Thursday recently released their much anticipated new album ‘No Devolucion‘ via Epitaph Records and have since been announced to play Soundwave Revolution later in the year. Deborah Konopnicki caught up with Geoff Rickly from the band just prior to the album’s release to chat about the album, their return to Australia and more. Click below to expand this post and take a read. Don’t forget we currently have a competition running where you can win a Thursday / Macbeth Footwear prize pack. You can enter that one [Here].

Hey, Geoff! How are you?
Good thanks, Deb! How are you?

Good thanks, mate! I’m really excited to be having a chat with you today!
Oh, that’s so nice. Thank you.

What are you guys up to at the moment?
We’re getting ready to go on tour for the new record! We’re playing some in-store things around the place and just generally being excited about releasing the record. We’re filming a pretty rad video right now. We’re been really lucky to work with some really great artists that have been consulting with us for all of the videos and everything, so it’s been surprisingly easy this time!

As you just mentioned your brand new album is about to hit in “No Devolucion”. How are you feeling only a week out from it’s release?
I’m chewing on my nails, drinking a lot of coffee and getting nervous! I’m excited. That’s kind of what it’s like when a new record’s coming out. You do like 100 interviews to pass the time in-between. It’s like “Do people really want to be hearing this?” It’s like, I like the record so much that I don’t want to know what anybody else thinks about it!

I’ve had quite a few listens to the record so far and it’s just such a unique release. It’s very different to a lot of your earlier work in many ways. Was there anything in particular that inspired this new musical direction?
No, I think that it was just the way that the band was headed. You know, we’ve been together for 13 years now. For better or for worse we’re all adults now. We just wrote whatever we were feeling together when we wrote it. We wrote it in seven days so it came really organically. It was very a spontaneous record. We didn’t plan for it to be a change. We just let it happen kind of. It wasn’t planned.

You’ve said before that although the album feels like a radical departure from your earlier work that it’s also a bit of a return. What exactly did you mean by that?
Well, I think that from all of the time between records, I think that our last record has this large sense of a different feeling. Like, “War All The Time” was a really angry record, “City By The Light Divided” is a super depressing record, and “Common Existence”… well, I don’t really know how to describe it. This record has a lot of different emotions expressed. There’s a range of different emotions. There’s hope, sadness, joy and all of these different things that change from song to song. To me, that’s what I feel was so great about “Full Collapse”; that there are all of these different feelings running through it and it wasn’t just one feeling.

So you’re talking about it being the same in terms of its emotional expressions rather than musical?
Yeah. I think that and also kind of musically, I think that it’s just weird. I think that or whatever reason, I think that “Full Collapse” is sort of like the same emotional record. I think that it’s like a pretty funny thing to say for a band that gets called “emo” sometimes, but I think that “Full Collapse” really does bring out those feelings, those honest feelings. With this one, I find that it seemed to happen in a very similar way. It’s having a similar effect on people where it’s almost calming. You’ll get a super vulnerable song and then you’ll get a super angry song and then you’ll get this kind of upbeat and joyous song. I think that all of those things working together and the sound of the music is just really fresh which I think is what I meant by a return. It’s a substance.

I can’t believe that it only took seven days to record it album. That’s a pretty extraordinary effort! Was it just a case of having these pent up expressions that needed to be recorded as soon as possible?
Yeah, I think it was sort of the chemistry of the band matching up with our producer Dave; really working with us with it. So much of this record I chalk up to us being a band for such a long time. I think the sounds and just everything. Like, Tim and Tucker – our bass player and drummer – play something together and the rhythmus just work. No matter what style they’re playing, it just works. They have a really special thing together. The fact that they’ve been battling it out all of these years to try and find a balance has worked and they’ve kind of found it now. I didn’t write any songs on this one from a musical standpoint on guitar, so I really focused just on singing and writing the vocals and the lyrics. I think that it really shows. I think that you can really tell how much thought I’ve put into the lyrics on this record.

Do you have any favorites at the moment?
I think that the band’s collective favorite is the second song “No Answers”.

Any specific reason for that one?
I think that we all just really think that it’s a beautiful song and it’s also maybe the most unexpected song on the record. It just has this massive Daft Punk intro… kind of, that you would just never expect from us. The chorus of the song explodes in a whole bunch of different ways that Thursday never does. I don’t know… it’s weird. The instrumentation is really light and the vocals are really dark and I think that the contrast really works for some reason.

During your recent tour with Underoath you selected a small group of very lucky fans that got the privilege to listen to some tracks from “No Devolucion” before it’s release at every show. How did they respond to being able to hear it so far in advance?
Well I think that we were playing with loaded dice there because when you bring fans on the bus and hang out with them and ask them if they’re thirsty or anything that just the fact that them being on the bus is going to make them kind of like whatever they hear because they’re all just psyched to be there. We just get them all into the bus and get them comfortable and just for a little while. They all loved it but I always said “well, wait till you get home and then you might not like it as much!”

