Interview

Thom is here from Planning For Burial, he's come all the way out to uh, play us a little live set, thanks so much for making it out

No problem, I always enjoy this [laughs]

This is a little bit of a tradition for us, this is uh, the third time, we skipped last year

Yeah

Um, but its good to be back, good to have you back on the show. So uh, what have you been up to, what's new?

I have uh the new full length, Desideratum, I know, I think on the first show I was like "yeah it's never coming out I'm never gonna do it", Uh, I spent a lot of time last year probably... all of uh, I'd say a good portion of the summer from may to august or so and then again from october through dеcember I'd finished rеcording it um, it's coming out on Flenser Records this year, I think in May sometime, I'm not definite on that but that album's done... I spent, like I've been thinking about this a lot lately, compared to what i recorded in 2012 to what i did last year, um and I have another tape on Bathetic Records, uh I have a couple splits, they're not done yet but, working towards those so I have been keeping busy with actually recording lately

That's great, so what splits with uh, with who?

Uh one band is called Liar In Wait, it's, they're from Chicago, Minneapolis? I think it's more like a supergroup kind of in a way just a bunch of guys who've made a couple things, uh third one's gonna be a three way split with Foie Gras, I don't even know if I pronounced that right, sorry Iphi, and King Woman, they're both from California, two female artists doing drone and, they're really great

I: Very cool these people you played with and you were touring in the [?]?

Uh, no these are just, friends

Just friends

That I met, um, King Woman also does a project called Miserable, and she sang on the last Whirr EP, she was the female singer on that. So yeah, and then Iphi does Foie Gras, I am, like I said I might be pronouncing that wrong I'm sorry, but uh, She's just uh, some friends from out, when I went out to the west coast

Very cool, awesome. Speaking of tour are you got any uh tour plans coming up I know that you're playing a show tonight

Um, yeah, in march I'm gonna do like uh... I guess southeast and midwest? Which will probably I'll go all the way down to Georgia, come back up around through, Michigan, Ohio and all that, that's uh 11 days, 12 day tour I think, I planned out, that's pretty much going on, gonna announce all the dates formerly, I guess, um. Give or take depending on my job situation, june I'm gonna do two to three weeks which will be a full year, and possibly Europe in march- or not march uh, end of the year probably

Europe huh? This is gonna be the second time you're going to Europe

Yeah the first time was more like I went on vacation and happened to play three shows with some friends while i was there, on a lot of borrowed gear. Like even borrowed guitars I brought some pedals and my drum machine and that was it

So you're doing something a little more organized this time?

I think this will go on to be actually more organized but it's not definite it was just like something talked to me about really briefly but it's not definite and I was told not to keep my hopes up, so

So, speaking of your new material when you're, when you're writing there's definitely this certain, a certain mood to everything you write, um, it's definitely got a feel to it. Is this something that is, comes naturally to you? is this something that you- what's your inspiration for writing?

Inspiration, that's a hard question, I find myself when im writing it just, it comes from me just being in my living room or something and kinda just playing around with my guitar. if you notice from my louder material and quieter material yeah it does have the same feeling. And I've been trying to pinpoint why, for my whole entire life that's kind of like, more like, I don't know, more mellow, more... downtempo even? but sometimes I think it comes from like 80s ballads I used to hear in like the dentist's office something like that, where it sounded really warm but at the same time, they're really depressing and I think like those kind of songs and like, that kind of structure has just like, stuck with me

Definitely say you're the first person ever to tell me their inspiration comes from music they heard in the dentist' office

Like, you know what I'm talking about like Tears For Fears, all that stuff, you, you're my age so like, when you're like, early/late 80s, early 90s like they have like magicFM or whatever on and like, there was a certain mood to it and my parents listened to that kind of stuff it was always around so like, I just have a thing for like, warm 80s big huge ballads

Well it comes through. When you're writing lyrics, what's your inspiration for writing lyrics?

I would say lately it's more like I write very vaguely, like I have songs that are just titled after dates of things that happened, and I think if people read them they wouldn't necessarily know what's going on, but I write them vaguely enough that I know whats happened on those days and, I leave it up to people to decide what they want on things but, I feel like take the Mark Kozelek route where I'm just very plainly writing at same exact time, just everyday things that I'm dealing with

Think friends ever wonder if you're writing about them?

I think a couple friends know exactly I'm writing about them [Laughing]

[Laughing]; So when you're writing as a soloist, uh I can imagine that's very different than uh than writing as part of a band

Yeah I spent a lot of years in bands, and the solos aspect is, to me a lot better, I think that's why I like it because, i can work at my own pace, like the songs from the new album... pretty much have been done three years ago but I've been working on them a little here and there through the live setting and stuff, whereas if you're in a band you wanna hammer those songs and get done and keep moving on to new ones whereas... I mean at times though it's not a great thing to be a soloist too because then sometimes you wanna bounce ideas off people and be like "well alright, and what if I get stuck in a rut like I'm doing the same thing over and over, I worry about those kinds of things a lot too as a solo artist

You ever get sick of hearing yourself in your own music?

