By Ryan Marchese
My week is packed full of Thrice. At the end of September, I was lucky enough to get early access to Horizons/West for a review of the album. That review went live a few days ago in preparation for their show at Jannus on 10/24 (which I’ll be covering). Additionally, I’m scheduled to document their record signing at Daddy Kool Records 1pm on Friday before the show. But today, I had the privilege of sitting down to talk with Teppei Teranishi, who has been playing guitar for the band since before they had a name.
My morning began by letting the dogs out and then sitting down at my desk to anxiously prep for my first interview for Tampa Bay Music News. A few hours later when the call came from Teppei and I asked how his day was going, he jokingly admitted it was just beginning since the band had off today and he was catching up on sleep. I returned his confession with my own that this was my first interview and shared how it seemed fitting since back in the early 2000s when I was a freshman in high school, Identity Crisis was the first cd I bought.
After the exchange of pleasantries, I wanted to get right down to business as I’m sure he had getting some good eats and listening to live music onn the agenda while in New Orleans. When I asked how the vibe and initial reaction of the first few shows had been, he said it was great and the new album was very well received. Teppei went on to reveal that their set actually includes 7 tracks from Horizons/West, which is the most, new songs they’ve included in a set list in a long time, and that fans couldn’t be more stoked. Doing some research on Setlist. FM it looks like the featured tracks include “Blackout,” “Gnash,” “Holding On,” “The Dark Glow,” “Crooked Shadows,” “Albatross,” and “Vesper Light.”
With Horizons/West being a companion album to Horizons/East, initially they were supposed to release back-to-back, similarly to what Silverstein did with Antibloom and Pink Moon.
However, Thrice decided to push the release of Horizons/West off after starting to feel burnt out following writing, touring, and going right back to writing. Probably the biggest question on my mind going into the interview was how taking the break and giving the album more time to breathe impacted its development. “It’s kinda hard to say exactly, how to quantify that, but I mean it definitely did. The gist of it was that we were feeling basically not really ready to go back into the studio as quick as we thought we were gonna need to in order to get West out the way we were originally intending… I think maybe it’s a little bit of collective wisdom after being a band for however many years, but we were like ya know instead of just rushing this and just trying to pump it out because we said we were gonna do this thing, why don’t we just wait? And I think that was definitely for the better… I’m not sure the end product would have been as good as it ended up being.” It was reassuring to hear a band take this perspective. Within a society that has become so in need of instant gratification and patience is a lost virtue, it’s refreshing to see a band take a step back and give themselves the time to put something out of quality versus just quantity.
Following that up, a few of the tracks had originally been intended for Horizons/East, and I was curious if with the delay those tracks had changed as a result. Teppei discussed how “Undertow” was pretty much fully thought out, but the song was very subdued and having the time to go back and rework it led to the choruses opening up more to be these bigger elements than they were. He continued that “Holding On” “wasn’t really gelling the way they wanted it to and so we wound up putting it on the backburner for East… approaching it with a fresh prospective definitely helped… working on the small details really helped it come together.”
The Horizons albums showcased not only the years of experience and evolution Thrice has amassed, but also their knowledge as they produced the records from their own New Grass Studio. When asked if this is how things would be handled moving forward, Teppei conveyed it wasn’t something that they’ve discussed as a band, that they would now have the studio as a tool at their disposal, but it was most likely going to be more of a case-by-case basis. The freedom for each of the band members to mix their parts exactly how they envisioned is a definite advantage, but on the other side of the coin, it’s a lot more work for the band itself.
Since getting the chance to listen to the record early, I’ve wondered is if there were any specific influences in this record that the band pulled from. Teppei had a hard time pinpointing anything specific, discussing how varied and broad their individual tastes are. Just as he was saying, “There’s never I don’t think one thing that’s able to be singled out where we’re like we drew specific inspiration from this band or this one part or whatever,” he chuckled and followed up with, “Actually, though now that I’m saying that, there’s one part that comes to mind.” According to Teppei one of the guitar effects the band Town Portal uses quite a bit was incorporated into the song “Distant Suns.” All the members of Thrice are fans of Town Portal, and after touring together throughout Europe, Riley picked up a Pitchfork pedal that made it onto Teppei’s pedalboard during writing sessions.
We talked about the songs on the record, and I asked if he had a favorite. I imagine the question is like asking a parent which child is their favorite, but I posed it regardless. Teppei struggled, but when forced into a metaphorical corner, he said the first track that came to mind was “Albatross.” “It’s got all the little elements of music that I like packed into one song. I think it has cool riffs… it’s fun to play, the melody is solid and catchy. It’s a strong song in general.”
Although all the guys in the band are pretty mellow, I still hoped to pry a ridiculous story or two out of Teppei about tour shenanigans, but with it only four stops in he had none to share. I’m sure that will change since the band’s current fall tour covers dates all over the US and then come the new year, they will be travelling overseas to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Teppei expressed an enthusiasm for revisiting the beautiful scenery of Scandinavia, the band’s collective love of Copenhagen, and their second trip to New Zealand since their early days of touring.
Before ending the call, Teppei made sure to encourage fans to get out early to shows and check out their great tourmates, Downward and Modern Color. The tour goes right up until Thanksgiving, so my last question was asking if he had anything planned for the break. He replied “Back to family life. Enjoy the holidays with the family and try to relax amidst all that madness. Then it’s the new year and back to touring.”
Fans of Thrice from any era should definitely make it out Friday night to Jannus Live in St. Pete for a sampling of their newest album Horizons/West as well as favorite tracks from their 25+ year career. And if you are looking to add a signed copy of the new record to your collection, stop by Daddy Kool Records at 1 pm ahead of the show!