NYC-based Show Me The Body (SMTB) have had a propelling career over the past decade together and can attribute much of their success to the ever-growing community they are fostering across the globe. Just over a month ago, Show Me The Body released the second mixtape in series entitled Corpus featuring many of their studio mates they’ve made over the years. Corpus II came seven years after Corpus I was released, and both mixtape albums are a playful divergence from what fans have come to expect from the post-hardcore punk sounds of Show Me The Body records.
I had the opportunity to run into Julian Cashwan Pratt, banjoist and vocalist of SMTB, after the band played a set at Aftershock Festival in Sacramento. Pratt agreed to sit down with me a couple days later in Los Angeles, where the band was headed after the festival for a headlining show at The Belasco theater on their current U.S. tour. The show featured several supporting acts, including High Vis, Blackie, and Alli Lougout (Special Interest) who were also a part of Corpus II. Pratt proudly let me know that they made sure to play their collaborative tracks every night while on tour. In fact, the LA show even had a couple special guests grace the stage. Corbin, a close friend of Pratt’s and a featured artist on the mixtape, made a surprise appearance at the show performing “Surround” from Corpus II.
Pratt went on to say, “We just wanted to do something special; we also brought our homegirl SPELLLING and did that song (“Magnum”) as well. So there were actually, like, three proper guests from the record as part of the set, which is more than we’re usually able to do just because of the nature of it being LA. It was really, really special. I was like, who else does this, you know? I felt really proud to be surrounded by my brothers and play a great set, but also to share the space with other artists that really mean a lot to us. Especially last night, it felt like a really powerful thing to do together.”
The first mixtape came on the heels of the band’s breakout LP Body War and was a time of pure experimentation. When I asked Pratt what inspired the Corpus mixtapes, he explained to me how the first one came about serendipitously. The first record was born out of the NY scene the band grew up in, made with their longtime friends and fellow artists they had frequently played shows with. The only exceptions were Moor Mother and Denzel Curry, whom they met whilst touring and instantly created strong bonds. Corpus I was made during a month-long stint in the studio, which Pratt says they were able to finesse for free.
“It felt like a party every night, we were there every day until nearly 6 a.m. … So that was the vibe of the first one. In that way, it kept it kind of unserious as well and made it less about music as a product and more about it being a moment in time. It was like us with our family, and we just wanted to show that. Almost everything we made in that studio, we just put it out. I think there were only like three songs that didn’t end up making it in,” Pratt explains about the making of Corpus I.
In the years since the first mixtape record came out, the band released two other full-length recorded albums, Dog Whistle and Trouble The Water, as well as a live record. In that time, Show Me The Body have traveled out of their home turf and toured all over the world, making new connections along the way. Pratt boasted that one of his favorite aspects of the continuity of touring is that he knows he has people in hundreds of cities, in dozens of countries, and across several continents that will have his back, and vice versa. Corpus II became less about their roots and more about the reflection of who they have come to be.
“This one was really about being fans of music and being devotional to the deity of rock ‘n’ roll. Which, in my opinion, and in some of my OG’s opinion, is the most important thing in the world. The goal is to find people who also feel that way. So this was a collection of those people together, and really people who need music, you know what I mean? We’ve come to be blessed to know these individuals and get to work with them,” says Pratt on Corpus II.
Show Me The Body have gone through a lot of changes, done a lot of growing, and built a lot of relationships during their journey leading up to the release of the Corpus II. For Pratt, the most profound change has been becoming a father, and it has forever altered his perspective both on life and his music career. When I asked Pratt how becoming a dad has impacted his approach to making music, he had this to say:
“It impacted it widely, in ways that I really wouldn’t imagine. I think before having a child, I had no consideration for the future, less consideration for myself. I lived fast, and I was like, it’s fucking tonight, and that’s it; I lived that way for probably most of my life. And now I very much consider the future. I mean, I have a stake in it. It’s terrifying, but it has filled me with a lot of love and hope for the future that I think was not part of my life before at all.
Even my music has become affected. I was super used to losing members of the crew, whether it’s a fucking joint or overdose or what have you, we’re used to losing people in the city. I never really considered that life is really just life and death. But this time, the gang gained one, and so that was really exciting. She’s like the corpus baby; I mean, all the homies are like aunts, uncles … It’s gang baby, because we’re all used to going through it together. So now this is a beautiful thing for the whole gang to be together and share and participate in life.”
Nowadays, Pratt considers the impact music has as it is carried from one generation to the next. He painted a picture as to the way his grandfather immigrated to America from Belarus by boat and used his voice as a means for survival, singing for food. Pratt has always felt that spirit within himself and would sing to his grandfather vicariously. Once his daughter was born, he started singing to her and channeling his grandfather’s spirit through to her. He is able to witness in real time the way music carries a generational force, and Pratt wants to make sure that he delivers a force of for good, promoting power in others.
Photo courtesy of Jake Miller (DWP)
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