Have you been playing many of the new tracks like yet?
Yeah, on this tour with Underoath we’ve been playing “Full Collapse” from front to back and we’ve been closing with “Turnpike Divides” every night and it’s such a great closer so I think we’re going to keep that as a closer in our set. When we leave for Europe in a week we’ll be playing a whole bunch of the new record for the first time.

The shows that you were playing with Underoath were for the “Full Collapse” 10th anniversary. It’s such a significant album for so many people and just such an important album in the scene. How are you feeling about that album ten years on? Is it something that you guys can still relate to?
Well, first of all I think that it’s a pretty unbelievable thing to be in a band that has a record that’s lasted for ten years that people are still feeling close to and come to see us play. I guess that I didn’t ever think that I was going to be a part of something that lasted that long and that had that much of an impact. That in itself was pretty overwhelming; to see every night everybody there singing along ten years later. The first few nights felt a little bit weird. It felt like a cover band, not us. Now I just remember one night, looking over at my band and I totally had this flashback of what it was like to be in the band when we were first touring in a van and playing to nobody on these songs. From then on, it was just second nature. I remember being that person once that loved these songs so much. I got to basically live that part of my life again. It’s sort of a strange thing but I’m really thankful for it.

Is it that you guys are tapping into the emotions that you had when recording and performing that album or do you find that you have a new attachment to the material now?
No, it’s the same. It gave me the same feeling that it did back then. I think that we’re a much tighter band now that we have all of this chemistry and history behind us. I felt just like I did when I was a kid playing those songs. A bunch of our friends have been coming to the shows and have been saying that they haven’t seen me get that animated in so many years! It’s like my body forgot that I was getting older. It was just remembering being a kid… it’s crazy when I think about it.

So, we hear you’re due to play Soundwave Revolution later on this year?
Isn’t that awesome?!

Was it always your intention to come back and do Soundwave again?
Well, we did it the very first year and they’ve just been talking about getting us back forever. We kind of kept on putting out records at the wrong time to make a date work for us. This year it was just perfect. They said “Well, as soon as you guys put out that record we’re doing this new tour and we’re looking for bands to be a part of it and you guys were part of what made the first Soundwave a success so come on! Let’s do it!” We’ll just take any chance to tour Australia.

Are you looking to come back and play some headlining shows of your own to support the new record? It’s been quite some time since you’ve played a club show down here!
Well I do know that the idea at least for now is that we’re going to do one off shows and they’re both going to be “Full Collapse” in support of the ten year anniversary. We’re hoping to have another big show and play “No Devolucion” in a small club while we get to play “Full Collapse” to the old school fans.

The first Soundwave feels like it was years and years ago but it was only three years ago now! What is it that you’re most looking forward to about coming back down and playing shows in Australia?
I can’t even think of one specific thing because we kind of love everything about Australia. The people are so nice, the weather is always better than it is here and it’s just a great place to play music. People love music and people have a great appreciation for music there. It’s funny; I don’t think that it’s just because it’s not like you guys are starved for music and shows, I just think that you have some really passionate music fans. It’s not like you guys don’t have anything going on, I just think that you’re really interested in music. People aren’t even really THAT interested in music in the U.S so I think that it’s great.

I know that the full line-up hasn’t been released yet, but are there any bands that you’re keen to check out when you’re down here?
Well I heard some rumors about of other bands that would be a pleasure to play with. I think that Every Time I Die is on it and they’re our homies. It’ll be fun!

I’m just about to run out of time so I just have one more question for you today; you’re about to embark on releasing your most ambitious album to date, well in my opinion anyway. How are you feeling on the eve of “No Devolution’s” release?
It’s amazing. We’re really proud to be playing the songs. Although these are new ideas and new lyrics we’ve grown really attached to them. It’s really funny; you go out and you play these new songs and everyone kind of just stands there. Then you play an old song and people go nuts, singing along and stuff. You just think to yourself why don’t people like the new stuff? It’s not that they don’t like it, it’s just that they’re not used to it and they don’t even know what it’s going to be like until they see it live. It’s a weird situation to find yourself in when you know that people aren’t going to react to it but you still are so excited to play it.

I guess it’s perfect that you’re coming in September then because it gives your fans down here more than enough time to fully digest and appreciate the record!
Yeah! I hope that it catches on well down there! It’s been a really overwhelming time. The press has been amazing over here and over in Europe so I hope that the people over in Australia love it to because to me it’s my second home. I love Australia.

I have no doubt that it’ll do well down here. It’s a remarkable record and I really can’t wait to see these songs come to life.
Thank you. I really can’t wait to come down there and play them!

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Thursday - No Devolucion
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You can order a copy online now on CD or Vinyl [Here] with free postage.

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