Show Me the Body: Trouble The Water
SHOW ME THE BODY‘s founding members Julian Cashwan Pratt and Harlan Steed are born and raised in New York City, one before gentrification snuck its rotten fangs in. The lesson that was beaten into their heads the most was they had to hustle. “It’s a hustling city,” they told us. “It’s the immigrant mentality, I suppose. You gotta always be on the move, always working, and always trying to do our best.”
They did not only take this code to heart with their daily lives or even with their band, but with their scene in general. SHOW ME THE BODY is accepting of anyone from any background coming in to join their party, on the condition you’re bringing something to the table. “We’re not against people coming to this city,” they say transparently. “You have artists like DREAMCRUSHER who aren’t from here but have the resources they need to expand here while also offering back and inspiring the younger generation of kids in this scene. We love and support that, it’s these transplants who move to Bushwick for a year because it’s cool or quirky or whatever and displace our friends, family, and loved ones just to move out when times are tough.”
This is where the concept of the Corpus Collective came to be: to shine light on the talent that was bringing something to the table. Not just for New York City, but the world as a whole. With Trouble The Water out now, Pratt and Steed, with the help of the latest addition to the band Jackie Jackieboy, are taking their message worldwide that the freaks and weirdos need to come together now, as the war of us versus them may already be at our doorsteps.
Getting to this point wasn’t so simple, and the boys knew they needed to build up to recognising the grander schemes of issues. Growing up and going to shows across the Big Apple, Pratt and Steed would start forming their earliest relationships. In fact, this is how they even came to meet Jackieboy. “We used to go to Jackie’s shows all the time!” They reflect. “We were influenced by how he and his bands would conduct themselves, and we learned a lot of how we wanted to be through going to these shows.” This is where the initial seeds of SHOW ME THE BODY were first planted. Upon forming their band, they already met their first challenge: a good old 21+ restriction from venues.
“We were all underage when we first started.” Pratt and Steed remember. “So playing shows became a challenge as it was, and then on top of that, our friends could rarely ever see us.” The band would then look back into their roots, where bands like the one and only MINOR THREAT had to find their ways to allow the kids to enjoy the music, which is where Pratt began booking shows. “Hardcore, and all aggressive music, is for the children. If it wasn’t for them, hardcore would not be what it is. We needed to find every chance we could to get them in.”
SHOW ME THE BODY was never a typical hardcore band, however. What band with a banjo instead of a guitar is? As such, they would get some of their exposure through other means: opening for underrated hip-hop trio RAT KING. This inevitably led SHOW ME THE BODY to understand a valuable lesson: punk was more of a mindset than a sound. “RAT KING brought us on some of our first shows, and they weren’t even a punk band,” Steed reminisces. “A lot of hardcore shows are only playing hardcore bands, which is fine, but in our mind, limiting. Playing with RAT KING helped us identify ourselves and who we wanted to be around. We realised we wanted to keep playing shows with mixed bills.” On top of booking shows with artists from the likes of BLU ANXXIETY and TRIPP JONES, SHOW ME THE BODY would also find the Corpus Collective, with the sole mission of bringing like-minded weirdos together. “We fantasised about having a larger crew from when we started.” Pratt notes. “We were initially trying to find ways to make our shows more interesting, and then that shapeshifted into even wilder ideas. Hell, during the pandemic, we even started building a recording studio! Corpus is a platform for people to exist, share ideas, and collaborate.”
As SHOW ME THE BODY and Corpus grew, so did the mission. What started as a seed in the soils of New York City grew into the world at large. Through countless “once-in-a-lifetime” events, the band birthed Trouble The Water, where the trio wants you to know there is a war on our doorsteps, and it’s time to let the powers that be know who they’re dealing with. “We’re all fighting for our lives right now,” Pratt and Steed agree upon. “It’s no longer just about New York’s gentrification for us. We want to be fighting for some motherfucker in Malaysia that wants to be part of this crew, you know what I mean? This isn’t just for you or your friends to have a clique with. There are outcasts all over the world, and we want them to know we are there for them.” In turn, SHOW ME THE BODY made their grandest record yet, both lyrically and sonically. Trouble The Water is loud enough to reach to the deepest ends of the Earth, so everyone is included on this punk manifesto.
“Trouble The Water is about being honest with yourself,” Pratt states. “Start a family, protect yourself, protect your loved ones, and fight for truth and love, even if you die.”
Trouble The Water is out now via Loma Vista Recordings.
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