Uncovering the Hidden Message of a Moth

I haven’t yet talked about the inspiration behind the cover of my album Lacrimosa. Let me share with you this fascinating story. In July of 2011 in North Carolina, I came across this beautiful moth (butterfly?) on the pavement. I have never seen a white one like this before, with paper-like wings and soft furry carcass. Even in death, it seemed elegant, almost angelic. I was compelled to take a picture.

A year later, when I was designing the album cover for Lacrimosa, I remembered the photograph and began to experiment with it. When I increased its color saturation in the imaging software, I uncovered a hidden color scheme including red, purple, and yellow. I felt that I was rewarded by this beautiful sight for taking the time to appreciate the fleeting existence of an insignificant insect.

There are so many things around us ready to speak and to reveal their beauty to us if we take the time to uncover it. I took the photograph of the moth 6 months before I started writing music for the album, but once you hear me talk about the meaning of Lacrimosa, you realize that my chance encounter with a dead moth had a unique significance, and that it was a foreshadowing of things to come.

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