Showbread
Exercise in Fearlessness:
Showbread’s Anorexia Nervosa
If you take risks in rock music these days, you might as well sign your own death certificate as a band. That is because music has become driven by the predictable, the mundane, the uninspiring, and this industry has become utterly desperate for just one thing: sales. We are definitely in a bear market, with little end in sight. What happens in a bear market? Fear becomes the motivating factor in all things. And Fear is the driving force in music today.
So, is it a coincidence that fearlessness is what it takes to create something inspiring, something memorable? If you take just a few moments to examine the latest work of Showbread, you will find that “courage” is just the tip of a very ambitious iceberg. Anorexia Nervosa is one part double-album, one part literary work, and all parts a parable about the human soul.
And. It. Is. Fearless.
I took a moment to catch up with my friend and vocalist Josh Dies recently to discuss this, Showbread’s life work.
You all had a very grandiose vision for this upcoming album, your third – Anorexia Nervosa. First of all, talk a bit about the concept for this opus...
The concept is actually split into two separate albums. One album tells the story of a woman named Anorexia who opens a center for sick and dying children. The other album tells the story of her sister, Nervosa, who works at a strip club/slaughterhouse called the 120 Days Of Sodom. Inside of each album is a ten-chapter story. The way the album works is you begin a track, and then simultaneously read the corresponding chapter along with the music. When both albums begin, both sisters make a decision about how they are going to live their lives. Anorexia believes she will find meaning in making herself this iconic symbol of virtue, while Nervosa feels that she will find meaning indulging in any pleasure the world has to offer. So, both albums begin with a song called “The Journey,” where that decision is made, and from that point you, the listener, take that journey with each of the characters. So Anorexia Nervosa isn’t really an album you pick up at Best Buy and just jam in your car… It can be, but it really is meant to be taken in a dark room, alone, listened to on headphones at maximum volume while you read along with a small reading light.
Showbread - Finish this feature by Andrew Schwab in the new HM Magazine. Available now, Issue 131 can be found at select stores or for a reduced subscription rate.
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