Alongside his independent art practice, Savage creates all of Parquet Courts’ artwork, from concept to the layout design of sleeve notes. It would be easy to assume that the artist lifts from already completed work for these cover designs, but he sees them as separate entities, approaching it like any other designer given a brief.

From the beginning of the band the artist wanted to create a language — or “a visual lexicon” — which translates Parquet Courts’ sound. It’s a style he describes as looser than his larger paintings, one “a little less indebted to line” and fully intentional. Parquet Courts’ artwork has evolved as the band has, a result of the artist experiencing sound and vision as interwoven, considering he has synesthesia, seeing colour as sound and vice versa. “Historically, there’s a colour that I identify with the sounds on the record,” he begins to explain. “The new one is an almost yellow heavy shade of red, and then a very strong green. The way they interact with each other is something that I feel from listening to the music. I was listening to the record non-stop while working on the artwork for it.”

It’s a technique that evidently works. Savage’s artwork for Parquet Courts’ 2016 album Human Performance was nominated for a Grammy award in best recording package following its release. “It is kind of weird yeah!” he laughs when I bring up his nomination. “I felt really happy to be the only nominee in that group that was also the artist as well. That, in and of itself, was a triumph.” The night of the award ceremony itself the artist describes as interesting. A highlight was seeing Beyoncé perform (“that was incredible”), but all in all Savage is humble about the award: “It’s not a world that I’m remotely near musically so it was interesting. Ultimately, it was a nice little trip where I got to wear a tux, dress up and go out for a nice dinner afterwards.”