NEW ALBUM: “I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed” OUT 8th NOVEMBER
For someone that is yet to discover Thank, how would you describe your music?
We play dark, sardonic, percussive, synth-heavy post-punk you can shake your butt to.
What inspired you as an artist?
When we first started the band I (Freddy) was mostly inspired by bands like White Suns and Doomsday Student, and Lewis (guitar/synth) really wanted to sound like LCD Soundsystem. I’d like to think we successfully landed somewhere in the middle.
What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?
Our most diva demand is probably that we generally insist on using our own backline, but we have good reason! Our setup is pretty idiosyncratic so there’s no guarantee that things will necessarily work with a house backline, like it isn’t your typical indie rock band situation. Plus we tend to hit it pretty hard, both literally with the drums and figuratively with the amount of daft sounds we’re throwing at the amps, and we’d hate to accidentally destroy someone else’s treasured gear. We’re always happy to lend stuff though, and at this point I think most promoters understand that you can’t book a band that sounds like us and expect us to operate like a function band. If you don’t want us to do it the way we do it, then you should probably just book someone else!
Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?
I think we’re quite lucky in that we don’t really fit neatly on any bill. We can be the dumbest band at the math rock show or the most technical band at the punk show, the most abrasive band at the indie rock show or the softest band at the metal show, but we kind of make some small twisted amount of sense on each of those bills. It means we get to play a wider range of gigs than a lot of bands, and we also stand
out at pretty much all of them.
What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
Personally I absolutely cannot stand electro-swing, I think it is comfortably the worst music ever made, but between the four of us our listening habits are pretty varied. Usually at the end of a tour we’ll share some of the highlights of our van playlist on social media, and it can vary from doom metal and grind core to jungle and donk.
Is there a story behind the new single?
Play the song backwards at 0.5x speed and you’ll hear the story. It’s a corker!
What would you say is your greatest strength as an Artist?
Like ants, we can all lift up to twenty times our own body weight, except for Steve (drums) who can lift up to thirty times his body weight.
What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?
I think we take ourselves too seriously.
What can fans expect from your new single ‘’Writing Out A List Of All The Names Of God”?
‘Writing Out A List Of All The Names Of God’ is probably the first song we have ever written with a drum solo. When we recorded it, we tracked the drum solo at a slower speed, probably around 140bpm, and then sped it up to the tempo of the song which is 180bpm, so it sounds intentionally pretty warped like an Amen break. Our original intention was to use programmed drums to play it live, but in the meantime Steve has actually learned to play it at full speed. He’s a machine!
What music artist would you say have influenced your work?
Black Sabbath and Tears For Fears.
Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?
I would love to make an album with John Congleton, Dave Fridmann, Seth Manchester, Kurt Ballou or Sylvia Massy. Perhaps even all five.
What was your worst performance?
The second time we played in Paris, the power for the whole venue switched off halfway through the set. That wasn’t ideal.
What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?
Probably the last time we played in Brussels, the next morning we discovered that our van had been towed and had to spend a few hours tracking it down before finding our way to Paris for the next gig. I think that was my most stressful ever day
on tour.
What is your creative process when making music? Do you work with others or is there just you?
It kind of varies from song to song, but I would say most of our songs are built around a bassline. Usually me or Lewis bring something to the practice room and Cameron (bass) improves it, he has a great knack for taking a bass part up a level. In the early days I did a lot of writing by myself, but as time goes on we’ve started to write more and more collaboratively. So once we have a bassline we’re all into we usually start jamming and adding layers around that, and then the structure is somewhat dictated by whatever I end up writing lyrically.
Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?
I just hope I’m still having fun.
