Close Encounters of the Thrice Kind

Against a gray November sky there are three successive explosions in the air. On the ground, car alarms awake from their slumber in reaction to the loud booms. The parking lot of a sports bar/concert venue is half full. Most of the cars belong to those fans of the Arizona State Sundevils football team, who've just scored some points thus inciting the fiery explosions. The few other cars belong to kids who are arriving early in anticipation of some different kinds of loud booms. Time in Malta, Coheed and Cambria, Hot Water Music, and Thrice have rolled their own version of gridiron play into town. And when these boys hit the stage, the explosiveness of their music and the energy in their sets are sure to set off a chain reaction of chaos much greater than that of measly car alarms. As a stiff breeze blows in from the West, random leaves and loose paper skip across the pavement as I make my way to the back door of the venue. I caught up with Riley Breckenridge, Thrice's drummer, before the show and this is how it went down.

Interview conducted in person by Doran Dalton. Pictures by Doran Dalton.

Name: Riley Breckenridge, drums
Band: Thrice

Bettawreckonize: So, how awesome is this tour so far?

Riley: This tour has been, by far, the coolest tour that we've ever been a part of just cause we're out with some of our favorite bands. They're all really, really good people, really fun to hang out with, and we're spending a lot of time outside of the shows with the bands. So, it's like totally bonding and just having a really good time.

BW: So, it's more like just being out with friends?

R: Totally, yeah.

BW: This year you guys made the jump from Sub City Records to Island/Def Jam. How is all that working out so far?

R: So far, so good. I mean, everything….not much has changed really, because we haven't put out a record on Island yet. But, um, they've been really supportive; they're helping Sub City with some advertising and getting interviews and stuff like that. Doing some press. They're not really involved all that much right now, but things are going really well.

BW: How did you guys hook up with Island?

R: Um, after we put out The Illusion of Safety, we started to get a lot of interest from majors and stuff like that. And, the guy that works at Island, that we ended up signing with, actually had come out to a show in Orange County, like a year and a half ago. Like, Identity Crisis was out and just to come out to the show and see what it was all about, and hang out and talk. And, not offering us anything or showing much interest, just wanting to see what we were all about. So, when all the major labels started talking to us again after Illusion Of Safety came out, he came back and we just had a really…..we'd developed kind of a relationship with him and felt really comfortable with the way that he wanted to work with us. Which was: letting us do things at our own pace and kinda letting us be in control and just sitting back, and just helping us do what we want to do. And we just felt really comfortable with him. And the whole label over there is like a family. It's like an indie but with major label money. So, everybody's really close knit, everybody hangs out together after work and after shows. They've been really supportive -- made the decision that we made, like….we're really happy with it because we know that they're good people.

BW: So, what do you guys have planned for the future? As far as recording, more tours?

(John Harris, sound guy for tour walks up)

John Harris: They're gonna have John Harris' babies.

R: Yeah, have John Harris' babies. He's doing sound for us on this tour, so hopefully I'll have his baby.

JH: A bunch of big, fat babies. TEN! Fat….

R: He's already pregnant, look at that. (John shows his stomach) See. He's about four months right now.

JH: That's a fat baby right there….Oh, sorry.

(everyone laughs for a minute or two)

R: OKAY! We're done with this tour like in a week. We'll be home in like the middle of November, and we have a lot of writing to do. And in January we're gonna start, or.…mid-January we're gonna start pre-production. Brian McTernan, who did the last record is gonna come out to LA and….

BW: He also did Hot Water Music, right?

R: Yeah, yeah and he's done Cave In, and Snapcase, and Strike Anywhere, a bunch of cool bands. He's gonna come out and hang out with us for a little while, and just kinda see what the new stuff is all about. Kinda get an ear for it, sound wise, and we're gonna do that. And then, February 1st, I think is the tentative date to start recording. We're gonna go out to New York and do drums and bass for like a week and a half or two weeks. And then go to Brian's house in Maryland, where we did the last record, for maybe five or six weeks or whatever, to do vocals, guitars, mixing, that kind of stuff. We're excited. We're finally gonna have time to really think about the record instead of just going in and being under the gun for time and money and stuff like that.

