VIDEO: Watch Title Fight create a reflective mural in downtown Wilkes-Barre
Last month, Kingston punk rockers Title Fight posted a short video documenting the process behind the creation of a mural in downtown Wilkes-Barre that would become the band’s album cover for “Hyperview,” due to be released on Tuesday, Feb. 3 via Anti- Records.
Filmed in black and white with a GoPro Hero 3+, the video is as artistic as the endeavor they captured, narrated by the Kingston punk rockers with a voice changer distorting their words.
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According to the narration, they were waiting on a response from the city and were ready to change locations if necessary, but they ended up getting permission in time after jumping through a few hoops. This particular spot, located at 91 South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, just down the road from Public Square, was important to the band.
“We grew up going to shows right across the street at Cafe Metropolis. Where we live, it’s pretty rare to see any sort of art or culture coming from young people, especially in the streets we grew up in, so we were proud to be able to put our stamp on the city and create a landmark that people can interact with, hopefully forever,” the narrator said.
John Garrett Slaby, who painted the band’s previous four album covers, was recruited for the project, which took three days and was crafted with special reflective paint.
“Our main goal was to have something interactive with an element of discovery that’s as accessible as possible to the public here in our downtown. The simple imagery is kind of a gateway or a portal into experiencing the capabilities of the reflective background,” Slaby explained in the video.
“I grew up around here and I remember discovering all these little pockets of the city. As I add new context to these places and get older and experience life outside of Wilkes-Barre, my original views sort of seem to transform or change. This project is kind of based around that feeling.”
The finishing touch for the album cover was to photograph their friend Colin in front of it, creating an image that others could emulate, as they did in the collage below that was posted across Title Fight’s social media pages a few days ago.
Title Fight will perform a stripped-down record release show at the Gallery of Sound in Wilkes-Barre on Feb. 3 before touring the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia in support of the album. For more details, click here.
