Since their inception in 2009, Present Me The Physique’s music has all the time been a spot of solace for individuals throughout many various backgrounds. Within the time that has handed since their critically acclaimed sophomore album, 2019’s Canine Whistle, the politically charged, progressive-hardcore trio had been confronted with a pandemic, the absence of stay exhibits and a society that felt prefer it was on a continuous downward spiral. Whereas the world has undergone a collection of modifications within the final three years, vocalist, banjo and programmer Julian Cashwan Pratt is fast to say that for Present Me The Physique, this was enterprise as normal, even when they couldn’t pile a whole bunch of our bodies right into a room for his or her chaotic but cathartic stay exhibits.
“Though the world has been altering round us not too long ago, the messages and the music have remained the identical and are nonreactionary,” Pratt says whereas rolling a joint on a patio in Los Angeles throughout an off day following their look at this 12 months’s Desert Daze in Southern California. “What we attempt to do and talk is ever current with these round us, whether or not that’s a powerful sense of household, community-building as direct motion, militancy inside your individual life and educating your self –– these are all of the issues we might speak about even in a post-pandemic world.”
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Present Me The Physique are certainly a lot greater than a musical venture –– it’s a community of creatives and a community-driven collective that enacts change in a world of injustice, financial despair and displacement all by means of the spirit of extremely participating punk music that pushes the boundaries of style and societal limitations. The band function as a collective often called CORPUS, and through the pandemic, they had been nonetheless capable of interact with their group, particularly in New York Metropolis the place they’re primarily based.
“Our group is just not on the web; it’s actual life and in our metropolis. The pandemic allowed us to do weekly CORPUS conferences and have our initiatives on the forefront,” Pratt says when reflecting on the band’s pandemic-proof mission. Seated subsequent to Pratt is bassist and synth participant Harlan Steed, who admits that the absence of stay exhibits might have performed a job within the sense of vitality that’s discovered on the band’s staggering new file, Bother The Water.
[Photo by Nick Sethi]
“Performing for us may be very a lot the oxygen that we thrive and stay on, and to not be capable to try this for 3 years was an intense feeling,” Steed notes. “All of us needed to get again on the highway, however it additionally served as ammunition in scripting this file and making essentially the most refined Present Me The Physique file doable.” Pratt nods, including, “The file is just not completed till we get to make the ceremony with it. The stay present is for everyone within the room who participates.”
Lyrically, Bother The Water expands on the themes of the darkish aspect of capitalism “The file is a continuation of what we have now been witnessing our complete fucking lives with our metropolis being became a playground and other people being handled like they are often shipped round,” Pratt explains. “The hardlines of capitalism are there however we positively witnessed the pandemic, though terrible, giving us extra time to be within the streets. It was lovely for everybody to be collectively and develop into militant collectively.” Make no mistake, although: This file is “not reactionary” to present occasions however is as a substitute a results of a band that obtained “nearer to what they’re attempting to specific,” Steed says.
Although the band proceed to succeed in wider audiences by means of their compelling mix of commercial, post-punk, hardcore and digital music, coupled with a significant file cope with Loma Vista, they’re conscious of the machine that’s behind the music business as an entire. When more cash and business palms are available in, there’s all the time the danger that these components will take the spirit out of the music and develop into a direct battle of private morals. “It’s an odd actuality for us,” Steed says. “With Present Me The Physique, we mirror towards these terrible issues, however it’s an impediment course for us.”
Pratt is admittedly extra outspoken on the subject of capitalism and the way it inevitably has an impact on the band’s mission, however he’s assured that their presence will finally result in widespread change inside an business that has been plagued with injustices and hanging energy imbalances. “Life is harmful, however as a punk band, we have now by no means had the mentality to vanish and romanticize not working laborious. I wish to achieve success and get into the constructing so it may be rearranged. I don’t wish to be a loopy individual exterior. I wish to be in there serving to to burn it down,” Pratt stresses.
[Photo by Nick Sethi]
Sonically, Present Me The Physique’s music is a protest in itself. Unconventional music constructions and a penchant for fixed evolution and experimentation permeate their sound, components that the band have been diving deeper into with their newest album. “Because the band progresses, we experiment and alter our roles after we get into the studio and end one another’s sentences with new concepts,” Steed says. “Whether or not it’s a wailing, banjo or synthesizer, it provides to the fullness of our sound. We’re all the time attempting to surpass the very last thing we did.”
After all, the band are totally conscious that following up the important acclaim and success of Canine Whistle was an unlimited activity. In speaking to the band, nonetheless, it’s clear that they really feel they’ve completed their mission and stand by their work wholeheartedly. When requested in the event that they assume Bother The Water is the top of their sound up to now, the band unequivocally agree. “It was a labor of affection, however it’s essentially the most Present Me The Physique file up to now,” Steed says with assuredness.
On Bother The Water, the phrase “labor of affection” rings true, with the band going so far as constructing the studio that it was recorded from the bottom up. Talking on the DIY nature behind the recording course of, Steed notes, “It was much less time fussing about how issues sound however extra so how the songs must be. If we will imagine the sonics are what they need to be, we will make our concepts stronger than ever, and we had been actually lucky for that with this file.” As a result of the stay present is so paramount to understanding Present Me The Physique, the band had been adamant about capturing that riotous spirit within the studio. In actual fact, Steed says “WW4” is a real embodiment of that course of. “We had been all arrange in a room monitoring it stay, and, nearly seamlessly, an ambulance comes by with its siren on the excellent second, and now that’s in on the file. We obtained a photographic scene without cost, and that was positively a lightning-in-a-bottle second.”
Whereas the recording course of for Bother The Water was a creatively stimulating expertise that allowed for continuous exploration of recent sounds, Pratt additionally reopened outdated wounds and relived previous traumas. In the course of the creation of Bother The Water, Pratt primarily went to warfare inside himself to take advantage of weak and sincere assortment of songs doable. “There’s no celebration [during recording], and when it’s [finished], you’ll be able to have fun a bit bit, however not an excessive amount of,” he says. “It needs to be nice; it could’t simply be good. Good is filled with shit.”
Now that Present Me The Physique are coming into one other new period with Bother The Water, the band are wanting globally this time round to increase their mission, ethos and the work that’s completed day in and day trip by means of their collective CORPUS. “We’ve got cultivated one thing in New York and even Los Angeles, however the entire aim is to offer shelter, whether or not bodily or a realm of an thought or thought, to anybody who wants it,” Pratt assures.
