“There’s this rare and very beautiful aestheticised creature that just decides sometimes to alight in the tree in my backyard. “The cardinal that lands in the dogwood, I considered as a symbol for being visited by the creative spirit,” he explains. Introductory track “Old Friends” speaks of a “cardinal landing in the dogwood”, which Hall says acted as a sort of creative inspiration. “There’s also the pun with ‘Cardinal’, as in cardinal directions and signifying home,” he says. Hall reveals that on an obvious level, the squares on the cover represent a very geometrically compressed bird – a cardinal. It adorns their t-shirts, their posters, the photoshoots, and has become the focal point of their album art. Since their introduction, Pinegrove have presented their music in the shape of two conjoined squares. It’s delicate but I think that part of what I wanted to talk about in Cardinal is that it’s delicate and that it’s hard.” “It was something I was very aware of because I knew that I was writing something that was pretty close to home and I felt concerned well, I just wanted to make sure that I was treating the narrativisation of my friends and family respectfully because that’s how I feel about them. That was a huge concern in “Waveform” and all over the album,” he says. “On the one hand you’re always looking for interesting content that speaks to the human condition but on then on the other, your friends don’t really want to be objectified like that. Whilst the lyricism of Cardinal is not an entirely autobiographical work – Hall has previously described it as an “exaggerated” version of himself – it’s an intensely moving and poignant collection that deals with personal conflict, meaning that certain situations and people are, ultimately, going to find themselves in Hall’s storytelling. Through this artistry, Hall continues to explain his concerns in narrativising the people in his life. It’s expressing the line between the physicality of art as an object and the ephemerality of the music.” “’ I drew a waveform with your blood’ is the clearest way I’ve tried to express the red imagery on the album the blood being the content of what I’m making this musical sculpture out of. “Waveform is a song about what it means to turn suffering, or friction, or just emotional content, into an object of art,” he continues.
It was after the construction of “Waveform” and “Cadmium” that Hall began to realise that there was this occasion to use red as a motif that would signify emotional content and also try to bring to mind the physicality of the album. The primary colours expressed on the album cover are a subtle but striking visual of Pinegrove’s aim in creating art that is real and true and unapologetically human. More and more I’ve thought that what I like should define the things that I make, and that goes for music also I’m trying to write the songs that I want to hear and when I’m painting things or dressing myself or performing any kind of aesthetic gesture it’s basically what I like I’m just trying to express my preference.” “They define the Pinegrove aesthetic and I’ve been using them for years. “I think that fundamentally, I’m attracted to simple colours and simple shapes” frontman Evan Stephens Hall explains.
Sammie album art work skin#
Pinegrove’ s Cardinal establishes a lot of the same imagery throughout its journey there’s Waveform which describes drawing a “waveform with your blood” Cadmium that speaks of sending “this Cadmium red” before shedding layers of skin Aphasia deals with someone whose “ventricles are full of doubt,”and then there’s the pre-Cardinal stand-out of The Metronome, with its beautiful juxtaposition: “You fluttered through my capillaries like a stone moth.”
Traditionally, the colour red represents fire and blood it brings forth a sense of danger and strength but also passion, desire and love. Evan Stephens Hall on Pinegrove’s ‘Cardinal’ LP