Translating music into colour, movement and form.

Badlands on Fire is a collection of artwork, design and moving image created through a collaboration between musician Adam Nutter and Fuel by Thought.

Adam, best known as the guitarist in The Music, was developing his debut solo album, Badlands on Fire. The record had a strong visual and emotional world around it, so he approached Fuel By Thought to create an original canvas for each track, using the music itself as the only brief.

The result was a body of eight paintings, each one created in direct response to a completed track. The collaboration later expanded into album artwork, vinyl and CD packaging, T-shirt designs, a book and a music video filmed on the shores of Loch Long.

Adam sent each completed track one at a time, without written direction, visual references or explanatory notes. The aim was to let each piece of music shape the artwork naturally.

Each track was listened to repeatedly until a visual direction began to emerge. Some pieces suggested movement, heat and intensity. Others carried a quieter sense of reflection, release or atmosphere. The artwork was built from those emotional cues rather than from literal interpretation. The process became a way of giving each song its own visual identity while still allowing the full collection to feel connected.

The painting created for the title track became the album cover, giving Badlands on Fire a visual identity rooted directly in the music. From there, the artwork was adapted and extended across the physical release and supporting materials.

The project also included the production of a music video for the lead track; Dreamtwister. The main filming location was Cove, on the scenic shores of Loch Long. The setting gave the video a strong sense of place: open water, coastal atmosphere and a quiet emotional charge that connected naturally with the themes of the album. Rather than creating something overly polished or disconnected from the artwork, the video continued the same spirit as the paintings: personal, atmospheric and grounded in feeling.

Badlands on Fire became more than an album artwork project. It developed into a broader creative collaboration across music, painting, design and film. The result is a body of work that feels personal, vivid and connected: a record, a collection of paintings and a visual identity shaped by trust, instinct and shared creative energy.