AM CONSPIRACY: The Story Behind The Album Cover

Stephen Jensen, the art director, photographer, and graphic designer and founder of F3 Studios in Crystal Lake, Illinois, created the cover artwork for the self-titled debut album from AM CONSPIRACY, the band fronted by former DROWNING POOL vocalist Jason "Gong" Jones.

Regarding how the design for the new CD was conceived, a posting on the F3web site reads, "Jones, who himself is an accomplished tattoo artist, contacted Stephen with several different concepts for the cover of his debut album during the course of recording. Stephen and Jason hit it off immediately and began bouncing ideas back and forth. When Jason came up with the idea to do a stylized version of a dollar bill with altered and hidden imagery, it took a bit of 'selling' to the record label. Stephen loved the idea and sat down with Jason to help expand the idea and bring his vision to life.

"For the main image on the cover, Jason wanted to feature the band's faces carved over the sculpture of Mount Rushmore with a radio antenna on the top of the mountain spreading the AM CONSPIRACY message. The photo would appear as part of the engraving on an altered one dollar bill (to symbolize their first album). Stephen used some of the stylized filigrees that appear on the one dollar bill and played into the conspiracy theories regarding hidden imagery that are mixed into the engravings on the original currency design.

"Stephen and Jason worked together to carry the conspiracy theory imagery throughout the rest of the album artwork including the layout of Washington DC, UFO and alien implants, the Paul McCartney death hoax, the JFK magic bullet theory, the Lincoln assassination, and the faked lunar landing. Gong made a late night call to Stephen immediately after seeing the first draft of the album cover. He was blown away that Stephen was able to take the vision exactly as it appeared in his head several steps further."

AM CONSPIRACY will release its self-titled debut album on January 12. Burnhill Union Records signed the hard-rocking group earlier in 2009 and the Chicago-based label is pleased to launch the record as their premiere release.

After teaming up with guitarists Drew Burke and Rob DeHaven drummer Dean Andrews and bassist Kenny Harrelson, Jones was ready to exorcise his demons in song. "This is the record we always wanted to make; the way we always wanted to make it," he explains. "It is what rock and roll should be: five guys in a room making honest, unadulterated music with no regard to the corporate machine."

From rock ballads like "Down" to hard-chargers like "Welt", AM CONSPIRACY's songs create a variety of moods, from profound sincerity to riotous mayhem. Drew explains, "One minute Gong's a little vulnerable and the next he's kicking your teeth in. One minute Dean and Kenny are laying down light melodic ideas and the next they're driving a mosh pit. That is how it works." The first single off the album, "Pictures", was mixed by Randy Staub (METALLICA, STONE SOUR, HINDER).

The band set out to create an album that was extremely diverse — something that didn't feature 13 versions of the same song — and came up with truly diverse tracks, each with its own signature grit and character. To back up the release on Burnhill Union Records, Gong explains that the plan is to "tour as much as we can and win the people over." To that end, the band head out on a headline run starting January 8 in Orlando, Florida, taking them to February.

For more information, go to www.myspace.com/amconspiracy.