The Narrator // Such Triumph
Where did the concept of the art for the Such Triumph album come from and how does it relate to the music on the album?
Zach: The concept came from nowhere, really. Guitarist/singer Sam Axelrod had a pile of stuff he liked, I had a little pile of stuff I liked, and to be honest, what happened was: We got high and made a collage. The result is the album artwork.
Sam: I think there was not a lot of conceptualizing beforehand. I had been taking photos for years and been thinking about which ones would be good in the context of album artwork. I had already used some for our first 7” and EP. I just brought a stack of them over to Zach’s and we scanned them and got to work. The only place where the art really relates to the songs is in the part where the lyrics are. The “That House Burned to the Ground” words are written over a photo of the building next door to mine that burned down in 2002; for “Roughhousing” there’s a photo of my blood in my parents’ sink after I got teeth pulled. Stuff like that.
Was there any other ideas you had for album art?
Sam: Not that I can remember. I just a had a big blob of stuff, and Zach turned it into one cohesive thing.
Zach: If there were, I sure don’t remember them.
Did any of the band members have any input or contribute to the art and design of the album?
Zach: Yeah, Sam was sitting next to me the whole time I did it. I think he hand-wrote out much of the text. I know we showed it to the other guys. I think they must have approved, though they could’ve been high too.
Were the lyrics written out by you or did the band members provide them?
Zach: Yep, all Sam there. I can tell you this: every bit of info on that disc is 100% correct and accurate. Sam is a meticulous proofreader. Except the umlaut. I still don’t know why that’s there.
How long did it take to write out all the lyrics?
Sam: We did this six and a half years ago, so I have no idea. A decent amount of time, though. Jesse and I sang about 50/50 on the record, and each wrote out our own lyrics. I vaguely remember Jesse writing his all out in one night at Zach’s house in Logan Square.
There is a lot of repeating themes in the artwork, boys, dogs and cats, plants, hands and knives. Is there a specific meaning behind these themes or do they reference the music?
Zach: James, the bassist really likes cats and dogs, as do I. There was something important about one of them looking out the window at the Chicago skyline. Sam like cats, some dogs. So that’s where all those came from. The plants, I had this old book about houseplants from the 70s. I don’t know about the rest. Or referencing the music. I know the fuzzy blue behind the skyline is from a photo of a car windshield covered in snow.
Sam: Not a ton. We were boys. We like cats and dogs. Zach put in the hands and knives. And I guess plants. I had all these photos and ideas and Zach was like, “This is a mess.” So he put in all the other stuff to make it more cohesive. Which it did. It also kind of made it more of a mess. Looking at it for the first time in a while I can’t believe how busy it is. I guess I was thinking “more is more” in those days. I think the other guys were a little freaked out when they saw it.
Does phrase “Mego and Shrugby’s Adventure in Breastland!”, which is hidden in the tray card, mean anything in particular?
Zach: HA! I forgot about that entirely. It was some joke we had that day, though I forget now what it was. Maybe’s it’s those things in the trees on back? Or the naked girls riding bikes? Breastland still sounds pretty great though. I know Shrugby is the shrugging shrub that’s on the disc. We must have been really high.
Sam: It sure does. Shrugby is apparently the name we gave the shrugging shrub that is on the CD face. Mego is one of the cats. I have no recollection of where his name came from. On the back cover there are human breasts hanging from the trees. Don’t ask. They kind of look like some kind of citrus fruit. I don’t think many people bothered to look under the tray card. I used to be a big fan of that stuff and felt like it was a dying art. We did it for people like you! The inquisitive people!
You’ve designed other album art as well many other things, where do you think this fits in your portfolio?
Zach: Well, it holds a special place in my heart, I’ll tell you that much. I love The Narrator. They’re my buddies, I went on a tour or two with them, and had some adventures. So, it’s personal. I enjoy collaging, and don’t do much of it now, so it feels like it fits with that part of my portfolio, when I was doing a lot of that.
Being that the album art is 6 years old now, do you think the art still represents the band and album the same as it did when it was released and is there anything you would change with the artwork now?
Zach: That would break Mego’s heart. I wouldn’t change a thing. I hope the band feels it represents the album well. I think The Narrator had a sloppy/neat aesthetic, that felt just a bit from another time. I wanted that to come across in the artwork.
Sam: I’m not sure if it even represented us then. The art is so the opposite of minimal it kind of scares me to think of my thought process at the time. My favorite part was—and still is—the inside of the booklet, where the lyrics are. That part I still stand behind. The rest of it… not so much. I can’t even begin to imagine changing it, though. We would probably start over. Or at least get rid of most of the kids, cats, dogs, and plants. There are way too many plants.
