In 1988 I created an illustration of the vocalist of Norwalk band, Walk Proud, for the cover art of their debut New Age Records release, “Be Yourself.” A credit on the back cover of the 7″ states “Cover Art: Anji,” though I didn’t create the cover artwork, per se. Chris Cole drew the logo and I have no idea who did the transfer letters of the title or the overall layout. My pen and ink illustration was used on the original cover art for the first pressing on black vinyl.
Interestingly, the cover art was initially composed of just my drawing of Lalo (in a smaller size) and Chris’ graffiti style logo (in a larger size) placed in a stacked formation. I found an entry on Discogs with a photo of this original design layout. In a 2018 interview with No Echo Mike Hartsfield of New Age Records said:
“I remember getting the 1000 black vinyl of NA01 Walk Proud Be Yourself records. They had a large hole in the center of the record (instead of a small hole which I had wanted, but probably never specified). The pressing plant agreed to take them back and repress them. I grabbed one with the big hole before sending them back. It’s in “the vault.'”
Discogs has entries for later pressings of the 7″ with various cover designs that use a black and white band photo from Last Word Zine that originally appeared on the back cover as the front cover image with different hand drawn band logos. It’s a bit disappointing that my drawing was dropped from the cover, but it’s cool to know that my illustration was featured on the original limited edition pressing of ‘Be Yourself’ by Walk Proud.
As a side note, I noticed that later pressings including my “jumping man” New Age logo on the fold out lyrics sheet, unlike the version that appeared in the first pressing of the EP.
For posterity’s sake, I’ll include the November/December 1988 scene news from Positive Influence #2 that shares some New Age news including this Walk Proud release:
WALK PROUD’s 7” out now, check out the cover artwork by Anji of PI, she also did the New Age logo. WP was delayed due to a mistake on the label stickers.
And to round out this blog post, here is the review of ‘Be Yourself’ that appeared in Positive Influence #3, January 1989:
The first New Age vinyl. Heard the master but haven’t received my copy yet (I did the cover drawing). The sound’s a little fuzzy, but better than the demo & the songs are speeded up a bit. Worth checking out.
I’ll throw in my review of the 9 song demo by Walk Proud, as well, since I mentioned it in the vinyl review. This appeared in the debut issue of Positive Influence released in October 1988:
Everything you’d expect from a So. Cal Posi-core band. Good lyrics dealing with SE, thinking for yourself, supporting your friends etc., set to energetic music. The only thing lacking is clear production.
