Welcome to the story behind the artwork of our “Fire & Ashes” EP and it’s designer, Felipe Machado from Colombia.
An introduction on Felipe by Marco
When we first contacted Felipé for our “Fire & Ashes” EP artwork, we had been keeping one of his emails in our inbox for over a year. In this email he introduced himself and offered his talent for our future artwork.However, at the time he reached out to us we were still working with Stefan Heilemann from ‘Heilemania’, who created the artworks for our two previous albums, and so we decided to leave it at that.
When we started working on our “Fire & Ashes” EP and brainstorms about the artwork came into play Felipé’s name and talent surfaced again. Although we have always been very happy with Stefan’s work, we did feel that for our upcoming EP we wanted someone who could process and combine more than one art form, who could not only create something using photographic materials, but could start a design from drawing or painting as well. And would therefor have unlimited skills.
After our initial contact, we immediately had the feeling we would be “clicking” well together and we of course loved the work he had done for other bands. That very imaginative, fantasy-related style with pictures like something from another world, a dream world is of course very much what fits Xandria.
The title of the EP had already been in our minds. “Fire & Ashes” reflects the way we compiled the songs: “Fire” symbolizing the new songs and “Ashes” the older, with their new versions rising from these ashes like a phoenix. Thus we also had a strong connection with the Sacrificium artwork, which was our intention.
A first picture that Felipé sent us had a great atmosphere but didn´t really nail that idea but we did love it! And so it is now being used in the booklet and for our merchandise as a t-shirt design.
In the meantime we had been brainstorming a bit and had this idea of the fantasy instrument that would be rising from the fire like a phoenix, even more being a metaphor for the music. The cover as we know it today is Felipé’s very cool realization of that idea!
Felipé on Felipé!
I was born in 1979 in Bogota Colombia where I have been living with my wife and dog ever since. The first bands I listened to were Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Van Halen and Def Leppard thanks to my older brothers.
In 2003 I completed my visual arts and graphic media studies and started doing cover artworks for local bands. In 2004 I started working as a freelance illustrator for Lucas Films and still am.
The first well-known European band that gave me a chance to do a CD cover artwork was Axel Rudi Pell in 2006 for the Mystica album. After working with him I had the chance to work for companies like AFM Records, Nuclear Blast, SPV, Century Media, Frontiers Records, Ulterium Records and others.
So far I have had the the honour of working for some of my favorite bands: Blind Guardian, Rage, Iced Earth, Iron Savior, Jorn, Rhapsody, Persuader, Savage Circus and others.
About the artwork
I don’t remember exactly how long it took me to collect all ideas for the “Fire & Ashes” EP cover but it probably was about a month all together. I remember we first talked about the possible concept for some time, I then sent the band some basic ideas and while talking slowly but surely the road to the final cover art got clearer and clearer as the weeks passed.
Story behind the image
After the first talks I understood that the band wanted the cover to represent a mid-stage passing from one story to a new one. With of course fire as a symbol of eternal rebirth as an important factor, an echo of the phoenix from the ‘Sacrificium’ artwork.
All of my work for this cover has been done digitally with Photoshop and a Wacon Cintiq screen. Sometimes I start with creating line sketches to have a clear understanding of the composition and concept. Other times it’s faster to create a full -possibly final- artwork cover to give the band a much clearer idea of what I intended to design. Of course adjustments are made after communication with the band.
These days my artworks leans more to digital painting than photo bashing. If I use any photo reference I put so much paint on top of it that the photo reference disappears. With Xandria the whole process has been a collaboration of the band and me. In terms of style and composition I was free to make my own suggestions.
It was a very nice assignment to work with Xandria since it somehow reminded me of the first time I worked for bands like Blind Guardian and Rage. I have to admit that I did not know Xandria that well when we started, so as usual I started digging around for information, stories and their music. I was overwhelmed by finding so many people following the band and mentioning that they are the true legacy of what female oriented Metal bands should be. It reminded me of myself at age 15 finding out about new bands.