The Thermals Face Change With A (Sarcastic) Sense of Humour
By: Andrew Horan
Hutch Harris of The Thermals says the Portland, Oregon, indie-punk band doesn't like to explore a subject more than once.
That's why after touching on politics, religion and death on their previous albums, they decided to take on the darkest theme of all on their new album Personal Life - love.
"Once we tackle a theme we are done with it!" Harris writes in an e-mail interview. "We worshipped religion, voted for politics and did death to death."
Their acclaimed 2006 album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, was a concept album about a young couple fleeing the United States after "fascist faux Christians" take over the government.
Even though the band may have put singing about politics behind them, Harris offers an incredibly candid answer (one of many) when asked about the current state of American politics and the rise of the Tea Party movement.
"Politics are stupid and boring and only get interesting when you have psychotics in power," Harris writes. "So...yeah. [It's a] Double-edged sword to say the least. The Tea Partiers make a good case for the re-introduction of internment camps in this country. Let's lock them all up, they can party in their own filth for as long as they like."
The face of politics in the US isn't the only thing that's changed for The Thermals. Since forming in 2002, when it was just Harris recording demos in his kitchenette, they've gone through a rotating cast of drummers. Harris and bassist Kathy Foster have remained the only constants in the band.
Their current drummer Westin Glass is their sixth. He's been with the band since they started to tour for their 2009 outing Now We Can See.
"Every drummer we've had has been very cool and proficient, but I wouldn't say it has helped us," Harris admits. "It slows you down when you start working with a new member and they have to learn your whole repertoire."
"But it can be very inspiring as well to work with someone new. So you know, wot eva,"
he adds.
In the past, Harris and Foster handled all the songwriting duties. The recording of Personal Life marked the first time they involved their drummer.
"Those records were more like projects, where this record was more like a band going into a studio and recording the songs mostly live," Harris writes. "In fact, that's exactly what it was!"
In the age of glossy digital production tools, The Thermals remain faithful to recording to tape. Harris writes that the main attraction comes from the fact that some of the greatest albums of all time were recorded to tape. "You can hit tape hard and get great, wide warm sounds. When you hit a computer hard it just breaks," Harris writes candidly. "Computers are best used for Facebook and porn."
The Thermals once again turned to Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla to produce their new album. Walla also helmed the boards on their debut More Parts Per Million and sophomore effort Fuckin' A.
Harris offers a humourous, if slightly sarcastic, response to why they keep working with Walla. "He keeps saying that he loves us and that he never meant to hurt us and that he's gonna change," he writes. "We have great sex for a few weeks and then he starts hitting us again."
When their 2002 demo landed in the hands of Walla's Death Cab bandmate Ben Gibbard, he passed it to Sub Pop who signed the band after they had just played a few shows. They remained with the seminal Seattle label until they parted ways amicably after the release of their 2009 album Now We Can See. Currently, they're signed to legendary Portland label Kill Rock Stars.
"Both labels are amazing, iconic northwest US record labels," Harris writes. "We love them both so much. We just wanted a different contract than the one we had with Sub Pop, and we found it at Kill Rock Stars."
The video for "I Don't Believe You", the first single from Personal Life, features appearances by former KRS alum Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney as well as Modest Mouse's Issac Brock.
"Isaac backed his car into a cop car the other day. As punishment, the judge sentenced him to be in our video," Harris jokes. "It was a blast working with him! The shoot was gruelling, almost seven weeks! We partied hard every night. Isaac lives like he's in a Hold Steady song, awesome!"
While many bands are always looking to the future, Harris writes that he prefers to live in the moment. "The future sucks!" he writes. "Planes are crashing into buildings when they're supposed to be flying us to the moon. We're lucky just to be alive and we live one day at a time."
Video: "I Don't Believe You" by The Thermals
