{"id":7468,"date":"2016-04-27T11:33:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altwire.net\/?p=7468"},"modified":"2023-12-06T06:38:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:38:01","slug":"thrice-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/fr\/entretien-trois-fois\/","title":{"rendered":"Entretien avec Riley Breckenridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thrice-To-Be-Everywhere-Is-To-Be-Nowhere\"It may be crazy to the YouTube generation, but a cable channel that played music videos did exist! It was a glorious and novel way to discover new music. One of the bands I discovered through this method was none other than Thrice<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

It happened by chance during a late-night flip through my cable channels in 2003. While perusing what was on the tube, I happened to catch the psychedelic and visually stunning video for “All That’s Left”.<\/em> I stopped dead in my tracks and watched the track all the way through.<\/p>\n

I was a 16-year old who loved rap metal and Eminem<\/a>. This was my first introduction to all hardcore music, in general. I had never heard anything<\/em> like it, which is why I went into Best Buy to buy the album that week. Listening to it back then, and even now writing this article, it still stands as one of the best albums I’ve ever purchased. It is definitely one of the most solid records that I own from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Some bands release two to three strong records and fizzle out as their careers reach the golden age. Thrice has continued to evolve and innovate throughout its storied career. Back from a four-year hiatus, they are releasing To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere<\/em> on May 26th. The band has managed to keep their music sounding fresh and inspired with their latest single, “Blood In The Sand”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We recently spoke to the band’s drummer Riley Breckenridge about the hiatus, life as a parent, the influence of label control on the band’s music, and many other topics. Read below!<\/p>\n

AltWire [Derek Oswald]: It’s great to see you guys back after your hiatus. Some bands go into hiatus and never come back out of it! Was it easier or harder than expected to get back together with the guys after the hiatus? Was there a learning curve of sorts or was it more like riding a bike?<\/strong>
\n
\nRiley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> As far as getting back together, it was just like getting on a bike. However, we hadn\u2019t written music together for about four or five years so I was a little worried that the creative juices wouldn\u2019t be flowing as well as they had in the past. But once we started writing and once we got in the studio, whatever magic we had between the four of us came back pretty quickly. So that was exciting. As far as getting back together and whether I thought that was ever going to happen, I didn\u2019t know really. Dustin said in his hiatus letter right off the bat \u2018we\u2019re not going to break up; we\u2019re going to make music again together at some point but we\u2019re just not sure when\u2019 and I was under the impression that it was going to be a bit longer. But life works in mysterious ways, and I\u2019m just glad it happened when it did because I didn\u2019t really want to take a break, at all.<\/p>\n

I got a text from Dustin and he was at a Brand New show and he said, “Yeah, I\u2019m thinking we should probably start making some music together and start touring together soon”, and I welcomed that with open arms.<\/p>\n

AW: I found it interesting that this apparently is the first album you guys have written without living close enough together to jam things out often. What kind of challenges\/benefits did that bring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> There were some major challenges. I think it would depend on who you\u2019re speaking to in the band, because some people function well in a file-sharing or virtual songwriting atmosphere, while others would prefer to be in the same room jamming stuff out. I appreciated the convenience of being able to build out pretty \u2018fully realized\u2019 demos of songs, and I was programming drum ideas I had instead of working on them with all of jamming in the same room, so that was time-consuming and kind of annoying. There were times where I was like \u2018I wish I weren\u2019t programming drums for this demo\u2019 and wished that we were all in the same room and I was just jamming them out and having recorded drums for a demo. But it was just the situation that we were in. Teppei was up in Vashon which is just outside of Seattle so it didn\u2019t make sense for him to be down there for months at a time, because he had stuff going on up there.<\/p>\n

We were doing a lot of one-off shows and festivals last year, so we\u2019d schedule some extra time either before we were going to play a show or after we were going to play a show so we could write for a week and actually jam stuff out. But a lot of the songwriting happened virtually. We\u2019d pass a logic session around and they\u2019d be like \u2018oh hey I have a new chorus for this, so I\u2019m posting this version of this song with this new chorus I wrote\u2019 or \u2018I got a new verse\u2019 or \u2018I got a new bridge\u2019 or whatever. So I think it was difficult to not have a lot of time to jam stuff out but I think it also forced us to be more creative in the studio once we all got together and actually started recording the songs. It was an exciting way to write a record because it was a new way to write, but it was also daunting because it was unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

