Interview with Thick as Thieves
 

Thick As Thieves has been playing their chaotic brand of rock and roll music around Boston for the past two years. In between playing shows around the northeast, the band found time to record thirteen tracks of noisy rave-ups and slow-burning acoustic songs. The results of the their efforts are in their debut album, We Planted Driftwood and Nothing Changed, which will be available on May 15th (following a CD release show at Harper’s Ferry). AvoidPeril sat down with the band (Tyler Littwin, Aaron Benson, Mike Cotter, and Matt Harmon) to discuss the new album, the Boston music scene, and the joys of Matchbox 20.

So here’s the prerequisite interview question: what's the story behind the band?

Littwin: Our assembling was ordained in ancient texts. The band is simply part of a larger prophecy.

Benson:  I think the story of the band is constantly changing. It started as different people with very different visions of what they wanted colliding, and for some reason it just worked.

Harmon: The story behind the band is that ‘Thick as Thieves’ is clearly a better title than ‘Hour Glass Figure.’  Other than that, I'm not sure because I wasn't around in the days of yore when the band was formed.

Cotter: The real beginning of the band started with Joel, a friend from home, and me playing some songs that he wrote.  We would get together and just screw around with these songs.  We soon wanted a guitar player to play with us and we found Aaron. He came in and started playing and writing with us and it was interesting to hear his influences mixing with mine and Joel’s.

Benson: There are definitely some things I'm embarrassed to play back now. But even in the early stages, I could feel that eventually it would come together.

Cotter: We recorded a few songs and then Tyler joined up. The mixing of influences forged a really unique sound: Aaron had a very thinking man's music and it mixed with Tyler's classic/straight ahead rock influence and my jam band/orchestral percussion. We really found a sound that was sometimes hard to describe.  

Benson: I like stuff that is very dynamic and emotional, bands like Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. At the same time, I am more completely impressed by a group that can take an incredibly simple tune and make it sound complex with proper arrangements.

Littwin: I met Mike at a house party, started talking music and two weeks later I was in the band. Joel left the following summer but we decided to keep going and things kind of evolved from there. The louder parts got louder, the quieter sections were stranger, and the song structures were less conventional. Our first show as Thick As Thieves ended with broken instruments, the owner putting Aaron in a headlock, and a lifetime ban from the venue. To me, it was a good sign of things to come.

Who would you list as your musical influences?

Benson: I'm very influenced by what most people consider depressing music. Prime examples of that would be people like Wilco and Travis. I know I include these things subconsciously from listening to these guys a little too much.

Harmon: We draw influences from sources as far-flung as Trail of Dead, the Beatles, Radiohead, Fugazi, and Matchbox 20. Tyler sounds exactly like Rob Thomas.

Littwin: Matchbox 20 are golden gods. I think we all listen to a wide range of music and it comes out in our songs. Sonic Youth, Wilco, The Who, and Trail of Dead. Mike even likes Dave Matthews. People have a tough time describing what we sound like and I think it’s great.

Your debut album is called We Planted Driftwood and Nothing Changed. There has to be a story behind the name.

Harmon: It’s is sort of an epic concept album, both musically and lyrically, without being a) hair metal or b) really pretentious. The lyrics tie into the small-town dynamic that all four of us grew up with (though specifically they are born of Tyler's experiences) and issues like growing up, leaving stuff behind, change/no change, etc.  As for the title, words are weapons and we are obviously winning on the album name front.

Littwin: Yeah, at the risk of sounding like a pretentious bastard, I would definitely call We Planted Driftwood and Nothing Changed a concept album. It’s not like Tommy or The Wall because there’s no real definite plot or story. But all the songs are thematically linked, like a collection of short stories or like Blur’s Parklife. It’s more or less about growing up in a small, ocean-side town and watching everything around you change. It’s middle-class suburban teenage America out on the tiles.

Listening to the CD, you go from an over-the-top song like “Penelope Left Waiting” into an ambient track like “Here’s to Waking Up.” How did the overall sound of the album evolve?

Benson: It was a huge learning experience for me, in that I did a majority of the engineering/mixing of the album. I went through tons of different phases where I thought I liked something I was doing only to say ‘fuck it’ and start over again. That’s probably a big reason it took as long as it did.

Littwin: We tried to keep things interesting by screwing around with the structure and instrumentation of the songs. If things were sounding too predictable, we’d drag out a tympani or throw some pedal-steel into the mix.

Cotter: We used a lot of different instruments, but used them in ways you don't normally play them.  In "Here's to Waking Up," I used vibes but I took a cello bow and bowed them instead of using a mallet and striking them.  I used wooden mallets on the gong in “Penelope Left Waiting,” just to get a slightly different sound.  As far as my kit playing, I just tried to accent what everyone else was doing.  I find that a lot of my parts mimic Aaron in some way.  He uses a lot of interesting rhythms that translate well to what I hear on the kit.

None of you are Boston natives, but you’ve been playing in the city for the past few years. What’s your take on the local music scene?

Benson: I feel like the Boston music scene has a ton of potential. There are a ton of great bands here as well as some not so great ones, but I really think it’s a scene that has been overlooked for a while. A big part of that is due to everyone involved, though.

Cotter: Boston can be a great place to play music.  Not only because of the dozens of colleges here, but I think the scene here is very “indie.”  Kids want to hear something different then standard pop.  A lot of the bands that we play with have the same thought process we do: the Shills, Kidnapkin, Mike Sandwich…those are some of my favorite local bands.

Littwin: It’s a strange scene. There are a lot of crap bands but I think there are also some amazing local acts. Unbusted are a great band. Read Yellow are insane, hands down the best live show I’ve seen in Boston. I’d call Kidnapkin a musical peer in that they have a really expansive sound. There’s some good music being made in Boston.

Harmon: Boston's scene is great because of the ridiculous number of venues and the wide genre-range that the city's inhabitants seem to put up with.  There's a great sense of camaraderie between the bands as well – you can pretty much consider every single local band in the city a peer and a potential partner on a bill.

After your CD is released, what's the next step for the band?

Littwin: We’re going to buy matching suits to improve our image. We’ll wear them nonstop, even when we don’t have shows.

Harmon: Once the CD is released, we're going to just blitzkrieg the Northeast (and anywhere else that will have us), plugging the album and rocking a few people along the way.

Cotter: I think our first priority is to play a lot of shows, not only in Boston, but get out all around New England and even head out towards the mid-west.  Being from there, I think there are a lot of kids who would really dig the music. And of course take over the music world and rid it of all the crappy pop music that is tainting the world.

Littwin: This album will single-handedly destroy then resurrect rock and roll music. Or maybe we’ll just sell a few copies and try to tour. Either way, it’s the start of something big.