Matt Helders reveals the story behind ‘The Car’ artwork
Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has discussed his love of photography and explained how he captured the artwork for their latest album The Car.
Helders has been a keen photographer for as long as he’s been drumming. It’s a passion close to his heart, and as he revealed last year, the Arctic Monkeys drummer was responsible for the image plastered on the cover of their seventh album.
Now, Helders has revealed the image which he shot on a long-lens camera from his old apartment in Los Angeles was taken before Arctic Monkeys had even hit the studio to record The Car. “This was in 2019, before we’d started any music for the album. Alex was, like, ‘Oh, wow.’ He thought it told a story and that he might write something about it,” he told The New Yorker.
In a previous interview with Mexican broadcaster Sopitas, Helders said of the artwork: “It really came about because I’d bought a 90mm lens for my camera, and I’d just recently moved to this place; that was the view from my bedroom window. So I saw that car park every day. It always seemed like there was something interesting happening, even if there was nothing there.”
Remarkably, there was only one car in the car park, which made Helders reach for his camera. He continued: “This was me just testing out this lens. It’s an old one, but it does a different thing when you shoot from far away. It makes all the perspective of everything squashed. So I walked around that day and went in my bedroom and took that picture, [having] taken a few of that same thing. But that was the one that stood out.”
Meanwhile, in the new profile with The New Yorker, Helders spoke of another one of his long-running photography projects which keeps him occupied while touring.
He told the publication: “I have a folder on my phone called ‘The Backs’. If I’m walking around the street and someone looks interesting from the back, that’s fine with me. I don’t need to ask them to turn around.”
While on tour in North America, Arctic Monkeys recently premiered ‘Hello You’ from The Car while in Vancouver. During their encore at the Pacific Coliseum in the Canadian city, the Sheffield group debuted the track, which was the only song they had yet to perform live from the new record.
Arctic Monkeys have now concluded the North American leg of their tour. They are set to play two shows in Mexico City before three dates at the 3Arena in Dublin and one performance at The SSE Arena in Belfast later this month.
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