The Charlatan (TC): Let’s start by looking backwards. Last October marked 20 years since the band released In Loving Memory Of… Looking back, is there a particular memory with the band that stands out to you?
Ian Thornley (IT): I couldn’t say one in particular, there are so many. I was just saying while we’re rehearsing the music, some of it we’ve never played live. And while we’re rehearsing, I get these little flashbacks and all these little snapshots of people and places and things that I haven’t thought about in so long. There’s so much that’s woven into the music and history of us, that it really is a neat thing to dive into for sure.
TC: Was the anniversary tour something you’d been planning to do for a while?
IT: No, it just sort of popped up. I can’t remember who said it first, but somebody had just said, “Oh, In Loving Memory… is 20 years,” and somebody else just ran with the idea of, “What if we did a tour of that record? We just released Grace Street, but we could sort of do both.” I’ll jump at any excuse to get out and play music, so it’s just a happy – what’s the word I’m looking for – circumstance. Not a coincidence, a circumstance.
TC: What are you most looking forward to with the anniversary tour?
IT: I’m looking forward to playing some of these older songs and [to] play them for people who want to hear them, as opposed to if somebody’s just coming to hear the hits. This tour is about an album specifically. We get to dive into the deep cuts, which is something we love to do, and have people get into it, as opposed to usually, when you get into the deep cuts, that’s when people go to the bathroom or go to the bar. As for what to expect . . . there’s gonna be a few surprises in there. And we’ll also play some more current stuff. Should be a good mixed bag.
TC: I saw on Big Wreck’s Facebook page that the Ottawa show was one of the first two that sold out in less than a week. A lot of people seem really excited about hearing “The Oaf” and “That Song,” but do you ever get tired of playing the hits?
IT: No, I don’t. The guys might! (Laughs) But I don’t – I wrote them, those are my words and ideas. There’s probably certain parts of my body that get sick of playing the same notes. I get sick of rehearsing the old songs, and I think I speak for everybody, like, “We’re good, we got it.” The stuff that we haven’t done a thousand times together is stuff that we’ll focus on more. But when you just get in front of the audience and see the audience loving the hits and getting into it, that takes everything away – that’s kind of what it’s all about, and I don’t get sick of that. The crowd singing along, those are the things that stick with you and bring you back, so I would never get sick of that.
TC: Do you remember the first time you heard one of your songs on the radio?
IT: No, (laughs) if I’m honest, I don’t. We were in Boston at the time, so we would have been driving to rehearsal or something like that. I know it’s supposed to be a big moment, but I don’t remember it. I’ve never been that guy who’s like, “Now we’ve finally made it!” I’m still looking forward. It’s an ongoing running joke between Brian [Doherty, rhythm guitarist] and I that the “Next one? This is the one that’s gonna take it. This one’s going to be huge.” So no, I don’t remember the first time I heard us on the radio. I’m sure it was just like, “Alright, here it is! You know what, the compression is ruining the drums!” and [we would have] gotten into that sort of nitpicky, technical, nerdy stuff about it. But I’m sure the thrill wouldn’t have been lost on us.
TC: Let’s talk about the new music. You’ve said before that the band’s creative process has changed in the sense you’re not concerned about writing a hit song as much as you’re focused on the music itself. Can you elaborate on that?
IT: Well, I don’t think that that’s changed, I think that’s how it initially was, but then [the direction] went elsewhere, and I guess the last three albums have been back to that. That’s just not having the suits involved in the creative process – they stay on their side of the desk, and then we’ll go and make the music. The first album was demos that were bought by Atlantic [Records] so there was never a grown up saying, “You need to write a hit.” That never really happened on that first record. The second record? There was a ton of it, and I could actually hear that [on the album]. And then of course the Thornley stuff, I think especially the first Thornley record, every song sounds like it’s swinging for the fences. The stuff that I like about albums is the album tracks and the deeper stuff, and there’s none of that on the Thornley stuff. [The change in direction] has a lot to do with the Albatross record. We decided to call that the “Big Wreck record,” or rebranding, whatever you’d call it. I never thought of it as, “We’re getting the band back together!” Because it’s essentially the same band that got off the road playing Thornley shows. When we did [Albatross] there was a lot of freedom, and that speaks to the people at Anthem [Records], they were just like, yeah, do what you do, go make the music you want to make. And that’s inspiring and makes the best music. I think that’s the way that we operate best – I know I speak for myself, that’s the way that I operate best, and if I’m left to my own devices, the people that are investing just have to trust that I’m going to give them the best that I have.