I think in 2012 I did, there was a while there where I didn't enjoy playing, um, I could, I have an archive on [?] website where I can see setlists and everything, cause I keep track of all the stuff I play and I can just tell like, I wasn't playing sets at shows I would just like, start doing things and then just stop and be like "eugh, not feeling this" like I don't know, I just think a couple of years ago I just wasn't feeling, just wasn't doing anything for me
What changed?

I don't know! um, I think I started trying to get a little more serious about it again, cause I realized I was like 'Alright, people are coming out to see me play shows and I'm just, here just, fuckin around and not really giving them what they paid for'. And I'll admit there was times where people came up to me whereas I felt like I didn't give it my all, and people would really appreciate my set, but I felt like I really needed to put everything into it all the time

Do you feel how much of your music do you think is for you and how much do you think is for others?

Um, I would say a 100% of my music is for myself, um, I've actually had this talk with people before that, I got lucky with Enemies List picking up Leaving, but I put it out four months, on my own, before Enemies List even got involved in it, and I recorded it because that's what I was doing, I was making music for myself in my basement, I think two other friends may have heard it, So I feel like even now I still would just make music for myself if I had never got to the level of somewhat internet popularity or whatever and having people come to shows, I mean it's nice being able to play shows to people but, same time I would probably still be home recording, for myself

Do you feel like as a soloist you have a commitment to a certain style?

No. Well, I think a lot of times people want that, but I don't feel like I am. Because I do the quiet releases I do drone releases, I have my heavier releases, I'm all over the place sometimes I mix it all up, I think thats the best part about being a solo artist is I can do whatever I want

Is there something you wanna do that you haven't done?

Write a really good pop song

[laughs] what's stopping you?

Well, I just, I just don't think I'm capable of, that's not my level, And I'm not talking about pop stuff like Britney Spears, I'm thinking in terms of like the first True Widow record, like you listen to them there are really downer songs and really slowcore but they are like, the best pop songs EVER, like that's what I'm talking about like, I don't think I do like hooks well, because my thing is I really like, I get on a part, I like repetition and I like just getting in the groove, and I can't ever get myself past that sometimes and I feel like, I don't have the pop song structure

What do you think appeals to you about the repetition? You have a lot of loop pedals here and that's something I'd like to talk to you about as well, um, but you know a lot of this is looping, a lot of this is manipulating the same sort of sounds, what- what speaks to you in repetition and endless drone?

Um, I think about it in even kind of like works I like to do, like I could sit and fold letters all day long, it's not a job I could do but I've done this before for like a mailing list, same thing with like running a label doing mailings, I just love the constant movement I think it comes through in my music too because I just like, The best- I thought about it too is like, I grew up listening to metalcore and stuff like that so, and you'd get to a part of the song like "that part is- amazing!" and it would never play it again it would be like, split second in the song and like I'd try to like, I'd find the best parts and I wanna play them over and over, and then again the building thing I think comes from like, my love of 90s alternative rock like PJ harvey and stuff, if you really listen to that stuff, it's the same chords going through the entire song and then its layered different things on top of it and i think a lot of that influenced how I do things as well

How likely are you to analyze things like this when you write them, You're doing a lot of, a lot of analyzation of other songs, songs that inspire you, do you do this, do you go through the same level of analyzation of your own songs?

I don't think so? I think with like 'Leaving' I did a lot 'cause I built that over 3 years, and with 'Desideratum' the new album yeah I built the songs for that long, but I wasn't recording them I wasn't like, recording how one version of it, adding something, taking it apart, listening to it, it was pretty much, those songs I had finished, I knew exactly what parts I wanted to do, and the recordings of them were really quick, and it was just about finding time to finish, finish them, but I don't think I analyzed them enough, I think a lot of times now I got the point where like it's done, that's it, here you guys go

So you say you don't think you analyzed them enough, do you regret sometimes releasing things hastily?

There's always things you could change, but that's part of it, like I purposefully left on the new record, there's a couple parts where like I-I don't know if anyone's gonna hear it-but clearly just: wrong piano note! But it was spur of the moment I was in the middle of recording it was like a moment so it's there, so

The last time you played live, with us here, you were, a lot of it was improv we had a piano in the studio

Yeah

Um, and a lot of it was improv and I remember there was a moment where you hit the wrong chord, but then you just ran with it

Yeah, yeah

Y'know you made it your own

I think that's definitely it, I don't believe in going through recordings and fixing things in the mix, as they would say, I'm a human. I make mistakes, and it comes through in the recordings and, I mean people have seen me play live, Ive turned loops off and songs just end, I think my recent show in Brooklyn, happened during the first song I just hit the loop on the wrong way and it turned the whole [?] song off and that was it, it happened, mistakes happen

Very cool
So, let's talk a little about your gear here, um, I've taken a couple pictures here, the pictures will be up on the blog, um, and this is one thing I've always wanted to, to delve into a little bit more, about your gear, you've got, you got 3 pedalboards, you have 2 pedalboards here, a keyboard, you've got a drum machine, tell me a little bit about this setup

I've actually, I guess I do analyze things a lot, this setup is pretty much been the same the last few years, I don't have any crazy routing it's pretty much one pedal right into the other, Um. Towards the end of the line I have a, a [?] c3 that I use for some looping but most of the time I just save drones on it, and backing things, and I'm not talking about like backing drum beats and stuff like that, usually like at the end of the song August 29th 2012, there's that little repetitious like weird thing, that's saved on there

Is that, are they notes taped to the front of the?