BW: So, you said you have a lot of writing to do. Is that something that you save for the studio, or are you writing all the time? Or coming up with ideas and stuff?

R: No, yeah, we've been writing ever since we recorded the last record, which was July of 2001. I think as soon as we got done recording we started writing again. Not necessarily as a band, but everybody just goes home and starts writing parts on acoustic guitar and thinking of ideas. Like, drum-wise, or vocal-wise, or melodies or something like that. So, we've been writing ever since then, it's just, it's more a matter of getting the time to get together as a band in a rehearsal studio and hash the songs out as a band. Because we have enough parts floating around for like three albums. But, we just haven't had the time to put them together and make sure that they work together and match up and stuff like that.

BW: What was the general response that you got from the fans when you guys switched over to the major?

R: For the most part it was pretty positive which was really, really cool and something we appreciated a lot, but there was also a decent amount of kids that were not happy with it. And, not for any real legitimate reasons really. It was all without really knowing what our situation was and the things that led to us making the decision. For people to question our integrity and not really have faith in us, and think that we're gonna turn into like the next Blink-182, or the next Sum 41 or something like that. Like, that's never been a goal of ours, and I don't think we sound like either of those bands, a lot of the negative e-mails I got were like, "I don't want to see you on TRL, and I don't want to see you touring with Sum 41," and stuff like that. And like it hurt a lot because like, I had hoped that people would have more faith in us, as a band and stuff. We're gonna do what we wanna do whether it's touring with some big band or making a video or being on the radio. We're gonna do things the way we wanna do them and it has nothing to do with the label we're on. Like, we made a video for this last record and it's on Sub City, because we wanted to make a video ya know. We didn't sign with a major so we could just give up all of our creative control and just let somebody tell us what to do. We did it because we want to take that next step and let more people hear our music.

BW: Well said. Like I was telling you earlier, I write CD reviews, and this is my first interview. And your album The Illusion of Safety was actually the first CD review that I wrote. So, you've sorta deflowered me a couple of times.

R: (laughs) Oh, cool.

BW: Yeah, but sometimes I feel weird, I mean, not weird, but I'd feel like an asshole sitting here describing your sound to you. So, how would you describe your sound, like, to someone who hasn't heard it yet?

R: I think we try to incorporate elements of all the music we listen to. Whether it's: metal, or punk, or hardcore, or jazz, or just like straight up rock or mellow kinda indie rock. Like, we all listen to different music, so our influences are really varied. We try to pull a little bit from everything we listen to. And like a lot of times people want to put a tag line on something and call it metal, or call it hardcore or screamo, or whatever the new term is. But, like, it's so limiting and, I've heard people say that Poison The Well is screamo, and Thursday is screamo and we're screamo, and I think if you listen to all those bands, they're all really different. And to just lump them into one category, it's like a disservice to the band and a disservice to the person that you're describing the music to, ya know?

BW: Yeah, yeah totally. Earlier you mentioned that you guys incorporate a bunch of different elements into your music, and that's one of the things that I love about your music. It's not just one straight sound and it doesn't get monotonous. Do you have other influences, besides other music, or maybe individual musicians?

R: I think we all, since we all listen to different stuff, we all have a bunch of different influences, as far as bands go, and as far as individual musicians. I know Dustin really likes the melodies that Elvis Costello comes up with and Teppei is into a lot of like classical guitar. Ed is into a bunch of jazz and kinda like, fusion stuff, just weird like really eccentric bass players and stuff. And me, my drumming influences are more in punk rock and metal and stuff. Everybody's coming from a totally different place and we're trying to make one cohesive thing.

BW: Do you have a drumming "idol" or somebody that you look up to as far as being a drummer?

R: Uhh, I'm a huge fan of Dave Grohl. I think the stuff that he played on the new Queens of The Stone Age record is awesome. Because he's not over-playing at all and he's really, really solid and he beats the hell out of his drums. And there's a lot of energy coming out of him without him trying to showoff on the song. He's a big inspiration.