TC: Let’s talk about the last album, Grace Street. What were some of the inspirations for the record?
IT: Musically, the inspiration comes from anywhere. I think you are what you eat, so you’re just putting together all the different things that have influenced you since you could retain a melody, you know? It’s basically everything I’ve ever heard musically, and then for everybody else, all your influences tend to shape what you want to hear. Lyrically, it’s all the stuff that’s personally been going on. I always find that’s the best way for me to keep something real and to keep it relevant for myself – it’s to just be honest. Whatever’s closest to the surface, whatever feels authentic and not forced.
TC: Your lyrics on that album talk a lot about the fallout of a relationship. Was it hard to open up about that or is that something that’s gotten easier over the years?
IT: I think so. I mean, I’ve always but sort of just hidden it. Publicly, out of fear or insecurity, I’d hide it in a metaphor or in a clever lyric twist, but it was still in there. Now I think I sort of care less about hiding it. This is it, and I try to find the most artful way to say exactly what I mean. I don’t know if it’s something you get better at, I think it’s just maturity and growth. The same amount of care, if not more care, is put into it now. I think there is a point where it’s too personal, there’s a point where you can say too much and it makes a listener uncomfortable, and I don’t want to have that effect on anybody.
TC: The album also incorporates some pretty unique sounds. I read that you recorded your daughter’s heartbeat for a kickdrum on “The Receiving End” and a guitar solo on a mountaintop. What other ideas did you work into the album?
IT: The wine glasses thing was pretty cool.
TC: Can you explain it?
IT: I can’t remember how it came up, but you know when you take a crystal wine glass and put water in it and run your finger over top of it, you get a tone? If you add more water the pitch goes down, take away water, and the pitch goes up, so you could actually make a note. I was like, I wonder if you could make an entire chord with three wine glasses with different amounts of water. We were having this conversation, the conversation moves on to something else and we get to working away at something else, and maybe an hour later Garth [Richardson, producer] walks in and he’s got a box full of crystal wine glasses. He’d gone down the street and bought a bunch of crystal wine glasses, and a turkey baster, so that we could add or take more water. We basically made a G-major scale out of wine glasses and added it to “Motionless” – that’s the sound you hear in the chorus, it’s running my finger over a wine glass. I think it’s a beautiful, haunting sound, too. It turned out great, I could listen to just that for an hour and still be okay. It’s a really unique sound. I’m sure there’s samples of it, like you could go into some sort of sample library and get the “wine glass sound” sample, but actually having it be real? There’s something to it. It sounds really cool, it’s almost a Brian Eno kind of sound – that’s what it makes me think of. It has a really, really beautiful noise.
TC: Any ideas you want to try out on the next record?
IT: Not yet. I’m sure they’ll come fast and hard, but I don’t know what direction the album will take. There’s always something you have in mind of what you want to do at the beginning of it, but once you start making a record, the record tells you where it wants to go, you know what I mean?
TC: So, the tour kicks off on Thursday. What’s next for Big Wreck after the tour?
IT: Probably just more of the same, you know, just keep slugging away. I’m sure we’ll play a few more shows throughout the year and eventually get into the studio and carve out another record.
TC: Say you can only pick one record to listen to while you’re on the road, what would it be?
IT: Ah, it’s a toss up. It’d either be Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert or Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue.
TC: Why one of those two?
IT: Just because it’s vastly different from what we do and I find them both very inspiring, calming, beautiful. I think they’re both perfect albums and I can’t say that about a lot of records. There’s so much within one side of each of those records that that would keep me okay for a while.
