Waterparks have done a deep dive into their new album artwork for ‘Intellectual Property’.
The album is a deep red with a blue frog placed loudly in the centre, with ‘Intellectual Property’ scrawled above in white writing. The highly anticipated album is out on April 14th. Awsten Knight has given a full explanation of the route of the album and also the artwork as fans have been speculating on what it all means.
Religious Guilt
Awsten says via a deep dive Instagram post, ‘What you’ll find come April 14th is that a large part of the album has to do with growing up with religious guilt. This is something I’ve struggled with over the past couple of years after finding it’s the route of a lot of issues and emotional tension I have so often. It ranges from sexual guilt even down to the way I live my life, but that’s a large part of why there are hyper-sexual elements to some of the music in this story; its growing past the guilt that comes with, normaliazing the feelings, and defying those learnings’.
The Frog
The blue poison dart frog that sits poignantly in the middle of the album artwork has huge significance for the band.
‘I learned that frogs in a biblical context are considered dirty, vile and impure, the way I’ve felt so many times, even before I realised what it was all rooted in.
He continues ‘Outside of a biblical sense in other cultures and religions they’re seen in a positive light. They’re signs of prosperity, fertility, luck etc. on top of that they have been my favourite animal since I was a kid’. He continues ‘I thought it was so interesting that these beautiful things that bring such light are perceived as good omens to so many people can be seen as foul and awful.’ ‘A singular subject has such contrasting perceptions through a modern/spiritual lense and through the context of traditional religion’
The Colours
The album is a striking red colour with the blue dart frog in the middle.
Awsten says ‘I like the frog being blue because… the colour brings me back to my naivety and most vulnerable self’ he continues ‘it’s surrounded by a gritty loud red this is a colour that represents a lot of different themes to this album like the sexuality for the songs ‘Fuck About It’ and ‘Brainwashed’ to violence and grandiose audacity in songs like ‘Real Super Dark’ and ‘Ritual’
The Title
‘Intellectual property is a wordplay on the mental real estate you let someone or something take up in your head.’ The property is the world in which this album and it’s narrative take place. By naming it and trying to materialise it, it’s almost creating a real space for that release and catharsis of feelings I’m expelling on this album that can someday be closed and left on the past whenever it’s time to leave this all behind’ X gives such a detailed explanation of the feelings not only behind the artwork but also the album, it’s hard not to be excited to listen to ‘Intellectual Property’.
You can see the full tracklist for the the album here.
Read the full explanation here
https://www.instagram.com/p/Conm6-bSayY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D&fbclid=IwAR2HzQBmaP6Zi4MKRndfwABfyp_jG6FU4Vrifj_xMZUthtnuApKAdzMwzPk
