Perry Shall has created art for the Black Keys, Green Day, and Kurt Vile. Now the Philly artist is up for a Grammy
“It’s a silly thing to say: ‘I was nominated for a Grammy.’”
Perry Shall’s studio in Mount Airy is a retro wonderland of pop cultural paraphernalia.
On the second floor of a converted garage, the Philadelphia illustrator and graphic artist is kept company by a life-size cardboard standee of Philly soul man Teddy Pendergrass, and another of British songwriting great Elvis Costello.
Framed Zero Mostel and Engelbert Humperdinck albums and a poster for Brian De Palma’s 1981 Philly thriller Blow Out adorn the walls, along with a needlepoint portrait of Groucho Marx.
An action figure of wrestler Freddie Blassie poked out of a box of markers on a frigid afternoon earlier this month. Shall uses them in creating artwork for artists like the Black Keys, Green Day, and Kurt Vile. Vile’s music plays out of computer speakers while Shall works on a poster for Ecuadorean Swiss instrumental duo Hermanos Gutiérrez.
Amid this living museum of fun stuff — a Marshall amp with the first three letters of the brand name blacked out, a pile of pre-casino Atlantic City postcards, clothing racks with 300 or so vintage T-shirts (a small fraction of Shall’s collection) — there’s room for one more prized possession.
A Grammy.
On Feb. 4, the Northeast Philly-raised former garage band roadie, DIY artist, and construction worker will be at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, competing in the best recording package category.
His entry is for Electrophonic Chronic, the 2023 album by the Arcs, the collective led by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who owns the Nashville studio and label Easy Eye Sound.
An ‘all out’ Grammy nom
Since Easy Eye’s inception in 2017, Shall has made almost all of the label’s album art, creating a classic unifying look that meshes with the aesthetics of a wide range of artists: from British country-soul singer Yola, to late Delta blues man Son House, to indie-rock band Shannon and the Clams, and country legends like John Anderson and Hank Williams Jr.
Electrophonic Chronic is a tribute to Richard Swift, the multi-instrumentalist member of the Arcs who died in 2018. With Auerbach’s encouragement, “we really went all out” on the package, Shall said. “We kept adding elements. Everything was done on a whim.”
The album was issued in a deluxe edition with a flocked, velvety surface, and a zoetrope LP drawn by Shall that comes to animated life when the record spins.
The limited edition $45 deluxe package was an immediate sellout last January, but standard issue LPs and CDs with the cover’s black light effect are available on the Easy Eye site and in local Philadelphia area record stores.
It’s the first Grammy nod for Shall, 38. He wasn’t watching when Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy announced that he was nominated along with Caroline Rose, Hsing-Hui Cheng, Brad Breeck, Dry Cleaning, and Leaf Yeh.
Auerbach surprised him with the news later. “I freaked out. I couldn’t believe it,” Shall said.
“Then I called my parents, and my grandmother, and my girlfriend. ... It’s just a crazy thing. I don’t expect to win. It’s a silly thing to say: ‘I was nominated for a Grammy.’ ”
Shall’s road to recognition began early. “I was always drawing as a kid,” encouraged by an artistic family. His grandmothers, Phyllis Shall and Thelma Shanfeld, exhibited their art in Philadelphia.
His father, Bob, is a retired mail carrier and his mother, Beth, worked as a secretary and is also an artist. When his dad took him on flea market expeditions, he caught the bug to express himself through the brilliantly curated secondhand bric a brac in his studio.
‘Who wants to be the same as everybody else?’
As a teen, Shall discovered his father’s T-shirts in the attic. “They were all from the ‘70s and ‘80s. That set me off on this whole thing. There was this Bruce Springsteen shirt from Born in the U.S.A. Baseball tee with gray sleeves and a big American flag. Iconic.”
He now lives in Germantown with his girlfriend, a few minutes away from his studio, in a house where he’s outfitting a separate room to house his 3,000 T-shirts.
“He came to Nashville once,” Auerbach said of Shall, talking on the phone from Los Angeles, “and he had a bag stolen with one of his vintage Cramps T-shirts, and I’ve never seen a man so sick with hurt.”
Shall mostly shops for bargains, though he once paid $250 for a rare pair of Beastie Boys and Bad Brains tees. A shirt from Northeast Philly’s Empire Rock Club is a favorite. He began this interview in a short sleeve Pendergrass shirt, then switched to a long sleeve Squeeze.
“I hated being the person who dressed like everybody else. Who wants to be the same as everybody else?”
The cover of the 2019 album Lost in the Salvation Army, by Wild Flowers of America, on which Shall plays guitar and is the lead vocalist, features a photo of him thrift shopping on Rising Sun Avenue. He’s recording a follow-up this spring.
‘We’re all rooting for him’
Shall graduated from George Washington High, and took classes at Community College of Philadelphia and the Art Institute of Philadelphia. A fan of free-spirited artists like R. Crumb, Shel Silverstein, and Milton Glaser, he dropped out, “because they treated it like a tech school. The teachers didn’t like that I would put my own personality into it.”
Working construction, he played in bands and drew punk rock fliers. At a show in North Carolina in 2007 with his hard-core band Lighten Up, he met Screaming Females, fronted by guitarist and visual artist Marissa Paternoster.
They gave Shall a job as a roadie, which led to a gig with sibling duo Jeff the Brotherhood. Auerbach was producing the 2012 album Hypnotic Nights for the band.
“I needed some graphic art done, and he helped me with the studio logo,” said Auerbach.
“But what really made it work was Perry and his personality, and how easy it was to work with him. We appreciate the quirkier design elements, some things that are tweaked out in a beautiful way.”
Auerbach and Shall’s first visual collaboration was 2013′s Nomad, by Tuareg guitarist Bombino.
“That was one of the most exciting moments in my career,” says Shall. “It was really about someone who saw something in me. I was being appreciated by somebody for my art who didn’t have to [care] about me.”
Since 2017, Shall has designed all but one of the label’s 40-plus releases. Needless to say, Auerbach is pulling for Shall on Feb. 4. “Can you imagine a Grammy in there in his studio with all that other stuff? We’re all rooting for him.”
Shall has also been working with Vile for a decade, starting with an “Our Hoagie” shirt, which features Vile stuffed into an Amoroso roll. It’s being updated for a 2024 tour. He also designed the cover of Vile’s 2020 release Speed, Sound, Lonely KV EP.
“He’s my favorite Philly designer,” Vile said, speaking during a break in a session at his home studio in Mount Airy. “He’s a great artist but it’s really like he’s my brother, like we have a City of Brotherly Love connection. Plus, we’re both music head freaks. It almost feels like we went to high school together, though we didn’t.”
“The idea of being nominated for a Grammy, just this one time? It does not go away. People like Dave Grohl that I’ve looked up to will be there, and I’m going to be in their orbit for one day. That’s really a kind of validation. I’m very lucky,” Shall said.
As the Grammys approach, his nomination is “starting to feel more real,” he said.
Shall’s category is part of an afternoon ceremony, which can be streamed at Grammy.com.