A couple of days ago, I was able to schedule an in-person interview with Teppei Teranishi of Thrice in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss the band’s excellent new record called Horizons/West. In this interview, I asked Teppei about the writing process of a few key songs on the new LP, the vinyl reissue plans of key albums like The Alchemy Index, and much more. Thrice are currently wrapping up their fall tour, and tickets are on sale here.
Thank you so much for your time today, Teppei. Let’s start off by talking about how your band approached this current tour with Modern Color and Downward. How’d you go about not only building the set list for this tour, but also getting paired up with these two bands?
So I’m gonna credit Riley with the suggestions for Modern Color and Downward. I’m almost as positive it was him. Riley’s like the one in the band that’s got his ear to the ground, and he kind of knows all the new bands coming up. And I’m probably the worst at that. But, I’m pretty sure he was the one that, when we started talking about a tour, he started talking about the support bands. And so our booking agent will take submissions from other booking agents, and then we’ll come up with our own kind of wishlist kind of thing. And then between that, we’ll just comb through things. And then, it’ll all just kind of get narrowed down to the two or maybe three at best that we’ll have out. So that was that. And then the setlist. The setlist was difficult. I mean, with every single record we put out, it gets more and more <tricky>.
You have such a rich discography to choose from, obviously!
Yeah, so many songs now, and it’s getting to the point where we could play one song from each record, and that’s probably a 40 minute set, at least. So, it gets hard, especially when putting out a new record, and we’re actually really excited about it. And so, we are obviously wanting to play all the new stuff because we’re excited about that <at that> moment. So it’s just a balance of trying to find the right mix of songs that we want to play, and that we think will be fun to play, because people want hear and then there’s a lot of logistics too between tuning changes, guitar changes, keyboards, and trying to figure out good transitions…a lot of moving parts.
Nice! So you recently announced a “Thrice”-mas vinyl reissue of Identity Crisis, your first record, as well as a cool new re-pressing of The Alchemy Index, which a lot of people have been asking for. So why do you think so many Thrice fans still point to your work in The Alchemy Index as some of your best material, and what are your most vivid memories from recording those sessions? It was just such a big undertaking, right?
I mean, I feel like it’s a pretty pivotal <album> because at least in my eyes, I think Vheissu was kind of a pivotal record, where we kind of pivoted into what we would eventually be doing, but I guess The Alchemy Index is kind of like taking the road of this is where we’re gonna really push our creativity and really, kind of push them in each direction, really far. And, yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it’s a unique concept and unique set of records that we haven’t even really kind of gone back to.
Did you want to do anything different with the vinyl pressing? Obviously, they’re both 12 inch pressings now, rather than 10 inch ones that you did for Vagrant.
I guess just change it up a little bit with different colors for the next repress. And yeah, now it’ll be two 12” sets instead of four 10” records.
I think the new pressing is a bit more conducive for the people that have the automatic turntables that put it on the exact 12 inch setting. We always argue about it in our Chorus vinyl community, about the 10 inches, and we’re kind of grumbling over how it looks different on the shelf. But yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep things interesting! So let’s shift gears now and talk about your excellent new LP called Horizons West. It continues down the artistic path that you first set out on 2021’s Horizons East. So what inspired you guys to dive deeper into this sequel, per se of your previous album, which is now your 12th studio album to date?
Yeah, it was a fun process. So, the two records were supposed to be a little closer together as far as release dates originally. The idea was that we were gonna, more or less, record everything, kind of like Radiohead did with Kid A and Amnesia, as far as I understand, it was kind of like the same recording session. That was the idea. But we didn’t end up doing it. I think it was one of those things where we finished doing East, and we just found ourselves being burnt out, and just a little bit creatively tapped. And the idea of going right back in the studio again and recording, writing and everything just felt a little daunting, which didn’t feel like the right way to approach it. So we decided, we’ll just come back to it, we’ll tour on this. We’ll do whatever we need to do, and when we feel ready, we’ll come back to it, which I think was a good plan.
