Pre-Historic..Dig! Album Cover Image by Julio Pallone
Artist | Julio Pallone
In 1994, William Pilipchuk invited me to create an image for the cover of his latest musical project. I had seen Skeleton Crew perform the year before at a small club in downtown Pontiac.
Without prior knowledge of their music, I wasn’t expecting much. But the performance I witnessed that night made a deep and lasting impression on me. By the end of the show, I was a fan.
William already had the concept of “unearthing the buried remains of the band.” The problem was that I’m a photographer and not an illustrator. An idea of this sort would require more than a simple snapshot. This was, after all, the pre-digital era. Fortunately, I had been experimenting for years with compositing photos using a masking technique I devised.
The main obstacle was in getting the required images onto film. Clothing wouldn’t work with the concept so each band member would have to be photographed naked. This was outside of my prior experience and comfort zone and most likely theirs as well. But to my surprise, our common goal of creating a masterpiece album overcame any inhibitions.
That done, I then chose a background onto which the figures would be superimposed. A landscape shot taken in Arizona worked well. But the results looked too clean and fresh to be “prehistoric.” The solution was to overlay the image with a spray painted texture. The photograph was then turned over to Claire Edwards for the graphic design.
Pre-Historic..Dig! Album Inner Sleeve & CD Image by Julio Pallone
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