Evan Pricco: Drawing or playing guitar? What comes first in the morning?

A. Savage: Well, first comes the radio, then coffee. I make it to my studio, on a good day, before noon. So I'd have to say drawing. Typically, guitar is a second-half-of-the-day activity.



Okay, so what came first in your life? Art or guitar?

I started drawing before I learned an instrument.



You keep a proper art studio in Brooklyn, so I assume that is where you spend most of your time when not making albums or touring. If we were to walk into your studio right now, what would you be working on?

About 20 paintings for a large installation. I can't give much more in the way of details. But you'd probably walk in and say, "Wow, that's so many paintings you're working on". And I'd say, "Sorry, I can't really talk about this."



I love the band's visual identity, and even before I knew you were creating most of it, if not all, I immediately thought it was super smart in terms of how color presentation and imagery fit with the sound. It made sense to me, in the end, that someone so intimately involved in the sound would be able to get it right with the visuals. This really isn't a question but an observation: was making art for Parquet Courts just a consequence of you being good at art and it all fitting together? Was it a necessity?

You are very intuitive because we are super smart. I do like for an album color to be a hint, and then a component, of the sound inside. I suppose me making the Parquet Courts artwork is a necessity in that I'm a control freak and just don't think anybody else could do it better. I like for the art and music to be different from one another, but still feel that is distinct to the group. Someone should want to hear it by looking at it.