Soil – Picture Perfect Cover Revealed – UPDATE
Picture Perfect is the fourth album from Chicago-based SOiL and they wanted to take a different direction with their artwork. The band returned to Stephen and F3 Studios, who also created their last album “True Self”, to help take them in a new direction. They were growing tired of the typical dark, edgy design styles in metal music lately and wanted to move in more of a clean, classic rock style and more photography-driven for the album cover. Stephen was excited about the idea because it’s much more of the style that he was influenced by early in his career and was certainly up for the challenge.
Click here or on the image above to see the cover.
The album concept is influenced by on an old Norman Rockwell painting of a young school-aged girl holding a photo of a beautiful Hollywood movie star and looking at herself in the mirror with a sad look on her face wishing that she was older and beautiful and wondering what her future holds. For Picture Perfect, Stephen and the band decided to create two nearly identical covers. One of those covers would be a near direct comparison to the original Rockwell reference. The other cover would be the same girl twenty years later holding a photo of her younger self and looking at herself in the mirror, crying and wishing away what her life had become and longing for those simple days of being a little girl again.
The search was on to find two models with similar features that could pass for one another with about a 20 year difference. The band was really adamant about the older girl being a very sexy pin-up type. Stephen thought that model Courtney Brazelton, whom he’d used as a supporting character on a previous album, would be perfect for the older girl but then had to find a near ten-year-old match. After looking through photos of several younger models we were lucky to find Althea Roggenbuck who looked so strikingly similar to Courtney that it was frightening. Althea was excited to play the part on Soil’s album as she’s a guitar player in a rock band herself.
The set for the cover is an old attic which is the little girl’s hideaway in her parent’s house were she would go to play dress up. We were lucky to find an old post Civil War barn that was just being used as storage to double as our attic, and just a few minutes from the studio. Sylvia and Patrick gathered tons of props to dress the set to have that old Victorian style look and to give a tip of the hat to the Norman Rockwell influence.
Stephen and the band are all very proud about the Picture Perfect artwork as the cover of a new chapter in the history of SOiL. Look for the album to be released on Bieler Bros. Records on October 20, 2009.
Hair and makeup by Karen Koenig. Wardrobe styling by Sylvia Jensen – Wornstar. Set styling by F3 Studios.
Click on the images above to see select images from the album layout.
August 16th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Yay!
Looks amazing guys!!!Bravo!
Thrilled to be a part of it! Had a total blast!
; )
August 18th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Karen,
I can’t believe you made her cry! You’re so mean…
As always, great work and we look forward to the next one!
- Patrick
August 16th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Very cool. In deed it is taking them in a different direction visually as we so used to seeing the dark imagery that other metal bands have beaten to the ground. I’m really looking forward to the music form Soil! Great Stuff again Stephen!
August 17th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Definitely a different direction & vibe for them. I’m going to assume the record will sound more like a “rock” record judging by the cover. Looks great!
August 17th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Love it!
August 17th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Love this! The make up artist and model did a great job too…nice work guys!
August 17th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
This is FABULOUS!! Thank you guys, so much for inviting me to take part in this!
August 18th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Thank you Courtney! You rocked the shoot. Until next time!
- Patrick
October 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
That is absolutely brilliant,great story and very well thought out.My faveorite SOiL cover by far.Excellent !