'WARNING: Raw Rock Kills!'

When Revolver Magazine reported Showbread's debut Solid State Records' release, "No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical" as the best screamo album of the new year in 2004, the stage was set for Georgias spastic flurry of sound and show, and the group of seven has yet to decelerate. In the year and a half that followed their initial release, Showbread toured with such incessant fervor, that their raw rock creation gained thousands of fans nationwide.

With the help of Nihilism producer Sylvia Massy Shivy (Tool, Johnny Cash), Showbread have returned with a sophomore release highly evolved from their first. The album entitled, Age of Reptiles, which is out now, doesnt shun Showbreads original style, but instead works off of it to create something brand new for the band.

Being that Revolver Magazine once quoted you as being the 'Best Screamo Band of 2004,' what has their statement done for you over the past two years? Josh: "It did two things. It made us happy and made friends of ours approach us to say, "I bet you hate that they called you 'screamo' don't you?" We love Revolver, they have been one of the only bigger magazines to give us press and like us. I'm sure people that read that either thought it was absurd or knew that it was almost the truth... the whole truth being that we are the best band of any genre or year."

Mike: "Haha...nothing really! Nah, I mean it was a cool honor, but we never really considered ourselves screamo in the first place. It was really awesome to get that honor especially from such a sweet magazine."

With your new album named 'Age Of Reptiles,' I'm wondering if this title means something more personal to you guys? Josh: "I like reptiles and dinosaurs, so yeah it's pretty jam up to me. There is a metaphor running through the album about how depraved humanity is, how we're all reptiles. But who wants all that heavy stuff? I'd say just watch Jurassic Park and put the record on repeat as an accompaniment to John Williams' score."

Mike: "Yeah, of course. It's basically a metaphor that parallels us to reptiles and cold blooded creatures and the relationship to God in all of that...it's quite personal."

And what's up with the love for the giant albino snake on the back! Any stories to tell about that particular photo shoot, perhaps?! Josh: "That snake was strong. It kept throwing me around like a fire hose. The reptile wranglers would say, "Don't worry, he's gentle as a lamb!" and the snake would slide up to my ear and whisper, "Don't believe that crap". Then I felt myself getting suckerpunched with a hoof and I whirl around and see this mean lamb and he says, "Dang straight!"

Mike: "Haha, it was a fun day! We all held different reptiles and that snake ... it pretty much had its way with us! There were six of us and we could barely hold that sucker still!"

For those out there that wish to buy your new CD but have not heard of you, how would you yourselves describe your sound? Josh: "I'd ask, do you like music? If they say they did, I'd tell them they would like us for sure because we are the best music gets. If they say they don't like music then I'd tell them I don't either, but I still like Showbread."

Mike: "Raw rock ... best record you'll hear 'til the next one we make!"

Tell me about your craziest touring experience to date thus far! Josh: "Once on tour in December, I was outside of a house in Washington we were staying at, drinking hot chocolate. I was thinking about getting in the hot tub, 'cause this family we were staying with had a really nice one. When I made it over the deck to the jacuzzi, I found Santa Clause sitting in it with two reindeer and one elf, and they were laughing and talking about taking some time off from the North Pole. I asked for Santa's autograph and he looked upset over me asking, like he can't ever get some time off from being Santa. So I asked why he was in this hot tub and he suddenly threw this magic powder on me and I turned into Koala!"

Mike: "There've been a lot, but being as we're not big partiers we probably don't have typical crazy stories. Ours are more like ... one time we got caught in a storm so bad that it was blowing our van and trailer off the road! That was pretty crazy ... don't wanna do that one again!"

Please tell us more about your new album concept art and what it is meant to represent Josh "I would tell Laurie Shipley these hair-brained ideas I had and she would turn them into these fantastic illustrations. All of the six illustrations represent important ideas in the album. Nothing is just weird for the sake of being weird. For example, the cover art for the album depicts a woman pregnant with a reptile's embryo with an alligator admiring the visible fetus. The woman is portrayed as being reptilian herself by the subtle presence of scales on her skin. the medium of pregnancy and motherhood is used to represent the biblical truth that every person is born into sin, and therefore the baby gestating in the womb is reptilian even at conception, there is no turn events that causes sin to come into human life, it is an inevitability."

"The belly is also rendered as being transparent with the fetus visible; conveying the truth that sin and the ugliness of the human nature we are born into is undeniable. The alligator admiring the embryo represents the shameful pleasure that we take in our own sinfulness and the sinfulness of others, the fact that we are reptiles."

Mike: "Our friend Laurie did it. It's just some illustrations about reptiles and them roaming the Earth."

Just where does the band name Showbread originate? Josh: "The bible. It's taken from a story in the new testament where Jesus essentially debunks traditionalism over purity."

Mike: "Out of the bible. It was the name for the consecrated bread in the temple and in new testament times Jesus used it to show how it's about relationship and not rules and regulation that so many people are prisoner to."

What would be your favorite reptile on the planet and why?! Josh: "Tyrannasaurus. If you say anyone else he'll eat you!"

Mike: "My personal one is the snake, 'cause ... I dunno, they're pretty sweet!"

If you could cover, in your own style, any (cheesy) '80s pop song which would it be ... and why?! Josh: "I would cover a Genesis song, something off of 'Invisible Touch' ... but they aren't 'cheesy.' Watch it!"

Mike: "'Footloose' ... 'cause we always say we're going to, but we never do!"

Finally, Exclusive Magazine like Penguins, do you?! Josh: "Who doesn't?!

Mike: "Heck, yeah ... they're cute!"

Interviewed by Russell A. Trunk