Chaos In Tejas Interview: The Thermals [Friday / The Mohawk]

The last record The Body, The Blood, The Machine had a lot of political and religious undertones. What would you consider to be the underlying theme(s) of the new album?

Death, love, fear, water, air.

The music on the album is cheery and upbeat but the lyrics are somewhat dark -- was that purposefully intended?

No, that came out naturally. We, personally, are cheery and upbeat yet somewhat dark. There is a lot of heavy shit to deal with on this planet and we think about that a lot, but we also love to laugh, love, dance and rock.

With the elections now a few months behind us, do you feel we have turned the page and truly moved forward to an era of hope and change?

I definitely feel we're moving forward and there is optimism in the air, but what that means in terms of action remains to be seen. We can't just rely on Obama to fix everything. It’s up to everyone as individuals to better their lives and communities.

We enjoyed the new songs off Now We Can See at various SXSW gigs. What was the total count of shows you played in Austin last month?

We played eight shows in four days! That’s a record for us.

The Thermals have been through a few drummers in its career. Do you feel settled on Westin Glass? How and when did you find him?

Yeah, it was clear the first time we played together, which was in August of last year. The three of us really clicked musically and personally. He's a fantastic drummer plus he's sweet, funny, smart, energetic and up for anything. We're really having a great time together. Our mutual friend, Sonya (Balchandani), from the band, The Big Sleep, put us in touch with each other. Westin was living in Seattle but he moved down to Portland in November.

Portland is home to number of great bands (as is Austin, we'd say!) Any similarities or differences between the two cities that specifically stand out?

Both cities have a ton of venues and put on music festivals which keep getting more and more popular (SXSW obviously, and in Portland, its Musicfest Northwest). Austin has better weather and better BBQ. Portland has better coffee and better weed, plus we're only two hours from the ocean!

You've been to Austin quite a few times now. What are some of your favorite things about this city?

You have so many venues that are half-inside, half-outside. I really like that, and it seems very unique to Austin. The people are really friendly and we always have fun shows there. Unfortunately, as usual with touring, we never have much extra time to hang out. We have stayed with a couple friends in the past, so we did get to see some nice neighborhoods!

Thank you for speaking with Austinist.

[The Thermals Official]
[The Thermals MySpace]