Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 30-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
As a self-managed group, Mecca Normal spends a certain amount of time dealing with how to engage with audiences in terms of album releases, promotion, booking events and tours. We both have part-time jobs that are just flexible enough to accommodate time away for tours.
With both of us working on book-length fiction for the vast majority of our time, I’ve noticed that we have individually become more focused on research. David is currently working on a graphic novel about the anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman, while I’m putting the final touches on a novel set in Nazareth, Pa.: home of the Martin guitar factory. There’s something very fortifying about researching what can be known before fictionalizing for the purpose of creating a compelling piece of art.
“The Message,” from The Observer (Kill Rock Stars, 2006) (download):