I met up with Geoff Rickley from Thursday but had left my notes about the band in my tent! Oh no school girl error. I confessed that I hadn’t got anything and the charming guy just laughed. He was pretty shy but articulate, funny and endlessly polite. We sat on the floor and um, got down to it.
Altsounds: Ok, I’m here with...
Geoff: Geoff.
Altsounds: From Thursday and, erm, clearly I don’t know much about Thursday.
Geoff: Right...
Altsounds: How would you best describe your music?
Geoff: We’re a melodic hardcore band, post hardcore, whatever you want to call it.
Altsounds: And where are you actually from?
Geoff: We’re originally from New Jersey.
Altsounds: Is that the same for the whole band?
Geoff: Yeah, well apart from our keyboard guy.
Altsounds: Oh sorry, my camera’s getting right in your face.
Geoff: Ha ha, yeah. Am I getting Punk'd right now? I can’t really tell!? Cos this doesn’t seem like an interview so much!
Altsounds: Ha ha ha! Sorry.
Geoff: Oh, it’s ok.
Altsounds: Is it NEW jersey or just Jersey?
Geoff: New Jersey.
Altsounds: Sorry my geography skills are about as good as my interview skills.
Geoff: Ha ha!
Altsounds: So if I were to go to New Jersey where would I go to rock out?
Geoff: Well there’s a few places near Brunswick which is the town where we are from, plus there are a lot of other bands from there. Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, Dillinger Escape Plan etc. They all used to play in our basement. We used to put on a lot of basement shows.
Altsounds: Apart from your current chosen genre for your band, what other genres do you like?
Geoff: I love all music.
Altsounds: Does that include rap?
Geoff: Yeah, I love rap.
Altsounds: Will you rap for me??
Geoff: No
Altsounds: No one ever raps for me! So anyway, what was the turning point when you thought, yes, this is what I want to do?
Geoff: Er. I don’t know, I don’t think I ever had that turning point. It always just seemed like something I was going to do that year and then it just kept going and going and going.
Altsounds: So you might just stop at any minute and do something else.
Geoff: I think most bands out there might stop at any minute. This is our 4th reading, our first was in 2001 and there are maybe 2 or 3 bands left from then. Most of them have gone off to do other things and I think it’s hard to keep doing music for too long cos it’s so stressful.
Altsounds: What do you find stressful about it?
Geoff: All the travel, and you know, I don't think a lot of musicians by nature want to actually be on camera or want to be in front of people and stuff so it’s really hard. You just find yourself talking to people who ask questions that they don’t realise are really insulting to you. When you get 15 or 20 of those questions a day you start to really feel bad. Like if you were in the band no-one would ever ask you questions like that. So I think that stresses a lot of people out.
Also if you have any inner tension in the band it makes it all harder. Luckily my band are super cool with each other so that whenever things get stressful on the outside we just go hang out at the bar on in the bus or whatever until it gets mellow.
Altsounds: So you haven’t heard of Altsounds before right? We are an online publication.
Geoff: Cool
Altsounds: And we now have a larger readership online than Kerrang!
Geoff: Oh, wow, that’s amazing.
Altsounds: So we are basically by the people for the people. We’re not corporate in any way so, what would you say about your band to our readers that wont get edited out of context.
Geoff: Well, I guess for anybody who doesn’t know us before we started out as just a DIY hardcore band in basements and then just toured so much that we got some kind of following and we just keep doing it.
Altsounds: Cool, and who do you want to see at this festival?
Geoff: Well I've seen a lot of bands at the other European festivals. Eagles of Death Metal were amazing today and Them Crooked Vultures were really cool. I’ve missed a couple of the bands I wanted to see. I wanted to see Chuck Regan, he's amazing and Polar Bear Club, I really like them. Out of what’s left I'd really like to see The Gossip I think, I've seen them and Beth Ditto has got an amazing voice.
Altsounds: What about The Prodigy, have you heard of the Prodigy?
Geoff: Yeah, I've heard of The Prodigy, I'm not a huge fan of The Prodigy.
Altsounds: And I liked you so much until you said that!
Geoff: Ha ha ha! I've just never been into any kind of dance stuff too much.
Altsounds: Tell you what, you need to come out on a night with me and come dancing. I’m not going to take you to a dance club don’t worry but I will play you some Prodigy.
Geoff: The Prodigy was Firestarter, right?
Altsounds: Yeah.
Geoff: Yeah, that’s all I know about The Prodigy.
Altsounds: You've got so much to learn in so little time, we’ve only got a few minutes together!
Geoff: Ha ha.
Altsounds: So what’s your best festival tip?
Geoff: Erm. Probably go to the bathroom early before the toilets get totally wrecked. Other than that drink a lot of water because I’ve seen so many people pass out over the years at festivals. We've done Warped Tour four times in the States and that’s all summer long and I just see people passing out non-stop you know. So, lots of water, use the bathroom early and bring a change of socks.
Altsounds: What about a change of pants?
Geoff: Nah you can keep them clean.
Altsounds: Ha ha, no comment!
Geoff: (Laughs)
Altsounds: So if I were a princess trapped in a tower how would you rescue me?
Geoff: I think I’d probably try and get whoever is keeping you in the tower to come out with me and get drunk. Then when he passes out I would just go unlock the door and bring you down.
Altsounds: No-ones said that one before, that’s good.
Geoff: Kind of a mind over matter approach.
Altsounds: I've had tunnelling and walking up the stairs.
Geoff: That’s pretty direct.
Altsounds: Yeah, I think they might have misunderstood the locked up part.
Geoff: Ha ha.
Altsounds: Ok Geoff thank you very much for your time, it has been a pleasure.
Geoff: Thankyou.
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Altsounds.com Q&A Interview: Geoff Rickley from Thursday
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