Thrice – Riley Breckenridge, Drums

Saturday, April 1, 2006

So first of all, how has the tour been going thus far?

It’s been really, really cool. We had heard a lot of good things about it when he heard about it initially. We have friends in ‘My Chem’ and The Used, who both did it last year, and they said really good things about it. We knew that most of the production crew and people behind the scenes are all the same people from The Warped Tour. And, uh, I had a really good feeling about it going in. So far it’s been, you know, nothing but good times, good people and good bands. So, it’s been awesome.

Well, you guys just jumped off a Fall headlining tour in 05’, and now Thrice is co-headlining the Taste of Chaos. How would you compare this tour to past ones?

I think with the headlining tour we did, obviously because it’s our headlining tour, there were maybe more people there to see us. But the reason you do a tour like the Taste of Chaos is to play in front of people who might not check you out on a headlining tour. So, it’s been cool. I definitely prefer doing our own stuff just because we are doing smaller clubs and it’s a little more intimate. But, this is really cool because there are people who listen to the Deftones who probably don’t even know who we are, and there are people who listen to Story of the Year who probably don’t even care who we are, and you just have a chance to get your music to more people.

Branch out to different genres?

Yea, having a new record out is definitely a really good way to get that music out to more people.

I read recently that you guys were chosen by AOL to be part of their ‘breakers’ program, which allows bands to be featured in high profile campaigns on the aol.music.com page. Are you guys excited to be recognized by such an acclaimed news medium like AOL?

Um, I think any way that you can get your music out to people is beneficial. I think with the AOL thing, like I said, the parallel between that and the Taste of Chaos, but on a whole grander scale, you get people that go to the AOL homepage everyday who have no idea who we are. Who knows if they’ll check it out, but maybe they will and if they like what they hear, that’s always a good thing. Anyway that we can get our music out to people is cool with us.

The bands got to be excited about the new album debuting at #15 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the highest debut billboard position for any of the bands previous albums.

Yea. That was pretty cool, pretty crazy.

Was it surprising?

Um, definitely. I mean I think we debuted at #16 or #17 for the last record and its something. I mean when we started this band in a garage in Orange County and we were playing like house parties and there was no aspirations of touring or getting signed or any of that stuff, being part of the Billboard top 200 is not even something you’d even think about. If somebody mentioned it to you you’d just laugh at them and tell them they’re insane. So for it to happen is definitely very cool and very surreal.

Switching over to the new album, when the band was coming up with the concept and sound for Vheissu, were you guys more worried at all from losing any loyal fans of your older material, or more excited to gain new fans who respect evolving music and experimentation?

I think we were definitely very excited to try new things and experiment and have time to incorporate new instrumentation and really have time to get comfortable with the songs in the studio. We took longer to make this record than we have ever taken. There is always something deep down inside that thinks, oh well if we don’t have metal riffs and double bass and scream all the time, we’re going to lose the kids that really like that. But, I think if u start gearing your music towards a certain section of your fanbase, you totally destroy whatever creative process that’s going on. The whole magic of music to me and the rest of the guys is creating, and if you stifle that by trying to live up to somebody else’s expectations or their goals for your band, it compromises it and it would make it feel more like a job then an art. That’s never going to be something that we do. We’re just going to make music that moves us and hopefully people will enjoy it.

Thrice has been known to give a portion of there album sales to a charity the band is passionate about. You have been known to give to such charities such as ‘Invisible Children’ which focuses on raising awareness for the taking of Ugandan children from their homes. Describe to me the 826 Valencia charity with which the band is working with now.

We’re actually working with both of those at the same time. The ‘Invisible Children’ thing was something we learned about when we were on that fall tour with Underoath. Some of the guys came out and gave us the DVD and we watched it. I think its pretty much impossible to watch the DVD that these guys made and not be moved and not want to help in some way, whether it be money, or donating your time, or buying a T-shirt or buying the bracelets that they sell because it’s a really crappy situation in Uganda and I’d encourage people to check that out. The website is www.invisiblechildren.com. And then 826 Valencia was started by an author named Dave Eggers who did that artwork for the record, and it’s a place where kids can go and get tutored and further their creative writing skills. It’s not set up in like a lame school detention like atmosphere. It’s really fun and the people that work there are all young. Its inspiring kids to be creative and so we are really glad to be associated with that. Dave Eggers actually came out to the show last night and we just made the first donation to that charity and they said it was the largest donation that they’ve ever received from someone who’s not like some multimillionaire or some star. He was really blown away and grateful for the donation and seeing that response, that’s why we do what we do, is to affect people in a positive way. It was really gratifying and encouraging and inspiring.

