Magnolia Bolthead
Drawings of Exploding People
Poster Illustrations
Magnolia Bolthead
Roles
Illustrator
Illustrations for Jazz Fusion band Magnolia Bolthead.
Collaboration with designer / sax player / college buddy / apartment-complex mate / awesome guy Jef Mayer.
From 2004-2007, Jef and I made posters, album artwork, and art pieces for his band.
Storytime
“Magnolia Bolthead” was a mistake.
Peter Hayes (WYSO) meant to name his musical project after the Cap’n Crunch villain “Magnolia BULKHEAD”, a siren that lured the Cap’n with beautiful music.
It wasn’t until after Peter’s band was regularly playing shows—and regularly being asked “What’s Magnolia Bolhead mean?”—that Peter realized he had misremembered her name. By the time I found out, I didn’t even care. I love “Bolthead”.
From the moment Jef Mayer told me the name of his new band, I thought “Bolthead” was a cool word. I imagined it immediately as a regular person that looks totally real, but they’re fastened together with screws.
Peter brought Jef into the band because Jef was a great sax player. But when he found out he was also a killer designer, he asked him to make posters for the band. Jef asked for direction, and Peter said “draw people getting their mind blown by our music.”
Jef asked me if I wanted to collaborate. He knew I loved drawing and that I was itching to illustrate something. I said hell yeah. The moment he told me Peter’s “people getting their minds blown” concept, I knew exactly what I was going to do.
I provided pencil drawings to Jef. He designed the type and texture. Over time, I explored pen, sharpie, and spray paint.
I always asked Jef to let me clean up the drawings for the posters, but he insisted that he wanted them delivered as raw pencils. Over time I let myself get looser and looser with my drawing, but I also had to do some precise drawings with a rapidograph just to scratch the itch.
Biggest Regret
I probably saw MagBolt play 30 or 40 times. Ironically, one of my biggest “local music” regrets is on a night where I saw them play. I got to Peaches early because Magnolia Bolthead was opening. I stayed for most of the next band—Motel Beds. They were great like usual but I decided to go home.
“Peaches” is in Yellow Springs, 45 minutes away. I had never seen the headlining band, and I decided tonight wasn’t the night.
Captain of Industry was the band I missed. Fast forward to 2020—there hasn’t been a COI show I’ve missed in 5 years. They’re my favorite Dayton band of all time, and they play once a year now—if we’re lucky.
To think that I illustrated the gig poster for one of their shows—but didn’t stay to see them play—will always be one of my all-time blunders. If I ever get a time machine I’m going back to that night and staying all damn night.
Credits
Jef Mayer - Typography & Design
