The Thermals - Interview - February 2009
By: Various Scribes
The Thermals, true to their name, make you feel pretty warm inside. Listening to their music makes you feel like you are 14 years young again, wearing stripes on your socks and feeling like no one ever felt like you did about music.
The Thermals have chopped and changed their line up since they first came together in Portland, Oregon in 2002, counting to date four different drummers. However, the back bone of founding members vocalist/guitarist Hutch Harris and bassist Kathy Foster has remained strong, as has their brand of poppy, punky music delivered in energetic three minute bursts. Their latest album "Now We Can See" was recorded with Foster on drums and percussion as they didn't have a full time drummer. It is their first release since they switched from Sub-Pop to Kill Rock Stars, and sounds pretty promising, even if we say so ourselves. Rockfeedback don their dancing shoes and catch up with The Thermals for a chat...
ROCKFEEDBACK: Hey guys, good to have you here. We actually saw you for the first time in 2002. In seven years quite a lot has changed, 3 live band line ups, 3 years since your last record...you must be more receptive to change as a three piece?
HUTCH HARRIS: Yeah, a lot of people don't notice we've changed!"
RFB: It must be easier than if you had more members...
HH: Yeah, it's like 'less cooks', less opinions... Basically Kathy and I just do what the hell we want.
RFB: So what's the dynamic when it comes to writing for you guys? Is it democratic, or...
KATHY FOSTER: Well, this last record Hutch and I wrote and played all the instruments... We'd just get together, play drums and guitar and work on riffs and sometimes Hutch would have finished ideas, or sometimes just bits and pieces.
RFB: Is it intuitive, or are you brutal with each other to try and figure out what you're doing?
HH: The music we make is simple, we just work something till it's at a point where we like it and then put lyrics over it. It's not too complicated.
KF: Also, he and I have played together for 12 years so its pretty instinctive...
RFB: Does that ever get old?
KF: No, not really, we're like brother and sister now.
HH: We annoy the hell out of each other. That never gets old!
RFB: How do you feel you have progressed musically and lyrically?
KF: We're collaborating more and more, the songs get more and more developed, we're just trying to expand and grow musically.
HH: There is no drastic departure from one record to the next...
RFB: I thought you said 'Jurassic' departure!
HH: 'All Dinosaurs', that's gonna be our next record, lots of T-Rex covers! We're trying to stay true to the sound we started with, punks and lo-fi, poppy three minute punk songs, but trying to develop just a little more.
RFB: What do you think draws you to that format?
HH: It's really immediate... I like something to be immediate so you know right away whether you like it or not.
KF: I like recording stuff on a four track, you can get your ideas down really quickly... I like that kind of lo-fi, quick... you really capture that initial emotion if you do it really quickly.
RFB: I wish some bands just did demo albums or live albums, I feel that's more of an honest process...
KF: You don't want to work it to death or you end up with no feeling.
RFB: There's been a bit of a gap between this album and your last, why do you think this has been?
KF: We've been working it to death!
HH: First we toured to death, then we wrote to death, then we recorded to death. And it's about death too!
RFB: There seems to be a positive mood behind this new record, with this epiphany like statement of Now We Can See. This is quite an exciting message, was there anything that was behind that in terms of where you were at?
HH: We just asked people 'what do you think we should call it?'
KF: The whole record is about someone who has died and is looking back on humanity and their live and how humans have made mistakes. 'Now You Can See' is kind of a mixed message; it sounds powerful, like 'now you can see what the right thing is to do', but then when you listen further its like 'are we going to do anything about it'?
RFB: It sounds like quite an empowering message though, that you can act upon stuff to prompt change?
KF: But sometimes even if we know better we don't act upon that...
HH: It works both ways, it could be pessimistic, saying that only through death can we know something, but know that we have Obama as a president the feeling in the U.S has turned around, people are feeling positive even as a lot of stuff is crashing, its like 'yes, we can'.
RFB: How important to you is playing live? You've toured explicitly and overly for years now...
KF: It's just our livelihood now...
HH: Just for the money!
KF: In it for the small amount of money... But that's what's fun about being in a band, the playing live, having people react to your music in a positive way, affecting people - that's what makes it worth it.
HH: And we started a band to play shows, not to sit in a recording studio for three hours a day. It's where the real energy is!
RFB: What do you think the difference is between the thermals when I first saw you and now in 2009?
HH: Just a little older! Really, its just like 'how many songs can we cram into an hour and stay tight'?
RFB: And then, with the latest line up change...
HH: This is Westin! (introducing drummer)
RFB: Does it scare you that I say 'latest' line up change? Surely you want this to be a longer process?
WESTIN GLASS: Nah, it doesn't worry me...
RFB: No spinal tap-esque scenario?
WG: I try to stay away from other peoples vomit and I think I'll be ok...
HH: It's hard though on tour!
RFB: And what do you feel like as a collective now? Do you feel like this is a good indication of what you guys are doing, or do you need a harp section, or...
HH: Yeah, we're actually looking for one, so if you know anyone good...
KF: We're actually trying to steal Johnny Marr, he's been playing with Modest Mouse and now he's with the cribs, and we've been touring with the cribs, and we've been buddying up, so...
HH: Don't tell the Cribs, but that's the plan.
RFB: Maybe stick a 'Cribs' banner on the side of your tour bus and then drive away with him?
HH + KF: (laughing) Yeah!
RFB: You're on the cusp of the release of a record, what does it feel like?
HH: I'm dying for it to get out, for people to hear it.
KF: It's really exciting. I'm curious of what people are going to think about it, and what their reaction is going to be. We don't really tend to think about what people think about it when we're writing.
RFB: And what are you anticipating for this time round?
HH: Some days I'm like 'people are going to hate it', the next day I'm like 'this is the greatest thing ever'. Today I was thinking it's the greatest thing ever!
KF: For me, since we spent the most time writing these songs it makes me unsure what people will think... the more time you spend with the songs, the more you question what you're doing.
RFB: But if you spend more time creating then surely it's going to show...
KF: I hope so, and my friends are saying that people will pro'lly like it. I've been hoping people aren't sure if they like it at first, that it's a record that takes some time to love 'cause I think that will really stick with people!
And we sure as hell hope so too. Now We Can See is out April 7th on Kill Rock Stars.
Artists in this article: The Thermals