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By Tiffany Razzano
So the group decided to take their time and enjoy themselves, touring the world several times during the three years in between the release of that album and May 2006's A City By the Light Divided.
"There definitely was a lot of pressure after the success of the last album," said vocalist Geoff Rickly. "It just depends on how much you think about it."
The time allowed the band to grow a bit and allowed their sound to mature. They must have done something right, because their latest album hit number 20 on the Billboard charts. "We've learned a lot as a band," Rickly said. "There are a lot more layers. We constantly listen to music, analyzing it and picking it apart. [This album] is more intimate. It has more soft moments, more of a personal touch."
The group also did something else very different on this album. They reached out to producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mogwai), which might surprise some of their hardcore and screamo fans. Rickly said that Fridmann heard the demos the group sent him and "totally flipped out" and "loved the stuff."
Their fans might be surprised they chose a producer so deeply rooted in indie rock, but Rickly said that the Flaming Lips are one of his favorite bands, and the group has toured with Mogwai before. He also said that Fridmann is the "greatest producer sonicly," and that he helped the group "mellow out" a bit, helping them to also create "good energy in the studio." He also said it doesn't matter who their producer is because, "fuck, it's all rock 'n' roll."
Still, the time between releasing the albums helped Rickly and his bandmates to reflect on their career. The group just came off their third full summer on Vans Warped Tour, and second time headlining.
Rickly sees a definite difference between his band, when they first started out, and the younger bands on the Warped Tour today. "I think maybe younger bands have a clear goal of using [Warped] to get bigger," he said. "I thought of it as the biggest thing I'd ever do. [I thought we'd] have fun during the summer, then go back to playing small clubs. I'm surprised by how big we got after that."
He added, "We started out playing in basements. We had no goals, no ambitions. All we wanted was to play one show."
He said that things progressed naturally for the band after a while, especially after the group realized they had "to do something and just do it." So the group got more shows, then started to put out records. Rickly promoted local bands before Thursday hit it big, so he knew bands that would let them open for them at local area shows. Then, traveling locally turned into touring. "It was great," Rickly said. "Now we're at the point where we can afford to keep doing it."
"We're lucky," he added. "If it ended tomorrow, it would still be a great thing. It's been great to work with such nice people, doing what I love."
Thursday is heading to England to play at the festivals in Reading and Leeds, followed by a US tour with Rise Against.
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Perpetual Toxins © 2006-2007 - All Rights Reserved |
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fter Thursday's fourth album, War All the Time, which was released in 2003, peaked at number seven on the Billboard charts, the band knew there would be a lot of pressure on them for their follow-up.
