Trying To Find is a four piece hardcore band from Medan, Indonesia. They just recently released their full album called Release Us! That you can download for free here. I’ve been friends with their bass player, Joseph way back since high school. We used to play in a band covering Deftones for school gigs. He is now teaching Social Science and Business Studies in a fancy school back home. About 3 years ago he asked me to design their album cover and since I’m a fan of their music, I said yes straight away. The album is not called “Release Us!” at that time. It was called “Take A Risk”. I found it was really interesting title and strong connection with the band’s name. There’s a bit of mystery in that combination. So I came out with a concept of maze because I thought it bridging perfectly “Trying To Find” and “Take a Risk”. We never know what the end of a maze and we have to take a risk to enter it. We have to try to find our way out.
Unfortunately, there were some problems with the production and the band had to postponed the album. And sometime around 2011, they contacted again with new details of the album. And yes, they changed the album title to “Release Us!”. It was a little bit tricky to come up with the idea for that new title without being typical. I really wanted to create something different. Mosh pit picture with bold letter or blood and skull is out of the consideration here. I admit it was hard to fulfil my ego in creating something different. After lots of researches and noted some ideas, everything is still just seemed not right. Until the “chain and lock” idea popped up in my mind.
Chain is a really interesting and strong concept. It could be seen as shackle, bond, restraint, violence or jail but also secure, continuity and brotherhood (I thought this also represent hardcore ideology). And the padlock could be interpreted as a link or constraint. It’s just the matter you see it. But the important element is the key. It controls the padlock. It decides wether to lock or open. Join or divide. In the picture, the key has 4 symbols that more or less represent most young generation.
They are :
-Sword as the symbol of Courage, Strength and Unity.
-A pen for education and scholar.
-A hammer for working class, and
-A guitar for art and music.
These things usually unite us without any consideration.
Young Ha Kim 