On the rise since the day they emerged from the southern California hardcore scene, Thrice is now less than a month away from their second major-label release, Vheissu. With their last album, “The Artist in the Ambulance,” garnering much critical and popular praise, there's no telling where Thrice is going to next. Recently we sat down with lead-guitarist Teppei Teranishi.
So, your album's being released next month, and your tour's coming up, must be a busy time for you guys.
Yeah, we're really busy. We're just finishing up with the record, getting all the art work finalized. We just finished shooting a video and now we're about to leave and go to the U.K. for about a week to do three shows and a couple days of just press.
How'd you come up with the name for the new album? I've been told it comes from Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel, V?
That's kind of where we drew it from. The main reason I like it is it's kind of an unloaded word. It doesn't hold a lot of meaning for people so it's not like the title is informing the songs. I guess my hope is that the songs on the record kind of become the meaning of the word to most people. Kind of how a band name takes on a new meaning, like U2. When you hear U2 you don't think of an old spy plane or whatever, you know, you think of the band.
Are there any specific songs on the album that you're really satisfied with?
To be honest, I'd say every single song on the record. We really took our time with this record to get it right, to get all the songs right, to make sure all the recording and mixing of the songs is right. We wrote a bunch of songs and recorded fifteen. Then I think only eleven of those are making it on the record and it was really, really hard. I don't know I'm really excited about it.
Any plans for the songs that didn't make it?
We're gonna have a B-side and an exclusive download. Maybe later on we'll try to use the rest of them and maybe try and release an EP or something. The songs are still pretty important.
How long were you in the studio to come up with the last album?
Well, we took about a year off in total including writing and recording. By far the longest we've taken off in a long time. We took about eight or nine months off writing and we spent about two months in the studio.
Were you writing on the road then?
We were writing pretty much as soon as we finished the last record. We went back on the road and I think everyone just started writing right away. It's just kind of on your own you can't really practice or write with a band when you're on the road, but you can kind of just come up with ideas. We were doing that pretty much the whole time we were touring on “The Artist in the Ambulance” and then over the course of a year we tried to piece together everybody's ideas and make songs out of them.
Is that how your process generally works?
I think everybody plays a part in writing, even our drummer Riley. He writes a lot of the guitar parts so we all bring something to the table.
Do you all participate in writing the lyrics, too?
No, Dustin writes the lyrics.
Is this next tour your first opportunity to headline?
Yeah, besides little one week/two week tours we've done, this is our first full U.S. headline tour. Which is kind of overdue but we haven't done it yet. We've actually headlined Europe before America.
Do you guys get nervous at all on the road?
I think at this point we're all pretty comfortable with it. It's always a little nerve wracking playing new songs which we're going to be doing. But about a week or two in you get in the groove and it'll just flow from there.
Have you spent a lot of time rehearsing, prepping for the new tour?
We're trying to. Probably not as much as we'd like to but we're definitely trying to squeeze in as much as we can.
You've been with Island for about two years now. Is it a totally different experience releasing an album with them versus an indie label?
Yeah, but I think it's also circumstantial. I think we're a little more successful than we were when we were on Subsidy and I think with that comes a lot more demand on our time. I don't know if it's necessarily because of Island but because of where we're at.
Well, your last album debuted at No. 16. Do you have any expectations for the new one?
Not really, I mean…no. It's weird because the thing with records, at least to me, it's something that you create. Once you're done with that creation, once the whole creative process is done, I feel like it's done. So mentally, I'm ready to move on to the next project. A record, ultimately, is kind of for our own gratification and once we're done and once we're satisfied I think we're ready to move on. Obviously we're hoping it's going to do well and we're hoping people will like it.
That's a real artists perspective, once you're done with the process it's done for you.
Yeah, it's interesting because like with the way records are done…If you're a painter, you paint a painting, you're done. You move on to the next thing. But with us, we finish a record, we want to move on but then we can't.
I wanted to ask you a couple of last questions about your charity work. You guys donate a portion of all of your album sales to charity. Your first show was actually a concert for charity?
Yeah, I guess so. I never even thought about that. It was a thing called Band Aid, and a bunch of groups from the local area played. You'd get in free if you brought a bunch of canned goods. It was a fundraising thing for homeless people.
And you've moved beyond that now. Do you have a specific charity you're going to be donating to from this next album?
Yeah, it's a charity called 826 Valencia, which is actually a charity founded by Dave Eggers.
He's the writer that helped you guys with the “Vheissu” cover design?
Right.
What does 826 Valencia do?
They do a lot of things, but basically they get underprivileged kids involved in literature and reading, that kind of stuff. 826valencia.org, they do a lot of things from sending out tutors to schools and having after-school writing programs.
That's great, really refreshing to see that you guys are doing something to inspire the next generation. I really appreciate your time and wish you good luck on everything coming up in the next couple of months.
Cool, man. Bye.
Take care, Teppei.
Powered by AkoComment 2.0!