AW: This is also your first album to come out since you’ve had a baby (congratulations!). How does that affect your relationship with Thrice\/making music in general?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> Thank you! I definitely have a lot less free time than I did in the past, which is totally cool because I love spending time with my kid. But there\u2019s not a lot of \u2018me time\u2019 right now where I\u2019d have hours and hours to just screw around trying to write music, I have to pick my spots. As far as the relationship with Thrice, I think it\u2019s definitely opened my eyes a bit because Teppei and Dustin, each of them have three kids. They started having kids around 2005 or so, and I didn\u2019t really understand. I was like \u2018oh man he\u2019s coming into practice and he\u2019s really tired, I don\u2019t get it\u2019 you know? Like why can\u2019t you be up for practice, why does practice seem like it\u2019s a drag to you know? And now I see it\u2019s because \u2018oh your baby kept you up for six hours last night and you got two hours of sleep [laughs]\u2019. So I definitely understand now how difficult it can be to be away from your kids. Which is part of the reason we kind of scaled back on our touring before the hiatus, and part of the reason we took the hiatus. You want to be there for your kids, so I think we\u2019re all at a spot now where we all understand what a reasonable workload for the band is, and a way to make both sides of life sustainable.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re going to try to tour a bit less than we would in the past, and make sure we are present enough to be good fathers and at the same time make the most of this incredible gift that we have which is the ability to make music and tour and do shows and stuff like that. It\u2019s a tough thing to balance but I think it can be done and I think we\u2019re headed in the right direction as far as that\u2019s concerned.<\/p>\n

AW: You raise an interesting point in the challenges that are raised now that you guys have families and are touring. Given that there’s much less friction in recording and releasing an album, are you guys considering making more albums with fewer songs to have more time at home (instead of being on the road all the time)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know we haven\u2019t really discussed that. I think the main thing is just scaling back the touring because when we were in the Artist in the Ambulance or Vheissu days we\u2019d be on tour for about 8 to 10 months out of the year. It\u2019d be like we were gone for eight weeks, then we were home for a week, then we\u2019d go to Europe for a month, come home for a week, do a support slot in the US for six weeks, and it was just never-ending. It was just always on. So I think we\u2019re going to scale it back, and I believe the longest that we\u2019ll be out for is three weeks to a month. Then we\u2019re going to make sure that we have a decent gap where we can be at home and take care of stuff on the Homefront.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that it will accelerate our creativity or our creation of the records. I think we\u2019ll do that at the same pace but maybe have a new record every year and a half or two years. But we just won\u2019t be touring our asses off 8 to 10 months out of the year in support of it.<\/p>\n

AW: Going into writing and recording this album, how would you say you feel this record differs from your releases before the hiatus. Musically and thematically do you feel there’s a difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> I think there is a different sound but I also think that there is a healthy nod to some of our back catalog in a lot of the music. There\u2019s stuff on this record that wouldn\u2019t necessarily feel out of place on Artist in the Ambulance, or Vheissu or wouldn\u2019t have felt out of place if it was part of The Alchemy Index or Beggars, or Major Minor. But at the same time, it\u2019s also pushing that kind of stuff forward. With the quality of the songwriting, I think that we\u2019ve grown to figure out how to write better songs and make albums feel more cohesive. One thing about this album that I think is pretty cool is that it\u2019s almost a seamless record from track to track. An outro will bleed into an intro for another song or there\u2019s a segway on this record which is something that we haven\u2019t had since Beggars I think.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely something that\u2019s meant to be presented as a full piece of music, instead of just individual songs, and that\u2019s something I\u2019m really proud of on this record.<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/p>\n

“(On the album’s closer ‘Salt and Shadow’)<\/strong> It\u2019s super epic and it gives me chills when I listen to it, and I think it would do the same for a lot of people..” – Riley Breckenridge \/ Thrice<\/em><\/h4>\n

AW: I started getting into you guys around the release of The Artist in the Ambulance, and then listened to all your records before then and since that time. Your drumming is one thing that has always stood out to me on those records. Who are some of the drummers that inspired your sound growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> Well first thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate that. I think early on a lot of my influences were rooted in the Epitaph records style punk-rock drumming, and then some metal stuff like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer<\/a> that kind of stuff. Then around The Artist in the Ambulance, I started getting into Radiohead and some more kind of indie-rock bands and I pulled some inspiration from those drummers who weren\u2019t about playing really fast but instead having a really good feel and a good pocket. Then that developed into loving more progressive stuff, whether it was Tim Latona (Botch) or Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles, or JR Conners from Cave In. Just trying to incorporate some more progressive stuff or odd-time stuff, and then of course the classics like David Grohl, Jon Bonham, and Neal Peart.<\/p>\n

I just try to listen to as much stuff as possible and try to take as much away from it as I can, and the producers that we\u2019ve worked with over the years have done a good job of teaching me to be open to new things and expanding my playing a little bit. But for me, it\u2019s all about \u2018hit hard and have a good pocket\u2019, and that\u2019s really all that matters. Also, serve the song first before you serve yourself. It\u2019s not important to put the newest fill that you just figured out into a song. It\u2019s more important to have a solid backbone for the rest of the song.<\/p>\n