Would you say that the video for “Image of the Invisible” is based on the ‘Invisible Children’ charity?

Actually, it isn’t which is really weird and kind of creepy. We had just finished making that video and started the Underoath tour and watching the Invisible Children C DVD and knowing what we had put into our video we thought that these two were way to similar and that there is something that needs to happen here. It was like a sign or something that they were so closely linked. It was just really weird how that worked out.

Based on that, after viewing the “Image of the Invisible” video, it seems that you guys are leaning a little toward a more cinematic music video. Have any of you guys thought of dabbling in film?

Um, I don’t know. I think it would be really fun to do a concept EP and then make maybe a short film to go along with that. We’ve expressed a ton of interest in doing movie scores and having our song as a part of a soundtrack. So it’s really something that is interesting to us. We just got to through out that we’re willing to do it and hope that some people are interested.

Focusing back on the Taste of Chaos Tour, it seems that the Taste of Chaos tour is really covering a lot of the spectrum of rock music, from Thursday, to Deftones, to even Dredg, which I never would have guessed to be on a tour like this. What type of music do the fans seem to be leaning toward at the shows?

Its kind of hard to say just because I think all the bands on the main stage have significant fan bases and they’re all here at these shoes. So its weird because you have these Deftones fans who may be a little older who were into Adreline years ago, and then you have metal heads who love As I Lay Dying, and then crossover metal and hardcore kids who like Atreyu. I think As I Lay Dying is totally killing it on this tour. They’re an amazing live band. I had never seen them before this tour, but they’re really really good at what they do. They put on a great show and have a killer light show. They are just totally killing it on this tour. People are losing their minds over them.

Are you into their music?

Yea. I had never really listened to them that much. I had heard tons of good stuff about them and seeing them on this tour, I’m sold.

I’ve come to understand that Thrice doesn’t fit the image of the typical touring rock band with all the partying and drinking. So what does the band do for fun on the road when you catch yourself with some down time?

There’s a lot of reading. We watch a lot of DVD’s. I mean there are times when we will go out, you know if there is a bus party or something when we’re on tour. We’ll go and hang out, like when we were on Warped tour last year we had band parties on our bus. We definitely don’t fit into the ‘rock star’ drink and do drugs in excess and like be promiscuous and that kind of thing. And its been important to us to be known like that because we are just normal guys are we aren’t in this get wasted and screw girls and forget what is important which is music. But at the same time I think its painted us in like this “oh man this band is super serious all the time and they’re really boring and all they do is read”. That’s not the case. I mean we still have fun and mess around.

Which authors do you enjoy?

Dave Eggers who did that artwork and works with ‘826’. I’m actually reading this book by this guy Malcom Gladwell who writes for The New Yorker and is kind of an author that mixes philosophy with business sense and sociological trends and its just really interesting. I just read the Barry Bonds steroid book which was pretty narly.

Do you guys have any plans once the Taste of Chaos tour wraps up?

We’re home for just long enough to do our laundry and pack our bags again to go to Europe for three weeks. And then we’re going to come home and take most of the summer off and then start writing as a band. We’ve all been working individually on new stuff so it’ll be cool to kind of in the middle of a touring cycle start writing a bit. Then put those songs on the shelf so we can get perspective on it and then when it comes time to actually make a record we’ll have a lot more to work with.

How long is your set tonight?

Um, I think 50 min. We are playing about thirteen songs or something.

Are you playing more material off Vheissu?

It gets harder with every record you put out because people want to hear old stuff and you want to play new stuff and then some people want to hear new stuff. It’s probably 45% Vheissu and then the rest is just bits and pieces from other records.

Any chance of you guys playing “To Awake and Avenge the Dead”?

Ummmm, no. haha

Oh, c’mon Riley.

We might be able to. Haha.

Well that is pretty much the extent of my interview Riley

Cool well thanks for coming by.

Definitely. Good luck tonight.