Yeah, for sure. It gave the fans time to absorb the first material and get ready for the next one.
Sure, and creatively for us, too, I think we came back to it feeling refreshed and ready. And I do think it’s interesting too…I think the two records would have had more of a similar feel, maybe had we done them at the same time, or closer together. I feel like there’s a pretty distinct difference. We just did a signing at a record store the other day, and they were playing both East and West as we were doing <the record signing>. And we realized, as we were listening to East, as it was just playing, we’re like, “wow, we didn’t really realize how much sleepier this record is.” Which I think is cool.
East is definitely “vibey.”
Yeah, but I feel like the new record has a little more energy, and it’s got a sense of urgency to it, too.
Yeah, so what do you guys plan to do next? Is there gonna be a Horizons: North & South? Or do you guys want to try something completely different?
Yeah, we’ve been asked that. No, I don’t think there will be a North & South, so we’ll just move on from that. But who knows? We haven’t really talked about it yet. Still very early…
I mean, you are still supporting the new record. So, I have to ask about Dustin’s and your guys’ vocal performance on “Vesper Light.” What were some of the biggest challenges in pulling off some of the vocal harmonies and also some of the big falsetto parts on that key track on Horizons West?
Yeah, that’s funny. So the falsetto on the verses of that, I feel like it’s been a bit of a talking point, which was totally unexpected. So when we first released that track on the <new> record, I guess we were getting so many comments like, “Oh, who’s singing the verses?” And we’re like, “What do you mean? It’s clearly Dustin…”
Yeah, I figured it was him based on the vocal cadence, but it’s kind of stretching the boundaries of his range. And Dustin’s obviously got a great vocal range…
We’re around him a lot more, so I don’t know if it’s just second nature for us. I know he could do that. But yeah, we’ve gotten a lot of questions of, “That’s Dustin, right?” I guess it’s like, he does falsetto a decent amount, but maybe it’s more in passing…
Sure, yeah. And there’s a reason for it, usually, within the song. I think of some of the spots on The Alchemy Index, like “Daedalus”, that’s another one of those “floating” kinds of songs. He does some of that too. And that was a small teaser for what you guys did on the new record, too.
Yeah. And also, he does a lot of harmonies falsetto that maybe people don’t realize is falsetto just because they’re tucked back a bit. But since I’m recording, and I hear it, it just sounds normal to me. So yeah, that’s just Dustin on <the verses>
That’s really impressive. So what about the recording process of the single, “Gnash”. Can you walk me through your band’s process for this one?
Honestly, that was a pretty straightforward song to record. So, on the verses, they are actually just guitars and bass.
Oh, wow. So no effects and stuff like that?
No, so they are running through quite a lot of effects to make it sound like that. But, it’s just guitars. There’s no synths, and stuff like that. I don’t believe they’re on the verses, more on the chorus, right? I mean, it’s pretty straightforward. I’m trying to think if we did anything differently…
Remind me, did you have a producer for the new album?
So we self recorded it, and we produced to an extent, and then our good friend Scott Evans, mixed it. So we worked with Scott ever since Horizons East. He also did the remix, or the re-record of Artist In the Ambulance, and then a couple of singles that we put out after East, which were part of the same sessions as East, he made those, so we’ve worked with him a number of times now, and he’s incredible. Yeah, he’s got a really great ear, and I think he plays in a really cool band called Kowloon Walled City.
I’ve never heard of that band, but I’ll have to check them out.
Ok, yeah, so he comes from a band perspective, so he really understands, I think, where we’re coming from as far as what we want to hear <in our music>. So I feel like we’ve struck a really good partnership with him. We self-recorded West, and then he mixed it, and then along the way, we would kind of hit him with some questions of, “Hey, what do you think about this?”
So, it sounds like he’s your band’s trusted ear, kind of thing?
Yeah, so he’s kind of co-produced in that sense as well.
Nice. And was that your guy’s first time self-producing?
