Основатель хардкор-группы Show Me the Body Джулиан Кэшван Прайт рассказал о влиянии Майкла Джексона и философии стиля

Born in Hell’s Kitchen and raised on the Upper West Side, Julian Cashwan Pratt was steeped in NYC’s hardcore scene from an early age. Now 32, Pratt is the founding member and lead vocalist of Show Me the Body, a hardcore band with an unconventional sound built around his DIY electric banjo. Pratt’s approach to style, which blends elements of skinhead, avant-garde fashion, and 1970s vintage, is no less distinctive. Following the release of the band’s fourth studio album, Alone Together, and ahead of a US tour, we met up with Julian in New York to discuss how his love of music began, what he thinks about the rise of hardcore in the mainstream, and where he buys his glasses. Definitely. Seeing the Michael Jackson Thriller video when I was six years old. I remember being really scared. And my dad loved music. So, I grew up around music, but even before I wanted to make music when I was really little, I wanted to dance like Michael, and I wanted to dress like Michael. The white socks. I still rock white socks all the time. Thriller made me realize music is powerful. It made me feel things that I wasn't prepared for. And then probably years later, I was in elementary school, and my friend gave me a Youth of Today record. He said, "I don't like this, but you might.” I was already listening to deranged hip-hop: Big L, Pun, Ill Bill, Necro. It changed my life. I play guitar. I play drums, and I play bass. I play everything. I play piano badly. Really, guitar and drums are my thing. I write all Show Me the Body [songs] on the drums first, then I write everything around the rhythm. In my opinion, the drums, the rhythm, are the most important things in all music. If music doesn't have a sick rhythm or sick drums, I'm usually not into it. The banjo is a drum. It has a skin on it. It used to be goat skin on a turtle shell. My boy Aidan [Elias] works at Lichen NYC, and he helped me design a new banjo that's an even dumber version of the banjo, even more remedial. It's just a solid piece of fucking wood with a Seymour Duncan [pickup] and guitar strings on it. It's got a banjo neck, so it kind of looks like a banjo, and it's round, but a scientist would classify it as a four-string guitar. I used to think, “Dang, this banjo is not fly at all." And now I'm like, "My shit is stone-cold." I'm really, really excited about it. Music is music, and great music will be heard by many people. As far as hardcore, there are 15-year-olds in the suburbs listening to every Merzbow record and reviewing it on TikTok. It's absolutely ridiculous and, to some extent, silly and performative, but at the same time, there are kids in the suburbs now listening to Merzbow regularly, and that's an interesting thing for society. Punk and hardcore have always been a way for the masses to imagine something different than what’s in front of them, whether that’s kids in the suburbs or Sick of It All in New York City, and if hardcore becoming popular means that more kids throw shows, that’s good. We have more young bands than when I was younger, which is really exciting. There are multiple versions, right? When I was coming up, skinhead style was really important to the scene, and it still is now. My homie’s pops was a founding member of RASH, Red and Anarchist Skins. A lot of really influential people in my life were skinheads, so that style has always been really important to me. Original skinhead culture comes from something called two-tone culture, which was a product of working-class white folks and Jamaican folks linking up in London and creating ska. Basically, there's a huge explosion of hooliganism and skinhead culture in the mid to late '70s, and the National Front, which was a right-wing movement in England, co-opted that style because it was so huge with the youth. We call them “boneheads;” people who don't understand where the style comes from and use it as a way to promote white supremacy. The New York scene. Hardcore and hip-hop were happening basically at the same time, hardcore has the same tenets as hip-hop: the words, the riffs, how you dance, graffiti. With hip-hop it’s breaking, graffiti, the beats, but otherwise, they come from a similar place; from people struggling, then young people creating something beautiful together so we can participate in it together. I really love Truck Violence. They're so weird they make me feel not weird. I really fuck with Section H8 from California. Those are my brothers. Ferment in New York is not only a great hardcore band, but they all have great style. They always look cool. Jay from Crush Your Soul and