The Golden Repair: A Closer Look At The Artwork for Will to Live's The Therapy Sessions with Roberto Galdamez (Album Artwork Breakdown)
Formed in 1997 with the purpose of establishing a united Texas Hardcore scene, Will to Live was at the forefront of a new wave of bands there that would, eventually, carry the flag for the Lone Star State into the future. They helped push their local scene in becoming a hotbed for Internationally-renowned acts, such as POWER TRIP, Frozen Soul, IRON AGE, Bitter End, and many more. Combining insightful, inspiring lyrics with the unmistakable spirit and ethos of Hardcore Punk with the brutality of Death Metal breakdowns, Will to Live has written pummeling anthems that have earned the band a die-hard following in Texas and abroad for over 20 years. Now in 2023, history continues for Will to Live. Helmed by vocalist Roberto "Rob to Live" Galdamez (TRUE INTENTIONS, Outpost 31,) drummer Mike "Fury" Arellano (Spirit Adrift, Method of Destruction,) bassist Eric Gibson, and guitarists Daniel "The Reverend White Devil" Austin (Tooth & Claw, Die Young) and Chris "Conflict" Hatfield, the group has triumphantly returned with new material from their latest album, The Therapy Sessions.
It's without a doubt, "a wall of sound as heavy as any in the band's history, but with a fresh, masterful delivery." The lyrics for each track are conceptually representative of notes from a therapy session; these eight tracks encompass seven stories of individuals surviving first-hand accounts of emotional abuse, spousal abuse, indoctrination, loss, depression, post-traumatic stress, etc. Equally as heavy as the album's content is the album's companion cover. I quickly leanred in chatting online with Galdamez that he was very passionate and had A LOT to say about nearly every aspect of The Therapy Sessions; this, of course, including the P.J. Svejda-designed album artwork and packaging. So, with this, Rob, myself, and the band, collaboratibely cpncocted an idea to have Roberto "Rob" wax poetic about the artwork for The Therapy Sessions, packaging, vinyl varients, and how all of this tied into the themes heard across said ripping new album. Will to Live's The Therapy Sessions is now avilable on Another City Records.
When the guys and I decided that it was time to write a new Will to Live record, one thing was clear to me: I wanted it to be a concept album. Not just a few loosely-related things—everything had to tie together under the theme of mental health. This started with the sound production, the cadence of the songs, etc., but it did not end there—in regard to the visual aspects of the concepts, everything had to tie together, as well.
We spent countless hours online searching for the right picture or drawing to use as a cover and as a palette for the rest of the album, since we knew this would, eventually, be pressed into vinyl and we wanted to offer our fans something nice. We found a handful of paintings online that we could license out, but in the end, it just felt like taking the easy way out. Then, our guitarist, Daniel [Austin], asked me "if I was familiar with kintsugi." It was a word I did not immediately recognize, even though my wife had recently talked to me about it, so I told him "no."
Daniel, then, explained kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold or silver powder mixed into the binding agent, so as to highlight the cracks, rather than hide them. Thereby, this suggests that just because the item has been broken before, it hasn't lost its usefulness. In fact, it shows resilience and history. Kintsugi, therefore, can, also, be applied as a life philosophy, where much like pottery, people are encouraged to embrace their imperfections and see them as badges of honor and survival, rather than "a bad reminder of a terrible event or time." This became a central concept that wove itself into the whole album.
Then, Daniel & I began to explore what the best way to represent this concept would be. Once again, we turned to online searches for ideas and we discussed having professionally taken pictures of models and, then, digitally adding textures and the characteristic kintsugi repair lines on their bodies, but by that time, we realized we had been putting off the inevitable, which was commissioning our vision to an artist—with oil painting being the medium of choice.
I thought of a couple of artists, including my old teacher, renowned Salvadoran painter Don Roberto Huezo, who was kind enough to offer licensing [for] whichever painting we selected. In the end, Daniel pointed me to an artist he knew named P.J. Svejda. I was a bit hesitant at first because she's amazing at capturing people's emotions with great realism and given the subject matter, I wanted a realistic torso to be the center, but I wanted it to be a genderless form that anyone can relate to devoid of the facial features P.J. is so great at capturing. In addition, I wanted a cold and grim palette and I was concerned about the material I had seen on P.J.'s Instagram page because she used such a wide color palette. I wasn't sure how she would feel about working on a painting with such a limited scope.
Very minimal drafts were required and we loved what she was interpreting right away. However, I must say, I was blown away with the first images of the final product. The way the kintsugi repairs were placed by P.J. were precise to the way I had envisioned. The shade of blue she selected with the halo bringing light into darkness gave me goosebumps. All the while, each brush stroke provided texture and made the painting that much real and down-to-earth.
With the artwork defined, we had enough to be able to have our album cover and enough to take parts of the painting to incorporate into the layout of the jacket and sleeve. These turned out impressive and stand out when you’re holding the album in your hands. We were even able to incorporate these texture elements from the original artwork into the lyric video we made for our second single, "Cold Embrace."
As far as the vinyl is concerned, we wanted to make sure not only the jacket and the sleeve looked great, but we, also, wanted to make sure every bit of the album was something special and visually captivating. This said, Daniel & I had some ideas regarding vinyl color, but [our imaginations] did not run wild until we spoke with Shawn [Hopman] from our label, Another City Records. Shawn shared with us some of his ideas based on the capabilities of his suppliers he had been using for his other releases. This is how we ended up working with the folks at Smashed Plastic [Record Pressing] in Chicago for three small runs of white, black, and translucent gold vinyl.
With that settled, the question became, "well, with the album clocking in at 15 minutes [and] 16 seconds, do we repeat the program on Side B? Do we leave it blank?" Then, Shawn shared a couple of ideas he had used with his other releases. For instance, for the white vinyl, he works with Music Graphics Chicago, who can laser print images in color and in high-resolution onto vinyl. The result is STUNNING. The resolution of the laser print is so detailed that it picked up every brush stroke from the original painting so much that Side B of the vinyl looks textured!
Still thinking it was a blessing in disguise, it turns out the laser printing in high-resolution can only be done on white vinyl and, then, Shawn shared that for some of his other releases, he's used Anchorfish Printing [& Embroidery] out of Evanston near Chicago to screen-print a design on Side B of the vinyl. After seeing some samples of finished product, the work done for our labelmates, ILL COMMUNICATION, we said, "let's do it!" We opted to use our logo we had previously used for circle-shaped stickers with the name of the album, The Therapy Sessions, encircling it. Once that was settled, all we had to do was make sure we used complimentary colors to the artwork palette, as well as the vinyl color. We ended up using navy blue for the translucent gold vinyl, and an off-white for the black vinyl.
It only took Will to Live 26 years from the band's inception to produce a vinyl release. Given how long it took, we made sure to leave no stone unturned in the writing and production of The Therapy Sessions—from the recording (its tones and frequencies,) to the lyrics (the specific diction,) to the artwork (its tones and colors,) and to the vinyl itself. In the end, we believe we produced a quality record full of depth and articulated vision on all fronts.
The Therapy sessions is out and you can order it from Another City Records at Another City Records. To listen to our album, watch our latest video, pick up merch, or get in touch, visit us at Will to Live.
