A Life at Sea, Held Together in Wood, Paint, and Photographs

Designing The Buffalo Dance began with Conrad’s stories of long nights at sea, his father before him, and the quiet weight of distance. I built the album’s imagery from those memories—weather-beaten canvas, old wooden frames, and family photographs stitched together like a logbook of a life spent between shores. Ian Felice’s painted cover brings the ocean’s dreamlike pull to the front, while the gatefold collage grounds the record in real, lived moments. The design aims to hold the same feeling the music carries: nostalgia, grit, and the strange comfort of drifting and returning.