Yeah uh, a couple notes here are, I have open 'cause usually I open my first sets up with like an opening drone, I have the drone for August 29th, I have a few speech parts that get played in between songs, they're on there, I have a whole notebook with everything thats filled but these are like main setup on it. Before that is the Strymon El Capistan, it's a really awesome delay pedal but I don't actually use it as a delay, I use it more because it's a great analogue delay with ah, some digital features such as like a [?] tempo and like everything on it, but I use it more because the analogue side of it I use it for a filter, so when it sounds like that really tape warbly sound, it's coming from the El Cap

How much of your live set is improvisation?

It depends, I think when I play my heavier sets, not as much anymore I remember when I was starting to work on the songs there was parts I would- like every show it would be a little bit different, I mean even now it's not dead on, everything the same exact way every time, but I'm trying to keep like the live sets a little less improvised now because, I wanna play the songs from the records in a way, when i try to do quiet sets, like tonight, I only have a vague idea of what I wanna do and then I usually run with it. But uh, there's usually things when I'm playing live shows, I'll think about like alright i need to make a transition and a lot of that stuff is more improvised than the actual songs themselves

So tell me a little about the label you mentioned the label earlier, the label is Music Ruins Lives

Um, it has ceased to begin, or it's done

Yeah?

Um, it just, like, last year at this time international shipping rates went up extremely, um, the customs process for doing stuff it just got really hard for me to keep up with because I was taking all the international orders only like 3 or 4 at a time, like once a week, and then I would get really backed up, people would start emailing "Hey where's my orders" I just finished like, today is, February 9th and I just got the last of 'Leaving' boxsets out even though most of the US people have had them for a month already now it's just, it's because it takes so long to do it and it just, it's eating up my life and I think in 2012 again, when I was talking about how I wasn't really recording much, I was spending a lot of time at the label that year and I feel like I wasn't working on my music as much, I'm not saying like, yeah it's done right now but I might do something with it later on it's always there but right now its... back burner

So, now that you have more time you're focusing on your music, I mean not doing releases but do you miss being able to do it, why'd you start the label in the first place?

Well we started the label in order to get some out for myself and a couple friends, and we really liked uh, what we were getting back from it, a lot of people seemed to enjoy the releases we were doing and we enjoyed searching out new bands, then we hit a snap there for a little bit where, a couple people we were working with were less than, great, as people so, we, that started slowing us down a little bit too, but I think the biggest thing was the, the way the actual mail system has become for us, is what really put a slow down cause I still love finding new music and releasing things, I wanna help people

Have you considered like uh, digital distribution? Say, as a substitute?

I mean yes, I do that with all my out of print stuff and the out of print stuff from the label, but at that point I don't think you really need a label for that, I mean things like Bandcamp and all that, you should be able to put it up yourself and maybe if you put it my way I do, like I've, I will always link to things I really enjoy but I don't think you really need a label per se for digital sampling on that, but for my own stuff yes I will put digital up 'cause I want people to still hear things that were out of print and everything

True, absolutely. So, what have you been hearing lately that you absolutely enjoy?

Uh, this is not a local artist or small artist but I've been really into the new Sun Kil Moon album, I know it comes out next week but y'know, pirating, all that, I will buy it when it comes out Mark, sorry

[jokingly] Yeah pirating, whats that?

Yeah, Mark Kozelek has always done it for me and these last couple records he's done with Sun Kil Moon have really been getting to me, a lot of Tim Hecker, his last one, ah I'm trying to think, the new Have A Nice Life I've been listening to a ton of, um, I'm constantly changing 'cause like, I update my iPod almost every day when I go to work so I have something new to listen to. I spent a lot of time last year going through older stuff as well, like spending more time with my actual music collection I've had... Big album I've, I never actually put out a year end list last year but my favorite album last year was 'Country Sleep' by the band Night Beds, I just found out about them through a random tweet when they played at South By SouthWest, saw the CD on the shelf, at the records store and bought it because of it, never heard anything, and it was, I can't stop listening to it, it's kind of like americana in a way but, kinda like, again, depressing and stuff, but, the melodies and everything he does that's- I would find myself humming them all the time

Very cool

So when I talked about pop songs before I also think in terms of that kinda stuff too it's like, just great great songs

[laughs] Well, very cool, as always thanks so much for coming out

[?] This is great

Anything else you want to uh, get off your chest?

Nah I think I got everything out, pretty much

Alright

Alright, cool!

Well thanks so much man

Awesome

Talk to you soon