Peter Shallmin is the bassist and creative driving force behind ESCAPETHECULT, the new supergroup featuring members of Primus, Mercyful Fate, Uneven Structure and Kamlath. With the release of their debut album, All You Want, the band is carving a unique path in the realm of progressive hard rock. With that in mind, I decided to ask Peter a few questions related to the album's conception and purpose.
Metal Injection: Hey Peter, congrats on the release of the album! What made you want to get this group together with the particular backgrounds you all come from?
Peter Shallmin: Thank you! It’s been a long journey and we’re all happy with the result we’ve achieved so far.
The web has been a very important factor in the creation of ESCAPETHECULT, firstly. It was a sincere desire of mine to cooperate with artists whom I’ve sincerely admired throughout many years. We all live in different countries and the web has made the world small enough for all of us to be able to work together.
The most convincing thing for me was and is the music. The music and ideas, my own approach that I took to Tim, Mike and Mathieu, and the honest intentions to make the album together, based on the principles of full improvisation and freedom.
What influences went into this record? I can definitely discern some lighter Opeth along with Katatonia and Porcupine Tree in there.
Our music is personal and unique. Can such diverse, mature musicians as Tim, Mike and Matthieu combine to create something usual? Those talents are multifaceted and matchless, their influences are too wide. True of any artist who works, lives, and breathes in what he is doing.
We get a lot of opinions and comparisons of our music with various bands, and we associate with different styles, from prog-metal to pop-rock. It’s wonderful to learn what our music gives the listener in terms of thoughts and associations.
Music affects different aspects of each soul. If the listener found something through our music, say, similar to this or that band I’m happy with it. The process of comparison, research and criticism is endless and bottomless. As for us, we just did not have time to think about influences like, “Hey, what a cool part, let's make it with the Opeth’s vibe… or… here is a good sequence to play like Katatonia…”
“All You Want To” opens another horizon that music can be full in its own form, it carries a certain mood.
We – the artists who creating music, have only one desire: to possess hearts, excite or calm down and even throw the listener into a new flow. Thanks to music, we have an exceptional force to embody idea in the notes. One person may listen to a few seconds and fall in love, someone else might be quite bored… another might jump from track to track and be fully surprised. Someone postpones for a “next time” to come back and listen again and again. Someone is quite critical. Whoever you are, we thank to you all for your time!
Escapethecult aims for serious and honest music, a complex and diverse piece of art, requiring a distinct approach and relation. As Mike Wead says: “Try to think “outside the box”. Give a listen, give a try! If the vibration of our creativity coincided with your pulse, then we consider this our biggest success and greatest reason for happiness to be heard and understood.
What is the primary message you want to get across with the lyrics?
The primary message is quite simple: Be free. Your freedom is a gift and your blessing to live and build your own day, life and “world”. There are so many things around that block us: social life restrictions, mass media, politics and religions, the modern way of life, consumerism trends that force us to change our own ways ever day. Life is not common, believe in your own forces.
We bring our own vision, a simple philosophy of everyday symbols, signs, and inspirations that have many meanings to be explained. In some lyrics it speaks of sarcasm and self-irony; we speak about the time around us of elements and the world around us, that fills our lives and quite often fills us with fear. The full title of the album is actually a combination: “ALL YOU WANT TO ESCAPE THE CULT”.
Tell us a bit about the cover art. Who designed it for you guys and what is it supposed to represent?
I’d like to reserve some special words for our art concept. It’s another concept that’s lasted throughout the years – I was (and am) extremely picky because I needed a very detailed conceptual artwork design for our debut. The creator of our visual concept is Igor Omodei, a truly talented French artist – he’s also another member of Uneven Structure alongside Mathieu (Escapethecult and Uneven Structure’s vocalist) where he handles guitar duties.
We wrote “the story” behind each song and from this Igor created all arts, and illustrations to every song, as well as the full layout to our debut. Inside the digipack release you can find a monologue written by Igor, and he also did our promo video and the debut single video for ‘I’m Absolute’.
Our cover art depicts the archetypal golden-age family, enjoying their meal on vacation. Being blinded they bathe in an abundance granted by their consumerist lifestyle, having everything to sustain a life of comfort yet fiercely attracted by something beyond. Where a “happy life” cult has a copy-paste meaning, where even the members of the band are like old monuments – a good decoration of all fake ‘achievements’ around us. The family can’t escape it; they are just used to existing and enjoying life.
It’s quite a short representation. I’d say more our visualization for this album is not completely finished yet. Our crew is much wider than you could expect and the final list of contributors is really big: artists, clothing designers, photographers, video editors and producers, manufacturers, even one pro fashion model. Expect more – Escapethecult will bring some surprises till the end of this year!
Do you have any touring plans coming up to support the record?
No tours yet. At least, not now. We are happy to learn that people want to see us on the stage and we’ve already got some offers for tours.
In 2015 we will consider some opportunities to make this project live but now we are fully concentrated to finish all deals with the recent release – there are some surprises planned for our great audience and new listeners with our limited edition release. We plan on creating an instrumental version of the album, and, beyond that, recording the second album before the end of the year.
