Everything Is Shattered, the latest album by Detroit Illharmonic, is a bold fusion of punk, hip hop, and cinematic elements. Led by Walter Santucci, principal cellist and ambassador of goodwill, the band explores sonic territories that defy convention, combining raw energy, musical experimentation, and visual storytelling. Many of the tracks come from the soundtrack of the animated film I’d Rather Be Turned Into Cat Food, directed by Santucci himself, where the music intertwines with the story of a punk musician facing an existential crisis.

By Sandra Pinto

In this interview, he reveals how collaborations with punk legends, the search for unique voices, and the blending of styles resulted in an album that is simultaneously disruptive, cinematic, and irresistibly original.

Everything Is Shattered blends punk, hip hop, and cinematic elements. How did the idea to merge these genres come about?
Much of the music on this album is from an animated feature film called “I’d Rather Be Turned Into Cat Food”, for which we did the soundtrack. The film is about a punk rock musician having an existential crisis and, as a result, a lot of the music has a punk rock feel. And, because we were writing for film, a cinematic vibe ended up naturally being a part of the sound. Regarding the hip hop factor, Detroit Illharmonic has deep roots in hip hop. It’s part of our musical DNA. Hip hop is in all our music to some degree.

Working with punk legends like Jack Grisham and Keith Morris must have been intense. How did these collaborations shape the album?
Jack and Keith were both extremely professional. I am always punctual for everything I do and, yet, both of them always arrived at the studio before I did! You can’t get more punk rock than that! Their presence on the songs was amazing. With Detroit Illharmonic, we are constantly looking for new sounds to mix into our music. Jack and Keith have such distinctive and instantly recognizable voices. This made their songs unlike anything we’d ever done before.

The title track is described as a “cinematic post-punk anthem with Bond-theme intensity.” Can you walk us through the creative process behind it?
This is the kind of question I love talking about—forgive me if I go on too long! When the “Cat Food” movie was in production, I knew I was going to have to write a punk rock song for the fictional band in the film to sing (which was a very fun task for me). I wrote the music for the chorus while casually exploring ideas on a guitar. Once I stumbled onto chords and a melody that I really loved, I began working on ideas for verses. I started writing some intricate, very Beatle-ish things that were much too clever for their own good. Eventually, I thought that a better approach would be something with more musical tension and fewer chords. Ultimately, I built the verses around a single minor chord, and that was the point where it really started sounding like a James Bond theme. When we recorded it, we added tympani rolls, xylophone and cinema effects to emphasize that feeling.

Many songs from the album are featured in the animated film I’d Rather Be Turned Into Cat Food. How did this collaboration with the filmmakers begin?
“Cat Food” is actually my film. I’m an animation director, which is why all the Detroit Illharmonic music videos are either animated or use puppets. Making animated films to promote the band has been our way of touring the world without leaving home. The feature film is our latest and biggest venture.

The video for Everything Is Shattered has won multiple awards and toured globally. What was the concept behind it, and how involved were you in its creation?
Most of the video was taken directly from the “Cat Food” feature. We just added some new material at the beginning. As part of the feature film, the video helps push the story forward. On its own, it has a self contained story but, ultimately, just looks cool accompanying the song.

Paul Roessler produced the album. How did his experience with The Screamers and Nina Hagen influence the production?
I can’t say specifically, other than the Screamers and Nina Hagen are only two of the many musical projects he’s been a part of. He recently just did an incredible classical/punk project with Gitane Demone called “The New Young Kings Of Midnight”. He’s equally adept at both classical and punk and is incredibly musical. He understood the idiosyncratic nature of the song and kept it from veering out of control. He made it sound awesome.

How did you approach balancing punk rawness with cinematic and experimental elements throughout the album?
Both fit together naturally, at least to me. Punk can be very cinematic and movie music is often raw and confrontational. Ultimately, all our choices were based on what sounded best, what sounded right. To me, it’s fun to approach a piece of music with the idea that anything can happen, we can try any style we want, use any instruments, any sounds. There are no restrictions.

