Extra 2 – Alek Hidell & Johnny FKN Ryall

Imogene Strauss is a creative director and set designer from New York. She's now based in LA and in the past 10 years she's collaborated with artists such as Blood Orange, Clairo, and Charli XCX. She takes us through the vision behind Charli XCX's latest album "Crash" and its ongoing tour as well as the journey that led her to work with some of the most disruptive artists of the past decade.  

Kenyan award winning movie-maker and creative director Jeremy Ngatho Cole and photographer and creative director Marco Grey are the founders of YOUT studio. Since 2019,  they’ve been working with some of the best talents stemming from London's underground scene: Little Simz, Kojey Radical, Pa Salieu, Cleo Sol, Jeshi… They take us through their main cultural influences, creative vision and collaborations – with a special focus on Little Simz's award winning album “SIMBI”.   

Pooneh Ghana is a music photographer from Austin (TX) who's currently based in Los Angeles. In the past 10 years she’s been featured in all the most influential music and lifestyle magazines in the world. She takes us through her most important career steps, from her beginnings as a big indie music fan with a passion for Lomography, to her most recent North American tour with IDLES. 

Luis Perez is a visual artist and cinematographer who, in the past 20 years, has worked in movies and directed videos for the most influential hip hop, r'n'b and pop artists of our century. He tells us about how growing up in the Caribbean has shaped his creative vision and how his career changed after meeting with Tyler The Creator in 2010.  Most notably, he takes us through their most recent artistic endeavour for "Call me if you get lost". 

Robert Beatty is an artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. We talk about his background, coming from the alternative radio and noise scene of the early 00's. Then we delve into his long lasting creative partnership with Oneohtrix Point Never, with special focus on the work he did for "Magic OPN". Last but not least, he tells us about his most recent commission for The Weeknd's "Dawn FM".  

Qlowski are a London-based band that just released their debut album "Quale Futuro?" (What Future?), a music manifesto that conveys a poetic and compelling vision about the past, present and future of our communities. It's a story of struggle, faith and utopia. This vision lies both in the tracks but also in the powerful artwork by art director Harry Steel. Music journalist and writer Laura Marongiu chats to him and a member of the band about the inspiration behind the album's visual identity. 

Marco Meloni (aka Johnny FKN Ryall) is the art director behind the visual identity of Sardinian composer and producer Alek Hidell's latest album "Ravot". The album was inspired by the real story of a man from the village of Buggerru whose life was dramatically affected by witnessing a tragedy.  The cover picture portrays the place where the story begins, listen to find out the rest and how it inspired the sounds and visuals of this great album.  

Chiara Floris, aka BLUEM, is an artist based in London. She just released her debut EP “Notte”  ("night" in Italian), which stands out for its visual identity that celebrates Sardinia’s landscape and ancestral aesthetics, re-framed through a contemporary, experimental art direction, curated by Chiara herself with photographs taken by Jasmine Farling. Together, we talk about the album and our island. 

Raissa Pardini is a visual designer and art director based in Glasgow. The V&A just added to their permanent collection some of the original posters she designed for artists such as Squid, Idles, The Orielles, Snapped Ankles, Pond, Damo Suzuki and so on.  We talk about this lifetime achievement; her most recent music-related design gigs as well as the music she likes; Italian crime movies and comedies from the 70’s and plenty of other cool stuff. 

Sophy Hollington is an illustrator, visual artist and guitarist (she plays for the band Novella) based in Brighton. Her relief prints, created using the process of lino-cutting, portray mystic, hazy universes, touching topics such as meteoric folklore and alchemical symbolism. We chat about her career, tarot readings, 60's music and her collaborations with Painted Shrines, Django Django, Khruangbin and The National.