Designing Lucas Jon Turner's debut solo record cover: 'Somewhere in Between'

Steven Pagliaro
Jul 24
4 min read

Updated: Jul 24

My most recent project of length... Designing the album art for Lucas Jon Turners debut solo album release!

Lucas Jon Turner @ Central Machine Works ATX

Somewhere in Between is a rockin', psychedelic feel good album packed with great tunes by Lucas Jon Turner - released on June 6, 2025. This man has some serious soul, is delightfully unhinged, and just wants everyone to cut loose and feel the music.

Lucas and I began work the cover for 'Somewhere In Between' after I photographed one of his shows back in February - Lucas Jon & The Turnaround at Central Machine Works Brewery in Austin. The room was packed, and artist after artist came up to do their thing. Once the Turnaround hit - They raised the roof on the place. Guitar riffs taking the crowd through a rock & roll soundscape with a psychedelic twist. Kick ass solos, pounding drums, summa that funky bass and Lucas' vocals and antics on the mic made for some seriously unique and energetic entertainment.

Lucas Jon & The Turnaround @ Central Machine Works - ATX

After the show we got the group together and took a few quick some Promo shots. We took this one indoors in front of a large window at the front of the building. The light was nice and bright coming through the window, so I was able to raise the exposure in-camera on the shot - which completely obliterated the view of the parking lot outside, leaving nothing but white light.

For the next one we did the same positioning with the window, and in post production I carefully removed the window pieces for a nice clean look.

After the show Lucas approached me about photographing and designing his first record, as he was almost finished laying down the tracks and needed an image for the cover.

A month later in March, we scheduled a day and met up at Zilker Park for a shoot.

The sun was hiiigh in the sky when we met up, so there was pretty hard light from above - but we knew what we were going for. Lucas had a general idea for the image in his head. He wanted to be laying down with the earth below, with outer space above, and he would be laying "somewhere in between", and it needed to feel somewhat psychedelic.

We found a perfect rock for him to lay on, wearing his signature velvet jacket. The whole time we had to keep dodging the sprinklers that kept rotating and spraying the rock right where he was laying 😂. So after lining up the shot, dodging the sprinkler a few times, and trying out a few lenses and angles - I put on the 10-18mm and got in close, and we knew we had the shot for the cover.

Then we went down to the side of the rocks for a few more shots, possibly something we could use for the back cover...

"The one" from the album cover photoshoot @ Zilker Park

"The One" for the back cover of the album

So now we had the photos... it was time to start bringing this album to life!

The following few weeks Lucas and I collaborated back and forth by phone a few times a week.

I'd use photoshop to make up some prototypes, send Lucas some rough unfinished ideas, and he would tell me what he liked and didn't like, and what direction to take from there. We made changes throughout by repeating that process until everything was to both of our liking.

This was my first time creating a record cover that would be printed and pressed. The process certainly had its up and down moments - some technical difficulties working with Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator to get everything just right for the pressing company, lots of redos, and one scary time where I lost save data and had to start over with a piece of the project... but MAN it was FUN.

Lucas was an absolute joy to work with, and when we had those breakthrough moments where we knew we were getting close - we felt on top of the world.

The task expanded as I was working on it... I ended up designing the cover, the back, the gatefold (when you open the record up like a book) and the center circles for side A & B of the record.

I want to give a special thank you to my good friends, the Photoshop wizards - Thomas & Clarissa Sisca for their input. Also to NASA - for providing the telescope nebula image above Lucas (YES - that is a real picture of outer space)

It felt so amazing when I finished up on time and looked at the final product.

Here it is: