Austinist Interviews Nick Thorburn of Islands, Gives Tickets Away

But saying that – that can become a slippery slope, right?

Sure. But if you have a good head on your shoulders and set some boundaries – ultimately, I’ve been opposed to doing a lot of the things in the past that I’m a little bit more open to the idea of. You know, you’ve got to eat. At the end of the day, you’ve got to put food on the table. I can’t be sustained by DIY indie ethics.

Is there any sense of relativity there? Or is there an absolute threshold that a band may not cross?

Shouldn’t, or wouldn’t?

For whatever reason.

The thing is, if you say no to using your song in a commercial or something, they’re just going to get someone else to do it – probably someone that sounds like you, or they’ll get someone to sound like you. I’d rather take half of whatever money they give us and give it to some organization that’s combating what the company is. Or to something that I feel strongly about.

There’s more of a constructive, productive aspect to that than saying no all the time. You’re not doing anything – negating any sort of change at all. And at the end of the day, it’s a fucking ego thing, too. It’s like, “what will people think of me? What will my image be reduced to?”

Who fucking cares. All of the classical composers had patrons – they had kings that were funding their music. That’s just a part of the bullshit that comes along with it. The commerce comes into the realm of making art.

Wow, we really – yes, we played the Apple store. We didn’t sell our souls or anything, though.

You didn’t dress up like iPods?

We did get iPods, which was unexpected and cool. We didn’t get paid or anything – we just did a free show for the people that wanted to see us. You’ve got to get the word out, you know?

How has the tour been going so far?

It’s been cool. It’s interesting having an audience listening to the new material – we’ve been in a bit of a vacuum for the past year and a half. It’s nice to have some sort of dialogue with the audience.

You guys had just recently transitioned over to Anti- when you played their showcase at SXSW?

Yeah.

How do you guys see SXSW? I’ve talked to other bands that look at it as nothing more than a week of non-stop work. Do you enjoy yourself during SXSW?

I fucking despise SXSW, as a matter of fact, and I will never play it again. Mark my fucking words.

We had a pretty negative experience the last time we played SXSW, and it was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. We played the Anti- showcase, which was great, even though we were herded like cattle – you know, treated like garbage even though we were there to play a show for free.

That’s fine – I know the rules, I know the game. We entered into the game and played it. Cool. Later that evening, we played a showcase for our booking agency. Things were running late and we were a little bit behind getting started, and they cut our set – some guy jumped on stage and just shut off my amp and killed the PA in the last 10 minutes of our last song. I could not fathom that they would take it that far.

And the next night we played Mess with Texas – it was this free, outdoor, all-ages event. You didn’t need a pass, you didn’t need a band or a badge. You didn’t need to pay for a ticket. And that was the show that we got paid for, ironically enough.

It just goes to show you what that festival is getting away with. I’m not going to endorse it anymore, for sure.

What kind of pressure exists to play SXSW? Is it internal, or is it external pressure?

It’s a combination. You want to play shows to people; you want to find new audience. We’re so committed to this lifestyle – it’s a project. It’s our life’s work. To not try and play for as many people as possible, it’s self-defeating. That’s part of what SXSW is. It’s also a hype machine.

It’s a label thing, too – they want you to play. It’s a showcase thing. But at the end of the day, it’s corny as fuck.

What do you mean by that?

All these people are there to celebrate each other, but they’re not doing it in a tactful, classy way. I don’t know – I feel like there should be a pole with a hook on it that comes and yanks people off stage when they’re done.

The ratio of respect for the artists – the people that are working the hardest – to the A&R people, the journalists, the marketing people that are getting drunk, who aren’t even paying attention to the music and are getting comped for everything is way out of proportion.

Why did you decide to drop Diamonds from your name?

I felt like it was kind of a maturity thing. It was a funny name, and it wasn’t something that I felt strongly connected to. It was sort of an off-the-cuff stage name, and it wasn’t something that I felt I could live with for the rest of my life. I couldn’t imagine myself being 60 with a name like Diamonds. It was kind of ridiculous.

It’s also about owning up to the music, you know? About standing behind it with my legal name.

Biz 3 Publicity / Melissa Trottier

How have you felt about the reception of Arm’s Way?

I think it’s hilarious. When you’re in a bubble, like releasing a record without any sort of reaction from the general audience, you have no idea how it’ll be received. You only know how you feel about it.

I was so excited about this record. I think everyone in the band was. We were so pumped about releasing it and playing it live – sharing the music, you know? I thought it was so strong and still do.

Some of the reviewers get what we’re doing, and some don’t appreciate it. It’s a little disheartening, but they’re going to have their own opinion – even if it’s misinformed and poorly written, it’s still an opinion.

What do you think about the comparison between your two albums?

I don’t think they’re comparable – they’ve very different. I think bands should be encouraged to grow and develop and experiment and discover new ways to express themselves. They shouldn’t be expected to repeat themselves. That being said, that might not be the issue that people are taking with the record.

But I think reviewers should really take the time to listen to it. If they put even a fraction of the care and patience that we put into making the record into listening to the record, they’d really be rewarded as listeners.
----------------------------------------

You're used to free ticket giveaways here at Austinist, but this time there's a little something extra up our sleeve: three lucky winners and their guests will have the opportunity not only for free tickets, but for a pre-show Meet & Greet with Islands. -Nick Courtright

This contest is closed - congratulations to our winners!

Islands [MySpace] [Official]
Sebastien Grainger [MySpace] [Official]
Crayonsmith [MySpace]