Mindforce has great style. Cindy Lee is sick. I fuck with this chick, ML Buch, she’s from Copenhagen. Incredible, I really love that music. I've been diving deep into that lately. LICE from Toronto is a semi-new band. They're sick as fuck. They got the head nod from Gazm, which is a legendary Canadian band, so you know it's valid. Mike Down of Chula Vista from the San Diego hardcore scene. He passed away three years ago. He had great style: fitted hat, Hanes white tee until 3:00 PM, and it's in the trash. As soon as he lost that crease in the middle, it's in the trash. And then always raw denim and Adidas shell toes. That was one of my first OGs. I was on Essex [Street], probably 12 years old, smoking weed in his house, being like, "Dang, this dude is so fucking cool." He was in Amenity and Forced Down. Amazing bands. My cousin Gabriel Millman has great style, too. He's an aficionado of style and vintage and he's always educating people. When he walks in the room, he looks like he just stepped out of the 1960s. I got these jeans at the Child Abuse and Neglect Thrift Shop in Ventura. I put them on, my cousin's like, "Yo, those fit you? I'll take them if they don’t fit you,” so I knew they were good. No, those are Silphium. I've never worn jeans that so many people compliment me on. Style is mad important, in different dimensions in different ways. I think Erykah Badu said in an interview, "Dressing fly in the studio is more important than making good music." I feel that. Even though I'd be in the studio looking crazy, dog. One time I was wearing these quilted flight pants. I'd wear them with no underpants and they had a hole right in the crotch. I was in Los Angeles losing my mind on drugs, and every day I would just go to Chris Coady's studio and my dick and balls would just fall out of my pants. For two weeks, that's just what I rocked and it was terrible. I got my license really early so I could borrow my auntie's car, and I realized while getting ready to take the test that I could not see. Then I’d play shows with the glasses, and I kept breaking them. I used to have a Ludwig snare tie that I would tie around my glasses to keep them on, but I still broke them from the front because I'd hit myself with a microphone. Then I found [these glasses] at this one shop that's dope, and I went there, like, "Yo, give me all of them." And they're like, "All right, we have eight of them." And they gassed me, they're like, "You know who else does this at this store?" I'm like, "Who?" They said, "Larry David." I've searched far and wide for a first edition Urban Waste shirt, and I've yet to find one that's right. Or maybe an original Warzone shirt. A first-press, original Void shirt. Breakdown shirt goes hard. Raw Deal shirt goes hard. Real Icemen shirt goes hard. But that maybe shows my age. Our logo, the coffins, is by Arvid Logan of Bug Sex. He did all of the Ratking art. Nowadays, we really work with artists that I'm inspired by. I usually seek out the artists. Met this guy, Darren Beck, an insane artist who I met through my friend Dennis. I put Chase from Gatecreeper on, now they're getting work. We also work with AINT WET, which is Abraham El Makawy. He’s been part of our world for a long time. He also does 10k/MIKE stuff. Abe is an absolute visionary. We also work with Jason Fox. He did this hat for us. He's a sick punk rocker. Still down with the youth. And Elijah Maura, Corpus Gang. That's most of them. It's really put together by folks who I think are outside of our world. They make things that I really like outside of merch. We've had a couple pieces that I'm proud of that have lasted a long time. We had these Champion shorts, and I still see people wearing them, which I'm really proud of. And the hoodie with the print that goes over the pocket—we sold them maybe five years ago, and I'm really proud [to still see them]. We make less money on our merch because we want to sell higher quality products that kids won't just throw away. So, to see that hoodie in someone's personal circulation makes me really happy because they haven't thrown it out. It’s something that they cherish. I work out every day. I eat clean food. One day, I pick up heavy things. One day, I don't pick up heavy things. Pretty much. I do weighted pull-ups and dips, and then do pull-ups and dips without the weight. I like burpees, but I think if there's anything that I do to prepare for leaving it’s just to spend as much time with my daughter as possible. And my friends. Because there’s no better way to spend time than with the people that you love and those you call family. That's been the biggest lesson in my recent [life]. And to tell them that you love them.