Make With Mohawk — Solid Sound at MASS MoCA

Wilco headlines the festival and also selects a diverse slate of established artists and young talent that play to an audience of some 8,000 visitors per day.

Festival-goers venture to North Adams from all over the United States and other nations to enjoy music on 3 large outdoor stages, 2 intimate indoor venues, and virtually everywhere else within MASS MoCA’s 16-acre campus. Meanwhile, auxiliary activities are available throughout the museum — including a poster silk screening demo with Ghost Town Studio on Mohawk Superfine (Beautiful Collection) at this year's Solid Sound which took place May 27-29.

Ghost Town is the studio of artist and designer Pete Cardoso. Cardoso has been designing graphics and screen printed posters in various areas of the music, sport, and entertainment industries for almost 20 years – one of his first clients being Wilco. That relationship has continued on today with Cardoso being on board doing screen print demos at Solid Sound since its inception in 2010. Cardoso’s work can be seen around the world in places such as art galleries, music venues, and various publications. He has work included in the permanent collection of the RISD Museum of Art as well as MASS MoCA.

Also on-site at MASS MoCA this year was Grammy-winner and 2019-20 Mohawk Show "Best In Show" awardee Lawrence Azerrad (LAD Design). Azerrad has been a creative partner to Wilco since 1999, designing 8 of the band's albums in the last 20 years, including their latest and twelfth studio album, Cruel Country.
 

However, it was his work on a deluxe vinyl box set for Wilco's album Ode to Joy that won him Mohawk Best in Show and the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards (2020) for Best Box or Special Limited Edition Package. The Ode to Joy box set is an interactive book whose pieces spin, slide, unfold and transform—a collage of color, light, shadow, emotion, and meaning, all manifested as a pop-up book.

Azerrad also designed Solid Sound's 2022 program guide on Mohawk Via Satin (Expressive Collection).

As winner of The Mohawk Show, Azerrad was awarded a Maker Grant by Mohawk, which he gladly chose to use to facilitate a collaboration with Neu Haus Press.

Neu Haus Press was founded in 1996 by Chris Chandler, who after 30 years working as a tour manager and sound engineer for bands such as The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse, has had the privilege of sharing his passion for letterpress with musicians in collaboration with their artwork. 

Azerrad and Chandler used a photograph by Daniel Topete of Suzanne Ciani's studio from Mirror Sound, the book Azerrad co-created with Spencer Tweedy (son of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy), to create original hand-printed letterpress prints.

The prints are printed on Mohawk Renewal Recycled Cotton (Sustainable Collection) using Baltic birch printing blocks with six coats of shellac and Gamblin oil relief inks:

- 50% Phthalo Blue 50% Transparent Base

- 50% Quinacridone Red 50% Transparent Base

- 50% Hansa Yellow Light 50% Transparent Base

- 100% Portland Intense Black