BW: This question was sorta for Dustin, but maybe you can answer it for him. On your website, Dustin says that he reads a lot and writes a lot, and he attributes that to writing good lyrics. Where do you guys draw your inspirations for the music that you write? Does a lot of it come from personal stuff or things you read?

R: Well, lyrically I would say, because he (Dustin) reads so much, he's getting a lot of different influences as far as writing styles go. And he kinda expands his vocabulary a little more than someone who doesn't read so much maybe. And just finding interesting ways of using metaphors and stuff like that. And I think most of the lyrics he writes are based on things that he's going through in his life, whether it be like; struggles with relationships, with friends and family, girlfriends, wives, whatever. Or struggles with faith and what you believe in, stuff like that. And he tries to kinda explain some of the difficulties that he's had and then tries to offer kind of a solution of how he's working through it and how he's getting over it.

BW: The last time I saw you guys was on the Face to Face tour. And the bands on that tour weren't really in the same vein as you guys. What kind of response did you guys get from the crowds on that tour?

R: Well, Arizona's been pretty good for us for a while. So, there were a few people that came out that have been supporting us for a while and it's always good to see familiar faces and people that know the words to your songs and stuff like that. But for the most part that tour was really good for us because we were playing to a totally new audience and it was kinda hit or miss. Sometimes the response would be really good, sometimes the response was terrible. Because you get a bunch of Drive-Thru kids that wanna see Midtown or the Movielife. Or older punk rock guys that have been listening to Face To Face for ten or fifteen years. So it was kind of a crapshoot every night. And even in cities that we have done really well in before, we'd go out on stage and expect that there'd be some kind of response, but we'd play to like these totally blank faces. And it was kind of tough, but it was a really fun tour and we're really good friends with The Movielife guys and Midtown and we had a really good time. And it was really cool to get to play to a different audience which is something that we've been doing a lot of since we started touring, and I think it's really helped us out to get a varied base of support.

BW: So then, is it way different on this tour? Because it seems that the bands on this tour share more of a common ground.

R: Yeah, yeah, this tour, I mean. For the most part every show here, there's been people singing along with every band and nobody is leaving in the middle of a show. Because they don't care about who's headlining and who's playing in support. I think the people who listen to Coheed and Cambria can find something in our music and Hot Water Music's music, that they would like also. And for the most part the crowds have been really really open-minded, which is refreshing. Very refreshing.

BW: If you could have a dream show, who would you choose to be on the bill?

R: Well, this tour is so close to being the ultimate tour that we can be on, because we're all huge Hot Water Music fans and really like the Coheed and Cambria, and Curl Up And Die was just on this tour for a week and they're really good friends of ours and an amazing band. And Time In Malta just joined and they're like amazing as well. The unrealistic tour that would be pretty cool to do would be something with The Foo Fighters or like, if you wanted to do the rock thing or something metal, playing with Slayer or Metallica, if they decided to do old songs….I really wanna go on tour with Thursday and Poison the Well too.

BW: Yeah, I just saw both of those bands on the Plea For Peace Tour.

R: Sweet, that's really cool.

BW: So, what member of the band spends the most time in front of the mirror in the morning?

R: (chuckles) Oh wow….I don't know? I don't know if any of us do. If you look at us, we're all weather beaten and don't shave anymore, everybody's hair is all out of control. Umm…I would say probably, and he'd probably disagree with me, but I would say Teppei, because he's pretty hygienic. It's not necessarily spending time looking in the mirror, but more like cleaning behind his ears and flossing and brushing his teeth and plucking nose hairs….I don't know? (laughs) He makes sure he's good to go before he leaves.

BW: Wasn't it you that was the big Anaheim Angels fan?

R: Yeah, HUGE!

BW: Would you have traded any of the days on this tour to be at any of the World Series games?

R: Oh man….umm, no. I got really bummed because I've been going to the games with my dad since I was 2 years old. And I've been an Angels fan like, die hard, even when they were the shittiest team on the planet. For like over 20 years. I was really disappointed cause my dad had season tickets and had tickets to all the home games throughout the playoffs and the World Series. And it bummed me out that I didn't have the opportunity to share that with him. But, being on tour is what I do now, and the shows on this tour have been amazing, the tour's been amazing. I couldn't really go one way or the other, it's just fate, it's the way things worked out. But, I had fun watching it on T.V. and talking to my dad after every game.

