The Hiya Photo That Never Was
Solo Album Cover Outtake
Posted by Charlie Recksieck
on 2024-03-19
I've been meaning to share the album cover for my relatively-recent record (Hiya www.link.com) that never came to fruition. I think one look and even a quick discussion will make it obvious why I rejected the idea, but hopefully you'll also see why I love the picture.
The Proposed Cover
This is a photo of my dad, Grant Recksieck, in the 1970s dressed up as an "Indian". Yes, that's the term that was used at the time, the term "native American" very slowly took its instead of "American Indian" over the course of the 60s and 70s. As a young kid I joined "Indian Guides" which was a more granola-friendly alternative to the Boy Scouts for non-conservative families like mine. It was an activity for fathers and sons to have a campout.
Don't get the wrong idea just from this photo; with the group and on outings and meetings that everybody dressed up in this quasi-insulting way (again, which seemed less so at the time - you had to be there). I'm sure my dad wore a track suit at most occasions, just like he did through 60% of my childhood.
The main thing I want you to know - and the main reason I'm writing this post around this photo - is that my dad really was a terrific father, the best around. Everybody says that, but I've had the distinct pleasure to have everybody who knew him and us still agree with that statement over the years.
In many ways he was my best friend growing up, but not in the modern cop-out parenting way; he was my dad. He coached my baseball teams, and soccer too even though he barely had a passing understanding of soccer in the U.S. in 1977; he even uncharacteristically tried to affect some Britishness with a pregame pep talk to the team of "we can win this bloody thing" which is hilariously out of character for him. He drove car pool. He made jokes constantly. He not only talked to but also listened to my friends growing up, in an era where nobody gave a shit what a 12-year-old thought about anything.
So, the basic idea of making this old photo the album cover for a solo album was purely from loving and missing my dad. In this goofy "Indian Guides" organization (which I think we quit after about 2 months) photo and at meetings, his "Indian Guide" name was "Old Paint." Not clever on paper, but made sense if you knew the man.
Anyway, the Native American almost pun of calling an album with this photo on it of "Hiya" (as both the "Hi ya!" of a casual howdy and the insulting parody of indigenous American chants) made sense even as in the moment I knew it's pointlessly insensitive and correctly thought of as politically-incorrect.
Switching to another cover would be easy. But above is that photo that makes me smile because it's my dad. I don't and shouldn't expect others to have the same reaction.
The Real Hiya Cover
There's less of a story to this one. I'd painted that picture myself years before at a couples hangout. I've long thought that everybody can create art; not necessarily great art but I truly believe everybody is capable of painting something fun to hang in their house and everybody is capable of writing a song they could at least play at home.
That said, I'm a terrible painter. I possess no real talent for rendering and I'm way too self conscious about every brush stroke, which is no way to paint well. The good thing about painting parties like that one is that I was drunk and/or high, which tends to loosen up the brush strokes. I don't have a specific memory of doing so, but I would guess that I was trying to replicate something of The Black Lodge from the original Twin Peaks series.
My friends Craig and Kathryn were there that night, and they really liked my painting and asked if they could have it. Of course! Not like I was gonna hang it at my place. Over the years it was fun to see it at their house just outside of their guest bathroom.
When I wanted to switch to a new album cover - and with some royalty-free artwork - I had Craig take a high-resolution photo of it and send it to me, then voila.
Then I sent it to my graphic artist friend Adam Hoffman who's done covers for The Bigfellas before and he came through with a clean looking graphic and properly formatted for the CD printers.
Poster Available
We have posters of this shown below. They were at the solo album release party but I don't always drag them around for merch at shows.
I'm surprised by and grateful for anybody who reads all of these 800-1200 word blog posts on diffuse subjects here. As a result, if you're reading this sentence, reach out and tell me and I'll send you a copy of it. You can have it signed or not signed; I'm not sure if the signature adds or subtracts value. Enjoy.
