INTERVIEW: SHOWING TEETH @ UPHEAVAL – July 2026

According to a recent press release: “Showing Teeth can project unfiltered feeling with either a jarring deathcore screech or a scarred, yet soothing melody. This control of the unpredictable has established the Kentucky-born and Nashville-based artist as an extreme music alchemist of the highest order, casting a spell that’s both intense and irresistible. She has gone from personally recording screams in her Honda Accord to making a viral impact with “Labyrinth” and “Rip,” tallying millions of streams and inciting the applause of Revolver and more. At the same time, she captivated audiences on stage, opening for Bring Me the Horizon in Manchester and appearing at festivals a la Chippewa Valley Rock Fest, Upheaval Fest, and more. On her own terms, she attracted both Spinefarm and Republic Records to her corner in an unprecedented alliance. Now, she caps off a breakout 2026 by supporting President on tour and unveiling her incisive, impassioned, and inimitable debut EP, A Fate Worse Than Loneliness.” I had the pleasure of chatting with Showing Teeth a week before the annoucement of her release and we discused new music, her set earlier that day, and much more…

Toddstar: We’re chatting with Showing Teeth at Upheaval Festival 2026. Welcome to Michigan.

Showing Teeth: Thank you so much. It’s so beautiful here. I wish it wasn’t so smokey. I hope everyone’s safe.

Toddstar: On that note, we talked earlier before your show and the air quality issue affecting Michigan right now came up. You were curious as to how your voice would react. How’d it go for you?

Showing Teeth: Yeah, I was definitely freaking out and the show was good. I think seeing everybody there having fun, that always gets me through. It was really hard to breathe and my in ears fully fell out in the first song. So, it was definitely a struggle, but everyone being so into it just really helps. Nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter how much it sucks. It’s still fun.

Toddstar: It was a great show from a sound and sonic standpoint. You couldn’t tell you lost your ears during the first song, so it was great. You mentioned around song three or four that you have a ton of material and none of it’s released. What’s the plan?

Showing Teeth: It’s coming out really soon. I’m technically not supposed to say it. I keep telling people though because I’m really bad about keeping my mouth shut.

Toddstar: Let’s not get you in trouble.

Showing Teeth: It’s coming really soon. Don’t blink. It’s really, really soon.

Toddstar: Again, I don’t want to get you in trouble.

Showing Teeth: So, let’s start there. I get myself in trouble. I’m fine with it. They’re used to me.

Toddstar: You played some of the new material today. Of the songs that are coming out and others that you played, what song still hits as strong as when you put pen to paper?

Showing Teeth: Honestly, the first song we play, it’s called “Bad Exchanges.” I’ve already yelled that at a billion shows, so I’m sure. We hand out our set list at some shows, so I’m sure people already know, but that song hits so hard every time. I can’t wait for it to come out. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. It’s just so angry and I just never get tired of it. People also lose their mind every time, which is so sick because it’s not out and people go so nuts. So I love that song so much.

Toddstar: Digging into you a little bit, what’s more cathartic for you – the writing, the recording, or the performing?

Showing Teeth: Mostly the writing. The performing is great and that’s more just lovely. It’s lovely to perform these songs and see people enjoy it. Even if it’s just one person, it’s just the best feeling ever to know that somebody out there enjoys it. But the writing is the most. I have to do that. It’s like a swim or die kind of scenario. I just have to write every day.

Toddstar: That said, you have a ton of music ready to go. You’ve got some coming at some point in the very near future. Are you still working on and writing material all the time or are you absorbing what’s coming out so that you can really present it and push that agenda?

Showing Teeth: I literally can’t stop writing. Thankfully, my producer, Dan, is just as crazy as I am. So it’s like anytime I’m not out of town for a show, either he’s out of town with me working on music or I’m out of town with him working on music. So it literally doesn’t stop. There’s so much music fully recorded and ready to mix, which is not common, but we just keep going because it’s like, why slow down? Might as well just have everything ready because I’m going to keep writing. Everyone’s going to want to keep recording. So we just keep going.

Toddstar: It’ll help you get over the sophomore slump in that so many bands fall into. They have forever to write that first album and they’re scrambling for that second.

Showing Teeth: Yeah.

Toddstar: How important is the car to you still now for your technique, warmups, and process? How important is that still for you to have those raw moments?

Showing Teeth: In the car? I have no choice actually. I still live in a pretty old decrepit apartment. Okay, not decrepit, but it is old and the walls are very thin, so I literally cannot practice in my house. So yeah, I go in my car every single day. And then when I’m writing, I try to do stuff in my room when I can, but sometimes it’ll be three in the morning. And I literally call it my go bag of like, I just throw my laptop in, but it’s got all my recording equipment. And three in the morning I’m like, “I got to do this right now or else it’ll disappear.” So just got to go record the song.

Toddstar: Looking at where you are now, you’ve got music ready to drop and you have flowing from you daily. How different has the process become for you from when you first kind of started this road to where you are now?

