When Les Claypool and Sean Ono Lennon started discussing the vinyl experience for their new record, The Claypool Lennon Delirium: The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy, they knew they wanted to do something monumental.
This third album felt like a milestone - moving beyond a side project to a “real band.” Sean recalls their motivation at the time, “We can’t just do another record. We’re a real band now. We have to do something epic–a concept album… something with a full-blown narrative.“
That narrative follows a young Hippard O. Campus (Hipp) on fantastical adventures through the land of Cliptopia in a valiant effort to save the world from the malicious intent of Cliptron and its army of robots. Throughout Hipp’s journey, we meet Colonel O’Coren, the Ministry of Manatees, and the story’s sage goddess, The Great Parrot Ox.
The story was there in the form of the music. It just needed a visual language to take it to the next level. Les and Sean called on longtime friend and collaborator Rich Ragsdale to bring Cliptopia to life. Rich had created the “Blood and Rockets” video from The Delirium’s second album, South of Reality, as well as several videos for Sean’s projects. Sean says, “Rich is an amazing artist. When it came time to flesh out the story of The Great Parrot Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy, we thought he would be the perfect guy.”
“We all share a lot of the same sort of cultural interests,” Rich says, “like a lot of 70s psychedelia, underground comics like Zap Comix and Mad Magazine, and movies like Yellow Submarine. My cartooning already kind of lives there.”
Rich, Les, and Sean read through the whole story on a call, citing mutual rock opera references like Tommy and Yellow Submarine, and inserting song lyrics at critical moments as if it were a musical. When it came time to discuss packaging, Rich pitched the idea of doing a comic that would be the same size as the record. He referenced G.I. Joe read-along book and record sets from the mid-1960s.
Sean says, “They were just perfect. It was exactly what we had been thinking. They're basically G.I. Joe comics packaged with vinyl. As you read along, there are different things to listen to on the vinyl. That was exactly what we wanted.”
With the rock opera meets comic book model established, Rich started drawing. “We went through the story and shaped it into a comic book script, like you would a screenplay for a movie,” Rich explains. “I did thumbnail sketches for the whole thing so Sean and Les could get a sense of what it would look like laid out. Then I did concept art for all the characters. The actual drawings are big: 18 by 18 inches. It took me five or six months to do the 24 pages.”
Sean references Air’s Moon Safari as the perfect album campaign example to follow. “Mike Mills created an entire visual language for the packaging and each song. The videos corresponded to the design of the poster and the packaging of the art. It's like a 360-degree worldbuilding experience.”
“Something like this, where you're forced to sit, listen, read, and look through a physical object and interact with something that has tactility and presence, is an important thing for us to do as a society.”
Does music influence your design process or your mood when working?
Absolutely. I sketch to music, I travel with playlists, and I often create a sort of "soundtrack" for each project. Music helps set emotional direction—it’s like tuning into the soul of a space before the first line is ever drawn.
Are there specific elements of a Wrensilva’s design that resonate with you creatively?
Yes—the proportions, the joinery, the mix of wood tones and metal detailing. It’s clear that this is a piece made by people who understand both engineering and aesthetics. That kind of balance—between form and function—is what we strive for in our own work.
Photo by Scott Hutchinson
Photo by Scott Hutchinson
A lot of worldbuilding went into the creation of Cliptopia and The Great Parrot Ox. “We had all of the characters drawn out and the style of the art all done ahead of time so that every poster and every image that you see relating to this album is going to come from the same visual universe,” Sean elaborates. “It’s like we were actually doing a sci-fi movie where we had all these characters and their backstory and the design of how the robots looked.”
The story is a reflection of our time–a cautionary tale of a dystopian future where production and industry challenge morality and sustainability. Some say that the future is now. In the meantime, The Parrot Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy asks you to slow down, be present, and experience the music.
“I feel like our attention spans have been so bombarded and destroyed by the pace of social media and all the technology in our lives,” Sean says. “Something like this, where you're forced to sit, listen, read, and look through a physical object and interact with something that has tactility and presence, is an important thing for us to do as a society. I feel like if we lose our ability to be able to just sit and read a comic and listen to an album, we're not going to do well with anything else in our lives.”
“I think that people are craving things that are thoughtful. Even though it's done in a very retro style, the story that Sean and Les have come up with is very much about our time.”
Photo by Scott Hutchinson
Rich concurs, “There's so much stuff out there. Music can sometimes feel very disposable. To present people with a package like this that is thoughtful and that people have worked really hard on is kind of special. I think that people are craving things that are thoughtful. Even though it's done in a very retro style, the story that Sean and Les have come up with is very much about our time. I think it’s very relevant. Hopefully it resonates with people.”
The Parrot Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy is available on vinyl now via ATO Records.