BW: When things like that happen, like you said, not being able to share that experience with your dad. Are there ever times when you feel like you just wanna call in sick, or just not do it that day?

R: Uh, no. Not on tour, no. When we're home and if we're just practicing there are times that I wanna call in sick. But here, when we're on tour….we only come through these cities like maybe three or four times a year and there are people that have been waiting a while to see us, and that pay money to come see us. I'd feel really bad, or I never wanna feel like we cheated anybody. Like, even if we have a sub par show, that bums us out a lot, cause we have one shot every three or four months to come to a city and put on a really good show and make people remember you. And make people proud to say that they listen to you. So, I'd never want to call in sick or short change anybody.

BW: Before, you mentioned that you sometimes play a show and you don't get a good response. The Angels have the "Rally Monkey."

R: Yup. (laughs)

BW: Does Thrice have a mascot to rally you guys when you have a show like that?

R: Uhh….we don't really use it, but if we did have a mascot, we have this collection of ceramic wizards that we bought. For some reason they sell wizards at truck stops. I don't know what the deal is, I don't know if truckers are into them or something? So we've been collecting them on the last few tours, and we have a pretty decent collection of them. So, if we had one thing that was like a mascot or just some geeky thing that we're into it would be those wizards I guess.

BW: You guys have an awesome website, and my favorite part of the site is the "Ramblings" section. Since you left it off of your last ramble, what is your current playlist?

R: Oh, uhh….what am I listening to? I'm listening to: The Queens of the Stone Age, Songs For The Deaf, the new Botch E.P. that came out a couple of weeks ago, a band from back home in Orange County called, Taken, they're a really cool band. OH! We've been listening to this guy, David Cross, he has a double disc-comedy CD. He used to be on a show on HBO called Mr. Show, it was like sketch comedy. He does stand-up and it's the funniest shit you'll ever hear. I was dying in the van on the way here.

BW: Where does the name "Thrice" come from?

R: Whoa.…it actually comes from a really bad inside joke. But the reason we have the name is, because our first show that we were playing was some high school battle of the bands thing, and we didn't have a name and it was coming down to the wire and we were like, "What are we gonna call ourselves? We gotta come up with something." And it was this inside joke, "Thrice" just came from some shitty inside joke, or whatever. But, at the last minute somebody said, "Hey, why don't you call it Thrice?" Everyone was just like, "Ummm, I guess, okay. Just for this show." And we never really got around to changing it, and by the time we really wanted to change it, it was too late. Just because we had started developing a fan base and playing shows and people were familiar with the name, but it's definitely something we would change if we could. And it's not the worst name in the world, but it's definitely not the best name in the world. We're definitely bummed about it, but it's too late to change it now.

BW: OH! Something I forgot about was that your brother is in the band too huh?

R: Yeah.

BW: Is he older? Younger?

R: No, he's younger, like 5 years younger.

BW: Does that help, while touring and stuff, having family around?

R: Yeah, I think it's awesome. I mean, before the band started, I went away to college, and kinda grew a little distant. Because I wasn't living at home, and I wasn't keeping in touch with him as much as I should've been probably. But, the whole beginning of the band and touring and stuff has brought us so much closer together and it's really, really cool to be on tour and to be with two really good friends and my brother. And, our parents are always in touch with us.

BW: Do you guys fight a lot?

R: Umm, not in the traditional sense, like fighting over the remote control or, or like…

BW: "You broke my G.I. Joe."

R: Yeah, "you broke my G.I. Joe," but we still….we get into arguments like anybody who gets in arguments when you're cooped up in a van forever, but we get along really, really well. And, he's one of my best friends. And I really couldn't ask for anything more.

BW: Well, that's all I have. I think that's enough actually!

R: Ha, yeah.

BW: Thanks again for doing the interview.

R: Thank you. It was a good interview, it was fun. It was nice to meet you.