No, actually, we’ve done it quite a bit starting with Alchemy. So, Alchemy wasn’t really supposed to be a Thrice record, per se. We were thinking about it more, almost like a side project.
That’s really interesting! I don’t think I’ve seen your band mention that before…
Yeah, so we were thinking about this kind of weird, heavy side project that we were gonna do, where we were gonna really lean into the four elements part of it. And we weren’t necessarily expecting the songs to be as solid as they were, I guess. I think we were thinking there’d be some, even just soundscape, stuff on it. But as we were writing it, we realized, “shoot, we’re actually coming up with cool stuff in these songs. Maybe this should be a record…” But anyway, so because of that, we’d already decided, “Okay, we’re gonna try and record this ourselves.” And that already set us on that path. So we stuck with that. So we did it on Alchemy, and also Beggars.
That’s right…!
So Alchemy, actually, we did fully. So I’m the one in the band that engineered it. So I engineered it and mixed it as well, actually. But I haven’t mixed a record since then. But I engineered Beggars and…what else…? Oh, Palms. Palms, we kind of did half and half. We did the drums and vocals with Eric Palmquist, who did To Be Everywhere…, and then all the guitars and bass and whatever else we did on our own. And then Horizons East and West, we went back to just fully doing ourselves with Scott mixing it.
That’s awesome. So I absolutely love how you guys do such cool designs for each of your LPs. I brought two of them here as little visuals for us to kind of look at. So this is Horizons East and then Horizons West, of course. So where do you guys find most inspiration for your cover art?
So both of these records were done by our good friend, Jordan Butcher, and he’s just an incredible graphic designer. He’s done a number of records for us. Palms, too. I mean we’ll send him sort of like early versions of songs or rough mixes or whatever. We might have to give it to him early and sort of like give him a vague idea of what we’re thinking, but he kind of usually just runs with it and does his own design usually. And he always comes up with these really cool ideas. He’s great.
How much advance notice do you have to give him? And for the designs, do you let him listen to the album in full and then kind of see what he comes up with? Or is there a collaborative process?
It’s collaborative in that he’ll show us what he’s thinking, and we’ll sort of cherry pick. Like, with West, he came up with a concept, and then just gave us a rough deck of what he was thinking. Here’s some possible directions. And so we kind of would choose, like, “Okay, we like these colors. Or, this is kind of what we’re feeling.” And he’s like, “okay,” and then just started putting that together. <The West cover> that’s all hand-painted stuff. And the deluxe vinyl actually is gonna be bonkers.
Yeah! I heard of some people that pre-ordered that, and they’re so stoked!
So, with that, he built the concept around the deluxe vinyl, and so that’s gonna be crazy. There’s gonna be tack on the hole through where it’s a translucent, inner jacket. That’s also a lyric thing. Yeah, so he went nuts with that, and we actually haven’t even seen it yet.
Oh, really? Do you have an estimated arrival date for the deluxe vinyl?
I think we do. I don’t know what it is <at the moment>.
The last question I have for you, Teppei, is when you guys ever decide to walk away from the music scene for the last time…hopefully, many, many, years down the road, what do you hope fans will remember most about your band’s discography?
I don’t know, I’m proud of the fact that we’ve always sort of done our own thing. I know we’ve been pigeon-holed into certain genres, or whatever in the past, but I always feel like we’ve just sort of been in our own bubble, or just kind of taken our own path. We never really followed scenes or movements or whatever. And I think that’s pretty cool. That would be cool to be remembered by that. I mean, ever since we started, I remember trying to play shows locally. It was always weird, because we never really fit into any one show. So we would play the local hardcore show, but we were “too” melodic. You know, we sang too much for the hardcore shows, and then we would play a pop-punk show, but we were screaming too much…So, we never really quite fit in with anything. But in hindsight, I think that’s cool.
Yeah, and genre lines are blurring anyways, more and more, so if you can write good songs, it doesn’t matter what genre you’re in. And you guys do that.
Thank you!
It was great chatting with you. Can’t wait for the show tonight!
Thanks, Adam.