The Perry Shall Interview
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Shall is influenced by some of the most colorful forms of art from the last 30 years - Pee Wee Herman, The Simpsons, the late Shel Silverstein just to name a few. He would soon become an illustrator himself working for the likes of the Black Keys, Kurt Vile, Diarrhea Planet and so many other amazing folks. In this interview we explore Shall’s youth growing up with his sister in Philly, becoming fascinated with music and art, becoming the art director at Easy Eye Sound and much much more!
Tell me about growing up in Philly. What was your childhood like?
I grew up in Northeast Philly. It's not a place most people who have moved here have ever been to and even if you were from Philly, you're probably not going to end up there much, but it is a special, or uh... Different place and I love it.We had an illegal cable box when I was little so everytime new movies came out on Pay-Per-View I would see them over and over and over again until the next run of movies came out and replaced em. So a movie like Cool World that came out in 1992 and had sexy cartoons and bad language was totally cool for me to watch about one month into age 7. But I would also guarantee if I wasn't shown this stuff early on, I would not have turned out the way I am now. I knew kids whose parents wouldn't let them watch The Simpsons. I remember insisting on watching the new episode of Beavis and Butt-head at a sleepover and my friend said his parents wouldn't let him watch that show. So when it came on, I sat about 2 inches from the tv with the volume just loud enough that I could hear it, just because I refused to miss an episode. I mean, my parents let me watch the Amy Fisher Story! So I guess you could say my parents were pretty cool.
When did you first begin to fall in love with music and art? Were these things that were relevant around your household growing up?
I would sit in my grandparents kitchen building people out of canned foods, and my grandmother would let me put clothes on them. We would watch Bob Ross, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and then late at night, there was a show called Mystery! that had an animated Edward Gorey intro. I remember watching that intro and then they'd make me go to bed before I could see the actual show haha. Anyway, it all influenced me. Everything I saw as a kid, in my grandparents house influenced me. It felt very alive to me. My grandmothers were both artists, although one passed before I was born, I always felt very connected to her because of it. My uncle on my mom's side is an artist and their dad (my grandfather) was a tailor on Fabric Row in Philly for 56 years, he also played a few instruments AND my mom's uncle was an accomplished accordion player that was well known locally for playing weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. Legend has it he sat it with Count Basie's Orchestra on a cruise once. So they all encouraged me to keep playing music and making art of course but also were just supportive people. I always say that my parents were very much "Greatest Hits" fans more than a proper album fans. But those greatest hits made ME want to dive deeper. I have very very vivid memories of my dad making us stay in the car to hear the rest of certain songs like Sympathy for the Devil, Once In A Lifetime, or even sitting me down and putting Stairway to Heaven on his turntable and telling me I was about to hear the greatest rock song of all time. All of this stuck with me. I never grew out of liking my parents music, even at my most "punk" part of my life.
Do you have any siblings? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up?
Yep! I have a sister. First thing I can think of is lighting fires. I skateboarded but I was like the first and last out of my neighborhood friend group to do it. Actually this reminds me. I had this next door neighbor who must have been about 20 years or so older than me. I was probably anywhere between 10-12 years old if I had to guess. He lived with his dad and he was growing weed in the backyard, his living room, and dining room and the whole exterior of the house was super overgrown and scary lookin. He loved Jimi Hendrix and would give me all these old black light posters, and his dad used to be a printer so they gave me all these vintage iron ons and shit. So his name was Rich but we all called him Rick because when I first asked him his name, I misheard him say it as Rick and he just never corrected me. So Rick actually was the only other friend that skateboarded with me all the time. He had a Jimi Hendrix deck with GIGANTIC tire wheels for the ultimate cruise. Rick and I would hang out a lot because one of us would knock on the other's door to see if we wanted to go skate down this giant hill around the corner. Most of the time, the answer was yes, and that was our friendship.
Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing art, music and having a creative lifestyle?
Shel Silverstein, Comic strips, comic books, Pee Wee's Playhouse, MAD Magazine, flea market junk, etc. I don't think I ever had the realization because I didn't think it was something one could actually plan for. Or that it could be a reality even. I just always drew. The typical thing about filling my school notebooks with drawings instead of schoolwork. It was just all I could think about. drawing, playing music and then drawing art for that music, and watching The Simpsons. So it was almost like it didn't matter if I became successful in anyway as long as I was still enjoying it. I just fell into it because people started asking me to draw stuff for their band. Then they would wanna use that drawing for an album cover and then I'd have to figure out how to add the text without ruining the rest. And what fonts to use, and so on. So I just sorta picked up graphic design as well. The real reason I am in this place today is because the HVAC job I had for 5 years closed down and I was on unemployment just assuming I'd end up back doing HVAC somewhere and drawing on the scrap metal at lunch for the rest of my life. But instead I worked a nightmare job for horrible people while I did art on the side. Once I realized I needed out of that situation, I called my friend up that had his own HVAC company and he let me work a few days a week while I did art the other days. Once the art started picking up more, I had to say yes to more of those jobs and no to HVAC jobs and then I never looked back I guess.
I understand you also make music under “Wild Flowers Of America” and released a record, “Lost In Salvation Army” back in 2019. Tell me about writing and recording that album. Would you mind giving a brief background to songs such as “Dwell On It”, “Summer Romance”, “Figure It Out” and “Unkind”?
I started that band because I got a cool cheap Peavey amp from a friend and the songs kinda just fell out of it. So I put together some friends and we played like 3 shows. then did nothing for quite a few years. Then I decided to go to Appleton, Wisconsin to record the damn songs finally with my dear friend Amos. After playing on and recording the songs with me, he asked if he could put it out, and the rest is Wild Flowers of America History. Wow, never thought anybody would give a crap about a thing like this for music I wrote but since you asked, Dwell On It is just about my mental health issues I guess? I don't know an easier way to say it without writing a book. Summer Romance to me is a classic kinda story of a couple and they split up for the summer and now one of them is all alone and doesn't want the whole summer romance thing the other is looking for. Probably tapping into some weird childhood jewish summer camp thing when I wrote that one. Figure It Out is about being around people who wait around and think the things they want in life will just show up at their door. Waiting for someone else to figure it all out for them.
You are also the art director behind all things Easy Eye Sound, a label based in Nashville, TN. Tell me how this all came to be and how you initially met Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. What is the overall experience of working with the label and its projects?
The quick version is, I toured a lot when I was younger and booked a lot of shows and in my travels and friendships, I met bands who had me eventually do art for them. So I did art and toured with the band JEFF The Brotherhood, they did a record produced by Dan Auerbach, Dan had me do a few little things for him, he eventually asked me to design this Bombino record he had just recorded. Then some time had passed, he was starting a new record label and asked me to do what I now have been doing with him for over 5 years. I love working with Dan. We share a creative brain. We constantly text each other images or songs to inspire each other. Color references, typefaces, whatever is exciting for us to think about and sorta keep in the back of our minds in case we need it one day.
Is there anything you’d like to share that's coming out soon you’ve been working on?
I've just been working on stuff I probably can't talk about, and working on my house. What have you got going on this summer? I absolutely despise the season so hopefully staying indoors and workin as usual. I have a lot of plans for T-Time. It started by interviewing people and filming it in person and then the pandemic hit and I did some really incredible interviews still just over instagram live, which was wild. If you go to www.instagram.com/t_time_shirtshow you can see some of them there. Last thing I'll say is thanks for reading any of this and if you like my art... Go to an art museum, or somethin'. That shit will blow your mind!