AW: One of our many Reddit questions that came in asked the following: \u201csome songs never translate in the studio the way you want them to. What’s the one song you guys believe never came out how you wanted it to when it was recorded?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> There are a lot and I\u2019ve probably forced myself to forget about those, but the one that sticks out the most is a B-side off of Vheissu which is called Lullaby. The demos we had for that song were super cool and super weird and it was just aggressive and kind of Refused meets A Shape of Punk to Come meets a Muse Absolution<\/em> vibe. So it was this epic stadium rock thing with this really pissed-off sound, and there were synths in it. For some reason the label thought that it was going to be a single, so they tried to steer it in a \u2018single\u2019 direction and they tried to make it less weird. Because we were semi-beholden to the label we had to entertain that option reluctantly, and we just beat that song to death. We re-wrote it and rearranged it and we got it to the recording studio and recorded it once, and then figured out later on that we needed to slow it down and change the key of the song. So we had to re-record the song and we just completely beat it to death to the point that everyone in the band was like \u2018this can\u2019t be on the record, it\u2019s not what we wanted it to be\u2019. We completely ruined something that was headed in a very cool direction and that\u2019s why it\u2019s a B-Side. Even that B-Side, as recorded, is not anywhere near as cool as the demos we had recorded early on.<\/p>\n

AW: Likewise, what’s the one song you wish you could pull off live but never has the same magic as it does on record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> There are also a lot of those too! That\u2019s always the weirdest thing. You\u2019ll make a record and you\u2019ll go \u2018oh yeah! I think people will be super excited by this song, we should do this one\u2019 and then you\u2019ll play it and it\u2019ll be like crickets after we finish. People will just be staring and you\u2019ll think \u2018Oh crap! Ok that\u2019s not going over well\u2019. For me personally, there\u2019s a song on Artist in the Ambulance called \u2018Hoods on Peregrine\u2019, and it\u2019s kind of a big epic, nasty, proggy song and I always thought it would be cool [live]. It has this big drum intro with pulsing toms and a sick bass riff, and it just seemed big and like it would command a room. We played that live many times and it always goes over flat. So that\u2019s kind of disappointing. There\u2019s a song from Major Minor called \u2018Cataracts\u2019 that I really like, it has a cool drum and bass groove and what I think is a good melody and it\u2019s really catchy. I thought \u2018hey maybe this will go over well\u2019 because it has a little bit of a Fugazi vibe and that one always fell flat too, so we pulled that out of the set.<\/p>\n

But yeah there are tons of songs in our back catalog where you think it\u2019s going to over well, but it doesn\u2019t go over well. Or you think it\u2019s going to sound good live but it doesn\u2019t sound good live and you just have to adjust from there.<\/p>\n

AW: What\u2019s one song from the new album that you\u2019re really excited about that you hope goes over well live? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> All of them? [laughs] I think I would really like to find a way to play the album\u2019s closer \u2018Salt and Shadow\u2019 live, but I really don\u2019t think it would go over well live, nor do I know how we could pull it off. It\u2019s very layered and very orchestral and kind of electronic in nature. But it\u2019s super epic and it gives me chills when I listen to it, and I think it would do the same for a lot of people, but it\u2019s really hard to do that unless you have 47 musicians on stage and backing tracks and all that crazy stuff. So maybe that\u2019ll just be \u2018it\u2019s cool on the record but we\u2019ll never play it live\u2019.<\/p>\n

AW: Now was that your favorite song to work on with this record…or were there other ones that really stood out to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> I liked playing anything that was heavy and anything that was nasty. I did like working on \u2018Salt and Shadow\u2019 because there was a lot of construction going on in the studio with that, and a lot of experimentation. The early demos of it were headed in a completely different direction and we spent a few days on it and just layered and layered stuff, and there\u2019s just something really exciting about being able to experiment like that. But yeah anything that\u2019s rock I love playing. I just love beating the crap out of my drums and playing along to heavy riffs. Those were the ones that I like.<\/p>\n

AW: What can we expect from Thrice in the year ahead, now that you are returning with a new album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Breckenridge [Thrice]:<\/strong> We are doing a tour in June with La Dispute and Gates which will hit a good part of the United States but not all of it. In August we are going to Europe and the UK but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m at liberty to say exactly where we\u2019ll be going but we\u2019re going to be over there for a little while. Later on in the year, I can\u2019t announce who we\u2019re touring with or where we\u2019re touring but we\u2019re going to hit some places that we\u2019re not hitting on this June run with La Dispute.<\/p>\n

Thrice – Blood On The Sand (Audio Only):<\/h1>\n