Learning to Love Itself: Thursday

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POST-HARDCORE BAND Thursday may not have put out any singles from its critically acclaimed release, "Common Existence," but that's not because the band doesn't think the album is any good.

Lead singer Geoff Rickly says the group just didn't feel like it.

"It just sort of happened, I guess," Rickly says of the decision. "I guess we just thought we'd do things more naturally this time around — just go out and play on this record."

And for the band, which has gathered legions of fans with its mix of sonic spitfire and sprawl — seen in singles like "Understanding in a Car Crash" and "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" — doing things organically has always seemed right. It's the kind of mentality that has caused Thursday to join up with numerous record labels until settling at Epitaph, and that now has them on tour with the Dillinger Escape Plan, who the group will appear with Dec. 15 at the Ottobar in Baltimore.

Rickly spoke with Express about what inspired him for this album, what fans should expect from his group's live show and how he's been surprised by this tour.

» EXPRESS: As a band, Thursday got together about 12 years ago, back in 1997. How did you guys come together, and what do you think has changed about your sound since then, during the course of seven albums?
» RICKLY: Well, we got together because I used to put on these shows in my basement, and a few friends thought it would be fun to play some of those shows. So we got together and we wrote a few songs, and that was pretty much how it started. And 12 years later, we're still finding interesting things to do with each other, and it's still a lot of fun for us, so we keep on doing it.

As for our sound, I think when we started out, it was pretty raw. It was just sort of like the underground hardcore stuff that we liked, mixed with new wave stuff that we dug, and since then we've been a lot more concerned with texture and changing song structures and rhythms and stuff like that. And for me personally, narrative viewpoints for singing and lyrics and that stuff - those are the things that have changed the most about the band.

» EXPRESS: What about your recording process? You guys have gone from Victory Records to Island Records and are now on Epitaph - has your creative process changed at all in that time?
» RICKLY: We've actually had a different producer (Dave Fridmann) for the last two records than we had for the first bunch, and his process is a lot different. He works on more experimental stuff, like Mogwai and Sleater-Kinney and the Flaming Lips, and working with him is a different thing than I've done before. Things that other producers avoid, like everything mushing together and sounding like it's one sound, he loves that and thinks it's real. He also pushes us to get to a place where you're uncomfortable with what you're playing - he says, "That's what real art is, when you're uncomfortable." He has no real boundaries — if he decides that you hitting the couch in the beat is better than hitting the drums, he'll mix up the couch. So he's unorthodox, to say the least.

» EXPRESS: When did you guys start working on "Common Existence," and did you have a specific idea of what you wanted the album to be when you stepped into the studio?
» RICKLY: Well, I think for me personally, seeing that I was going into the end of my 20s and it was going to be the last album I would make in my 20s, I wanted it to be energetic and youthful. Fatherhood has put a real drive in me to do that, and I definitely had a directive on the record for being more upbeat and energetic.

» EXPRESS: You've given some interviews about how writers like Denis Johnson, Martin Amis and David Foster Wallace influenced your lyrics and tones on "Common Existence." How did they come into play?
» RICKLY: There are a lot of things that influence you, either personal experience sor other people's art, like movies and poets, but for me, this last record was very specifically all about a bunch of things that I had just read, and I kind of went with it. I though tit would be an interesting sort of viewpoint for the record.

» EXPRESS: So what should people expect from the live show and this tour?
» RICKLY: The show, in general, I think is a lot of fun. We have the Dillinger Escape Plan on this tour, and I think it's a really good time — I've been enjoying it and watching everybody every night instead of getting bored and waiting to play. It's nice to want to watch it every night, still.

» Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St., Baltimore; Tue., Dec. 15, 7 p.m.; $21. 410-662-0069.

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi
Photos courtesy Thursday