The Thermals from left: Kathy Foster, Hutch Harris, and new drummer, Caitlin Love
Tamborello, Brian
The Thermals
Issue #29
With their latest album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, the duo answers this question: After acoustic folk, what’s left but hard work and some of that ol’ time religion?
By Sujan Hong
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris met almost 10 years ago while attending all-ages shows at pizza joints and public libraries in the San Jose area. They’ve been making music together ever since.
First came the guitar pop outfit Urban Legends, followed by Haelah, which Foster describes as having “the sound of the late ’90s.” The two also sang sunny harmonies as the acoustic folk-pop duo, Hutch and Kathy. It’s now with the Thermals, though, that Foster and Harris seem to have really hit their stride as collaborators.
Harris formed the band in Portland, Oregon, recording its 2003 debut, More Parts Per Million in his kitchen for a rumored total cost of $60. It paired lo-fi charm with frantic vocals that warned the listener to “Take the control / Grab Hold / Get fucking ready.” The Thermals’ latest record, The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop), still has that nervous, high energy, but it’s a lot more focused and even, say, linear.
The Body, The Blood is a collection of 10 songs that ask what it’d be like to live in a fascist Christian country. “Definitely there’s a story, but I would never want to try to sell it to someone as a concept record,” Harris said. “It’s still just a collection of pop songs.” Foster chimed in to say that the new album is almost like a science-fiction story. “Futuristic, but scarily current,” she said.
While working on the lyrics, biblical themes stemming from Harris’ Catholic upbringing kept creeping into the songwriting. “I wasn’t doing it on purpose, but when I sat back and looked at them, the lyrics were all kind of similar.” Harris sings of birth and creation (“Here’s Your Future”), the world being over (“I Hold the Sound”), and all the locusts, tornadoes and floods in between. On “A Pillar of Salt,” Harris exhorts, “We built too many walls / We built too many walls / And now we’ve gotta run / A giant fist is out to crush us.” The unrelenting charge of guitars leave you breathless, like you’re running alongside trying to escape too. “It’s funny because I wouldn’t view Hutch as someone who’s really political,” Foster said. “But he’s very aware of current events and just has a good mind for the big picture, a good eye for a larger view of things.”
The two made the record without drummer Jordan Hudson, who left the band in September 2005. “It was just a personal preference,” Foster said. “Hutch and I wanted to tour a lot more and that’s not what Jordan wanted to do.” Playing to and connecting with fans on the road is something Foster is looking forward to after more than a year hiatus from touring. “It’s fun being in the studio, but it’s also really hard work, tiring, and painstaking. I definitely prefer playing for people.” For the recording of The Body and some live performances, Caitlin Love, formerly of Desert City Soundtrack, played drums.
Hudson’s departure left Harris and Foster with a handful of in-progress songs. The two wound up completely scrapping those tracks and starting from scratch, undaunted by the challenge of being down a member and their other jobs. For the record, Harris works at a coffeehouse and Foster does everything from bartend to design T-shirts to assist at a women’s snowboard clothing label. “It wasn’t easy,” Harris said. “We just seriously worked five or six days a week on writing and rehearsing. Kathy and I have a good relationship as far as writing and working a ton of hours because we’ve done it a bunch in the past.”
Foster said that because they have such a long working relationship, they’ve been able to grow in the ways that they play music together. “This third record is even more progressive and collaborative from the second,” she said. “Recording it was real open and just kind of flowed.”
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more