Thrice

Quickly becoming one of the most popular punk bands around, Thrice continues to rock our world! Dustin sat down and talked about their new record, reality TV, and why he loves Justin Timberlake...among other things.

For anyone who doesn't know, can you just give a brief history of the band?
Um...do you want to know how we started, or what we've been doing for five years?

Take me from starting to now...in a paragraph.
Ok..friends just kind of got together...I met Teppei and he knew Ed from skating...he started playing bass and his brother played drums...started playing shows...started touring...put out an EP ourselves...put out a record ourselves. Our record, "Identity Crisis" was picked up by Sub-City Records...did a record for Sub-City called "The Illusion of Safety"...recently signed to Island Records and our Island Record is called "The Artist in the Ambulance" and it's coming out on July 22nd.

So,
First of all, it's just leaps and bounds beyond the last record. We did it with the same guy, Brian, but we basically had a lot more time to work on it. We tracked for like two months. We worked up in Bearsville part of the time, which is this amazing place in upstate New York, out in the woods. And then we worked the rest of the time at Brian's studio in Maryland. We spent a lot of time writing it, but I wish we could have had more time. There's been so many...we had all these tours lined up that we had to finish. But definitely it was a more relaxed feel than the last record which we did in 20 days. Writing wise, I think the strongs are a lot songer. Strongs are a lot songer? Yeah, that's a good one! The songs are a lot stronger. They're still interesting in the same ways I think, but we kind of fell back to more standard song structures with a lot of variation in there. I don't know...I think if someone's a fan of the last record, they'll definitely be a fan of this one. I think it's a lot better record, I'm really proud of it.

Weren't there some other working titles before you came up with
No, not really. There were some floating around on the internet, but we were never the source of any of those. Some kid was like swearing that it was...something about... velocity? Yeah, but I don't know. That was a real early idea for the record title. It's from a short story about this guy name Alverean. I read it on tour like a long time ago and we were talking about it and it ended up just sticking. So...

I don't know how much writing you did, but is it hard as a band to write an album knowing that it's going to be so highly anticapated?
Not really because I think we're harsher critics than anyone else can be and we definitely just write for ourselves. We take forever to write because we just beat every song up before it comes into shape. So, I don't think anyone really had that in their mind that this record was going to be held up to a higher standard or anything like that. I think we're all very pleased with it. I mean, every record you do, you learn a lot and you're like "Oh, I wish I would have done this..." But that's never not going to be that way. I'm definitely proud of the record and I definitely learned a lot of things that I want to do next time.

What do you think of MP3s and people downloading your music on the internet?
I think sharing of music is definitely one of the cooler things that technology has brought us in the past few years. We definitely share a lot of music between each other on the bus and with other bands and I just think it comes down to people. If you're going to steal music, that's your choice, but you need to realize that it's the same as walking into a record store and just picking up a CD and walking out with it. You need to treat it like the same way we used to treat mixtapes, you know? Like, your friend gives you this mixtape and you love these songs, then you're like "Oh man, I'm going to go buy these records!" Because you love those bands. And I think people just abuse it. It's not the technology's fault, it's the people's fault. It's people being lazy. I think it de-values music when it's just a thing and you grab it and you don't care, you didn't spend money that you earned. There's CDs that I would buy again like thirty times if I lost them. I would just keep buying it every time I lost it. Those are CDs that you buy instead of just stealing from people.

How's the tour going so far?
It's going great. It's a blast. It's been really bad weather a lot of days. It's been pouring rain from this big storm that's been following us, but it looks like we got away from it. Cross your fingers, but this is amazing today, it's beautiful! I want to hike down to the river, but I don't have time before I play.

Have you been meeting some new friends?
Yeah, there's this awesome band that I just found out about on the tour, called Maxeen. They're really cool. Kind of Police-y influence. Very cool melodies and stuff. Oh...what else? Got to know Glassjaw better, who we've met before, but they're really cool dudes and an awesome band. It's been a lot of fun.

What's the funniest thing that's ever happened on a Thrice tour?
I don't know...this is kind of funny. One time I fell asleep in the van when we were playing in Montreal and no one knew where I was. And we were like on-stage, like loaded...like, we were playing! And no one knew where I was and I was out cold in the van. Finally someone was like "Hey, did you know your van was on?" And someone ran out there and found me sleeping and I like walked in, blurry eyed, on-stage and we just started playing. It was very very disorienting because all these kids were chanting "Trice! Trice!" I was like "What's Trice?" For some reason a lot of French Canadians can't pronounce Thrice, so I thought that was interesting.

What do you least like about punk rock these days?
Not many bands playing good punk rock? I don't know...I think there's a few that are doing awesome. Strike Anywhere, Rise Against, Explosion...I don't know, I don't listen to that much punk rock actually, so it's hard for me to say. I'm very picky about what I listen to in any genre. Like, I don't listen to that much hardcore, but I do love the hardcore that I do listen to. Same with punk, same with anything I guess...

What are three CDs that you think everyone should own?
Refused - Shape of Punk to Come Radiohead - OK Computer The Postal Service - their new record. I don't know what it's called, but it's my frickin' favorite thing in the world. I listen to it all the time!

What are some smaller bands that people should check out?
A band called Engine Down, they're awesome. A band called Breaking Pangea, which might not exist anymore because someone said that the guy was going to go play with Taking Back Sunday, but they're really cool. That Maxeen band I mentioned earlier.

What are your favorite movies?
I don't know, I like lots of movies. Recent ones I've seen I liked are Boondock Saints, that's really cool. What have I watched recently? Donnie Darko, that's really cool. I don't know, old school like Star Wars, Goonies, I like a lot of 80's stuff so...

What would you say is your guilty pleasure?
I don't know, I don't have things that I'm ashamed of (laughs). But, things that other people might be of me doing are...I love the new Justin Timberlake record, it's sick as hell! I love Michael Jackson, which is why I love that new Justin Timberlake record because it sounds like old Michael Jackson.

If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be and what would you do?
I don't know, I'd be someone who could fly. Who flys cool? Maybe Silver Surfer, because he can go out into stars and stuff. I don't even like Silver Surfer that much, but it would be pretty cool.

Ok, I'm going to say some stuff and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Ok?
Ok.

Metallica...
The new stuff sucks baaaallllllssss!!!

Britney Spears...
Her first record is awesome!

Reality TV...
My wife loves it.

Major Labels...
It's just people whether it's major or minor. I don't have any negative or positive. You've got to know the game that you're getting into, it's a different ballpark, you know?

How have your lives changed since signing to Island?
Basically our whole lives have been changing on a gradual level to where we don't live at home anymore, we just live on the road. But, the good thing about Island is that we were able to not work while we were writing this record, the few months we were home writing it. We've had tour support to do this tour, the last Used tour we did and to go to Europe. So, it's basically been a help to give us opportunities that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

Right on man. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
No, just thank you and I wish everyone could have been here today because it's amazing!