Max Galbreath contributes vocals alongside Jack Grisham on the title track. How did you decide on the vocal arrangements for these collaborations?
Max, by the way, is an incredible composer and musician in addition to being an absolutely killer vocalist. However, I did not know this when we did the track! For a few months, I had been searching for a female vocalist to sing the song (it was an important part of the movie plot), and couldn’t find the right person. Finally, I called Jack Grisham and asked for a recommendation. Without hesitation, he suggested Max. TSOL had just played a show with her in Seattle and he was very impressed. I emailed the track to Max, she recorded it up in Seattle then sent me the audio files. We didn’t have much collaboration; like a professional, she delivered a perfect vocal based on the temporary one I sent her. Now I feel embarrassed to have asked her to sing on the track. She’s so talented, writes such great music of her own, it was kind of like me asking Mozart to play piano at a birthday party. I’m so glad she was humble enough to do the song!
With Jack’s part, there was much more collaboration. We had already mixed the song with only Max’s vocals when I got the idea that, for the end credits, we could have another version of the song with Jack singing a verse, then harmonizing with Max on the final chorus.
I wrote some lyrics and sent a demo to Jack. A couple of days later, we met at Paul Roessler’s studio (Kitten Robot) to record it. Jack did the new part and it sounded fantastic, but then he said, “Wait, I have an idea.” And so we played the track back a few times while he improvised his new idea, using the words from the chorus instead of the new lyrics. And it was SO MUCH BETTER than what I had written!
It was such a cool experience watching him create that new melody and phrasing, improvising in the vocal booth. It was like that scene in the “Get Back” movie where Paul McCartney creates the “Get Back” song basically out of thin air.

The album is also available as a limited edition translucent blue vinyl. How important are physical releases in today’s streaming-driven music landscape?
I think people miss owning something tangible when they purchase music. It’s more fun to have an actual piece of plastic and a record sleeve with a cool graphic than just a file name floating around on your phone or laptop. I’m not sure how many people actually LISTEN to vinyl. I think the artwork might be the reason people buy records now, which is why we tried to make the record cover something worth owning. Something that looks cool displayed on a shelf.

How does the band translate the complex, genre-blending sound of the album into a live performance?
Usually, we don’t. It’s very complicated to have the Illharmonic play live. Which is why we make animated videos for the songs. The videos go on tour for us, playing in cinemas around the world.
Once in a while we DO play live, but usually it’s a punk rock set. We can do our punk songs with just a drummer, bass and two guitars. I think the last time we did that was in 2023 at the Los Angeles Punk Film Festival.
At some point we will figure out a way to do a full fledged live Illharmonic show. I mean, we could do it now just by using samplers. I recently saw a couple of bands (“IAMX” and “clubdrugs”) who had two or three musicians on stage augmented by digital loops and they sounded great. But I still want to have live cello, live violin, live horns, etc. And a show like that is much harder to stage and much more problematic to travel with.

Lyrically, what themes or messages are you exploring across Everything Is Shattered?
Some of the songs have lyrics that were written specifically for the plot of the “Cat Food” movie. I vaguely remember writing the lyrics to “Everything Is Shattered” to be the opposite of some very optimistic words in a Paul McCartney and Wings song. But I don’t remember what the song was! Could be just about any of their songs, really. The rest, I think, are just nonsense– like all good rock and roll should be!

What was the biggest challenge during the making of this album, and how did the band overcome it?
The biggest problem was finding the right vocalist for the song “Everything Is Shattered”. But it was solved immediately when Jack recommended Max.

Looking forward, how do you see Detroit Illharmonic Symphony evolving after this ambitious release?
We are deep into production on the next album. We are doing a fairly straight forward hip hop track with a rapper from Korea. We have some trippy experimental classical pieces built around deconstructed hip hop beats. We have one song that is a Weimar-era cabaret song with a heavy hip hop drumbeat. And we wrote what I hope is the biggest, dumbest rock song ever. It’s called “Moronica”.

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