesthetic? Are they your hardest customer?
Like with most design, I have to be confident about anything I show my bandmates, because they may just pick it. We also keep collective mood board folders, so I try to keep a temperature on where our heads are at.

Ganser gets asked to play a show: any dealbreakers?
Oh yeah, tons. Anywhere that isn’t LGBTQ-friendly, or has a reputation like that we know about, we’ll turn it down. For example, we were asked to play a show around the legalization of weed in Chicago, and when they could not answer to our inquiring about their efforts around clearing records of those with drug charges related to weed, we declined the gig.

Favorite Taco Bell specialty item?
Oh, wow. Big one. I would say on tour, late at night, there’s nothing that beats cinnamon twists. They may not be a specialty item, but they’re special to me because I only have them rarely at 2am on tour.

Do you add guac at Chipotle?
Absolutely.

Shoutout to:
Shoutout to folks trying to come out the other side of all this not nicer, but kinder.