Currently on tour in Europe

Frail Body focus on therapy in scream mode

Angry and plagued by personal grief: the US collective Frail Body sings about the more difficult aspects of life.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Angel Tumalan, Jacob Bannon)

Frail Body have delivered quite a record with their latest album "Artificial Bouquet": The US trio combines harsh sounds borrowed from noise with highly personal lyrics about grief and loss. The band led by singer and guitarist Lowell Shaffer recently wowed the Vienna scene as the support act for Baroness.

The birth of their second album was no easy matter, as it was written during the coronavirus pandemic. "We all lost our jobs back then," recalled Shaffer in an interview with APA. "So what to do? In the end, we met five times a week in the rehearsal room and worked on new music. It became our job." Before that, they were actually on tour for their debut "A Brief Memoriam", but one US state after another declared a lockdown. "I'll never forget when we came back to Rockford," said the qualified social worker. "Our hometown has roughly 200,000 inhabitants, but the streets were empty. It was a ghost town."

Sharp political criticism
All the energy that Shaffer and his colleagues Nic Kuczynski (bass) and Nicholas Clemenson (drums) had at the time was in danger of fizzling out. "We were angry because we were deprived of the opportunity to present these songs. This window has closed due to external circumstances - and also because of the incompetence of our government." This is one of the reasons why the new record contains songs such as the bitterly angry "Scaffolding", which have a decidedly political content and deal critically with the USA. "It's kind of our middle finger to all the things that have gone wrong," Shaffer emphasized.

Because, of course, the band carried on despite the circumstances. "Looking back, it's a miracle that we didn't break up. But we thought to ourselves: Never mind, we can't let up! At some point, this shit will blow over." One recording session later, made more difficult by the mask requirement, "Artificial Bouquet" was in the can - and a new chapter in the band's history was opened. While the earlier tracks were still more screamo, the new work breathes a fitting degree of black metal unpredictability and the power of post-rock. "We wanted to turn up the intensity and show what we're capable of."

Strong stuff in the lyrics
And that's quite a lot: the rapid-fire "Berth" takes no prisoners in less than two minutes, while songs such as "Devotion", which is also incredibly rousing live, are much more dynamic, sometimes starting from an ambient-like calm before daring to make a big, furious outburst within a few bars. Shaffer's guitar playing is correspondingly rough in parts, while Kuczynski repeatedly comes up with incisive bass parts and Clemenson drums his heart out. A fitting realization for the central themes that have occupied Shaffer for several years now. The singer and lyricist has often dealt with the death of his mother in his songs.

"At first, it was difficult to stay in performance mode with these songs. There were moments at concerts when I was quite beside myself," recalled Shaffer. "Then I simply allowed myself to follow these feelings in order to better match the expression of the songs." Basically, dealing with this topic is a constant development. "It was only recently the sixth anniversary of my mother's death, but I'm doing much better now. I'm married, I want to start a family, I'm in a better place and I can talk openly about these things."

Honesty in art
He also realized what the band could achieve with their music. "While it was initially a selfish form of therapy, my lyrics are now being interpreted and felt by other people. They come up to us after the concerts and talk about their lives." Although it has to be said: Picking up the lyric sheet doesn't hurt comprehension, as Shaffer is on the road screaming fiercely most of the time. Regardless of this, he feels lucky to be able to show an honesty in his art "that also protects the songs. At the end of the day, what I sing is true." Parallel to the writing process, he went through a healing process. "Now it's possible for me to hug someone and say: I know what you're going through."

APA/Christoph Griessner