Created by photographer Mark Sommerfeld, designer Kyle Berger, and creative director Phil Gibson, as told to Steffanee Wang
The FADER: How did you conceptualize the artwork for Getting Killed?
Phil Gibson: Ideation began the second the album title was mentioned. It hit me like a brick and I fell in love. In early talks with Cameron and the band, it was clear we were in a moment of real reflection — the band was almost psychically aware they were about to cross a major threshold. Those same talks revealed a central theme that stuck with me throughout—the feeling of confidently moving forward while putting an old chapter to rest. The real fun was considering the perspective of the title ‘Getting Killed.’ Who or what is getting killed? Who or what is doing the killing? Are we picking a side or leaving it to interpretation?
We considered films led by anti-heroes; where Death is incarnated, even romanticized. Everything from Goodfellas to The Seventh Seal. We also looked back to some of my favorite paintings by Thomas Cole or Sascha Schneider who were masters of capturing the radiance of life and the depths of death. Personally, something about bouncing between early demos of “Trinidad” and Full of Hell’s “Trumpeting Ecstasy” fueled a lot of my ideation at the start. Once that conceptual foundation was locked, we were free to play through a lot of ideas on set.
Mark Sommerfeld: One of the many sparks for me was a line in “Half Real” which refers to getting a lobotomy that takes away the bad times, and the good times too. “I’ve got no more thinking to do.” My interpretation of these lines reminded me of the virtue of reacting instinctively, versus over thinking. Analysis paralysis often feels a lot like getting killed, slowly.
I’ve long been drawn to art that asks more questions than it answers and I think collectively we were on the same page about this ~ attempting to create an image that hints at the aforementioned themes while simultaneously drawing in the curious, posing questions rather than offering crystal clear answers.
What is a challenge you faced while creating the album art?
Sommerfeld: This question feels a little like a trap, haha. Whatever “challenges,” we faced were a healthy part of moving towards a common goal. It really was the truest, most rewarding example of collaboration I’ve been a part of for a long while.
I think most people who work collaboratively learn to expect the unexpected. Less than an hour into the late afternoon shoot, on my rooftop in Ridgewood, Queens, Cameron offered a suggestion: shoot toward the sun instead of away from it. Instead of shooting with the sun, Emily’s white dress bathed in the end of day light against a blue sky, we did a 180 to move toward the backlit look which became central to the final album art. Practically speaking, the sun was no longer precisely where we wanted it (see Kyle’s notes) to be but a combination of shooting while starfished, belly to the roof, and bringing Kyle onto the project proved to be a worthwhile pivot and now I can’t imagine having shot it any other way.
Berger: Changing the tilt of the earth while maintaining a grounded and realistic edit of Mark’s original images. The learning curve, from my perspective, came through parallel creative thinking; the impetus getting distilled slowly through everyone’s hands until the final image was completed.
What’s your favorite album cover from this year (that you didn’t make)?
Gibson: I keep coming back to the cover to TAGABOW’s LOTTO. It’s one of those magical pairings where both the cover and the record offer a little something different each time you look or listen.
Sommerfeld: Dijon, Baby. Simply, it’s a photo I wish I took but it also hints at the content of the record. There’s an unbridled humanity that hits like a hug — its honesty and sweetness is exhilarating and makes me want to cry, while dancing my way home to my lover… and it all starts with the cover!
Berger: I really like the album art for Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. I think it’s heavy with personal symbolism and meaning while being broadly universal. The image exudes nostalgia, cultural identity, and location, all with a couple chairs and a plantain tree.
