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Ron Purtee: When you were growing up, what kind of music inspired you?
Thursday: We were all hardcore kids. You know like Hot Water Music, Ink and Dagger, earlier stuff too like the Who, mainly hardcore bands.
RP: Would you say that’s still the case today?
Thursday: Oh yeah, definitely. The style has changed with the new bands, not that Death by Stereo is a new, but they are one of those crazy bands that are influential. Definitely Alkaline Trio, and still Hot Water Music, to see them everyday is awesome.
RP: How did you guys come together and form Thursday?
Thursday: Well, Tom and I were best friends in high school. We went off to college, I went to a community college and he went to Rutgers, he met Geoff at an Ink and Dagger show, Geoff was like “Yeah, I’m looking to start a band, do you know anybody?” and Tom said “Yeah, me and this drummer, my best friend have been playing for years” So Tom went to art class with Tim. So it’s all like one circle.
RP: What is like to make a video?
Thursday: Weird. I mean, luckily enough for our first video, Steve actually did it because he is a film student, actually graduated from film school, and that wasn’t too bad because it was hands on for us, it was a live show, everything we’re about. When we were doing the video with Darrin, it was a cool experience, like he wrote us a treatment and then we changed it all around to the way we wanted it to be, and then we collaborated on some stuff. Making videos in general is just a weird thing.
RP: What is the point to the video for “Cross out the Eyes”?
Thursday: It’s basically about identity. It kinda follows the song but it also based on a movie called “City of Lost Children”. Basically identity, like when the guys skin gets burned off, peels it back and its new skin and that’s basically it, it’s a hard video to get you have to watch it a few times. We’re a dark band I like to think ya know, the video is sorta dark, my mom hates it.
RP: On your website you have a statement about Victory Records, can you elaborate on it at all?
Thursday: I’m really not allowed to talk about that, but it was something we wrote, that we totally believe in. We are about the music, we don’t want to get involved in this corporate stuff, and we just wanted people to know the truth. We’re not tryin to slam anybody or demean anybody, I mean Victory is obviously a great label, they have been doing great things for many years, but a lot of people get the wool pulled over their eyes, we just wanted to state our case.
RP: Do you owe Victory any more albums?
Thursday: We actually owe them 2 more albums but we are going to exercise our buy out clause.
RP: What kind of plans do you have after Warped Tour?
Thursday: We are gonna go and play the Redding and Leeds festival over in Europe, its gonna be 4 days we are over there, then we are gonna fly back and have 2 ½ or 3 weeks off, then we’re gonna do a tour called Plea for Peace, a benefit for a suicide hotline.
RP: When do you guys see the new album coming out?
Thursday: Earliest would be summer of next year, we like get it out as early as possible, so we can have new things to play.
RP: What influences the songwriting process for you guys musically?
Thursday: It varies a lot, we have a common ground of hardcore, but from there it goes everywhere, so there are so many bands to ink and dagger, quicksand, desaparecidos, a lot of new bands too, like Godspeed you black emperor, mogwai, sigur rios.
RP: Did you guys have a lot of offers from major labels?
Thursday: Not necessarily offers, but dinners. The way it goes when you’re being “courted” as the industry calls it, you take every meeting that you can, even if you have your mind made up, your mind set. Just be cool, meet people and eat free food.
RP: What attracted you guys most to Island?
Thursday: They were there way before all this MTV crap; they were there before all that. They were at shows when there were 10-15 kids at the shows, and 5-10 of the 15 kids being them. It was never “Oh we have you to have you guys we have to sign you” it was more “We really enjoyed the show and like the band”. They just seemed very real. We liked Island a lot because they don’t want to change their artists. They let them be what they wanna be, like PJ Harvey, they aren’t making her be something that she doesn’t wanna be. Like with artists like Elvis Costello, U2, and Quicksand.
RP: Once you guys get into the studio, how long does it take to record an album?
Thursday: About a month.
RP: What kind of long-term goals do you guys have now?
Thursday: Just being able to play in front of people, any time I get a chance to get behind my drums and have somebody watch, is a good day. So basically to keep this going as long as we can. I don’t care if it gets bigger, I don’t care if it gets smaller.
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