Showing Teeth: Yeah. I think if anything, I’ve gotten more just chill about it where it’s like I used to be so analytical about the writing process of every song. The moment I had the idea, I immediately had to know exactly how it was going to go and make it perfect from the demo process. And now I’m so much more of like, I’ll have an idea and just fart a little idea out, sing a little voice memo. Sometimes not even actually record it, just slap a voice memo on the demo and move on with my day, which I think has made it better to get even more ideas out and also just be more authentic and raw and just really say whatever I want to say.

Toddstar: Perfect. You have a captive audience now while playing in front of a crowd. What is a platform that you’re proud to stand on and kind of push an agenda besides your own music?

Showing Teeth: I don’t know. I think the main thing is just being myself in an industry where it’s very not popular to be yourself and everything is so heavily edited. I think one of the misconceptions of metal is that it’s like this crazy animalistic raw genre. And it’s like in reality, it’s just as messed up as the pop industry, sometimes worse. Everything is so edited. Everyone is so edited. And I think it’s crazy how much people censor themselves in metal bands when. I don’t know. I just literally say whatever in the microphone and hope for the best. But yeah, I think the only platform is just being myself and speaking up when something is messed up. And I just did another interview where we were talking about like, oh, if festivals are getting better about booking women. I was like, festivals are getting better about booking women, but it doesn’t change. Some of the bands still hate women getting booked. Some of the other musicians don’t like it and will straight up say like, oh, all these girls get booked just because they’re girls. And it’s like, okay, sorry, we’re not all dudes in black t-shirts. But yeah, it’s just like making sure I stick to my guns is the only platform really. It’s just not letting it be like, oh, I’m so grateful for everything. I am grateful for everything. That doesn’t change the bullshit that happens and really speaking my mind on that. So I hope that answers that question.

Toddstar: It does. You mentioned something that I have always steered away from and because I’ve never understood the relevance of the ‘are you a metal band or are you a female fronted metal band’ question. I always avoid that question or making those alignments because metal music is just metal music regardless of the gender of the performers. It shouldn’t matter. No one questions whether Adele is female fronted pop.

Showing Teeth: Yeah.

Toddstar: Everybody always wants to put band in a bucket, a genre, or whatever. If you had to give me two or three words that weren’t a genre to describe what you feel your music is or represents, what would they be?

Showing Teeth: I think it’s just angry. It’s hard to even put a genre label on it because it is just angry, sad music. But for me, it makes me happy to write the angry, sad music. So I don’t know. The biggest thing is just being authentic. And there will be even songs after I’ve put them out, I hear and I’m like, “I don’t love how that sounded, but that was the demo and I have to stick to my guns.” And that was the emotion that happened while I was recording the demo. So that’s what I want on the track. So just really authentic, raw, uncensored.

Toddstar: I like and appreciate that. Going back through your lyrics and song titles, if you could pick one tagline that you wanted on your tombstone or as your epitaph, what lyric or song title would you want to hold your name forever?

Showing Teeth: Oh gosh, because then I feel like if I say something negative, that sounds like I’m a Debbie Downer because most of my lyrics are pretty negative.

Toddstar: It’s not that you’re a Debbie Downer; it represents who and where you’ve been and what you’ve stood for. That’s what I’m going for. How do you want to be remembered? What lyric or song title best represents that sentiment?

Showing Teeth: In “Bad Exchanges,” which is a song that’s coming out soon, I say, “I could never hold a flame up to a life fabricated. I choke on bad exchanges.” And so that’s kind of just saying, being unwilling to assimilate just to be more comfortable, even if it is extremely uncomfortable to be in social settings you don’t belong in. It’s just choosing to stick to your guns, which is a great band by the way. I keep saying stick to your guns. I love stick to your guns. But truly just really, even when it’s just disgustingly uncomfortable, just being in social settings that you’re not welcome in, really still believing in yourself that you are who you are for a reason and not to give into other people’s fabricated lives just because they look nice on paper.

Toddstar: Very cool. Well, last thoughts. What do you still have to push or want people to know about that they may or may not know already?

Showing Teeth: Yeah, I guess just music’s coming. I told everyone to take pictures of the set list at the Outbreak show. So look online if you want to see it. I’m sure it’s somewhere out there. But yeah, pretty much every song. Well, the headliner we did in London, every song we played at that show is coming out very soon, except for two. One of them was a cover and the other one is coming out a little down the line on something else.

Toddstar: Nice! Mysterious projects from Showing Teeth.

Showing Teeth: Yes. Lots of mystery.

Toddstar: Thanks again for your time. We previously did and email and I am happy to finally get time to do a proper interview.

Showing Teeth: Yeah. Thank you.

Toddstar: You had a killer set and I can’t wait to cull through my photos and see what I got.

Showing Teeth: Hell yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Toddstar: Thank you.

SHOWING TEETH LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

X

INSTAGRAM

SHOWING TEETH – APPLE MUSIC

Category: Interviews