Into the Gray
h ce has alwa s uctuated etween l ht and da ,
c eat n e pe mental la e s o heav mus c w thout
boundaries. Founding guitarists Dustin Kensrue and
Teppei Teranishi share how they reached new outliers on
To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere
e pe ment n w th
amps, tun n s, and ove d ves and em ac n the
neve end n uest o c eat n mus c w th pass on
| BY PERRY BEAN |
N
ever content to stand still, Thrice is a band that defies easy categorization.
Formed in 1998 in Irvine, California, by Dustin Kensrue and Teppei
Teranishi, the band began playing an amalgam of punk, metal, and hardcore.
“I remember trying to get shows around here in Orange County in 1999 or 2000,”
recalls Teranishi. “People were like, ‘Well, you’re not really a punk band, but you’re not
really a hardcore band. We don’t know what kind of shows to place you on.”
Thrice’s musical evolution continued
in 2005 with the release of Vheissu,
which featured a broader variety of
instrumentation—including piano,
strings, some electronic programming,
and even a song inspired by a music
box—than the band had previously
explored. This set the stage for the
critically acclaimed 2007 concept album,
The Alchemy Index, which debuted
at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 chart
and reached No. 5 on iTunes’ list of
top-selling albums. The Alchemy Index
was born as a series of four EPs, each
of which was sonically inspired by a
different element in nature: fire, water,
air, and earth.
“I think The Alchemy Index was a
really interesting and cool experience, in
the sense of being able to do something
totally outside our box,” Teranishi offers.
“And that, I think, was the result of
premierguitar.com
having boundaries. That was the first and
only time really that we’ve written with a
specific target in mind. We kind of made
these boundaries like, “All right, the water
EP—it’s going to be electronic. It’s going
to have these kinds of sounds. The tones
are going to sound like this or that. We
were actually writing with some specific
goals, whereas everything else we were
just kind of writing whatever.”
After releasing Vheissu and The
Alchemy Index, both of which the
band has described as having a “sleepy
feeling,” Thrice set out to make a more
upbeat, lively record. In 2009 Beggars
was released, followed by Major/Minor
in 2011, both of which further bolstered
Thrice as a titanic name in indie rock.
But after touring in support of Major/
Minor in 2012, Thrice announced an
indefinite hiatus so its members could
focus on personal projects.
Fans rejoiced in December 2014 when
a somewhat cryptic image of the band in
the studio surfaced on their website with
large text that simply read “Thrice 2015.”
Within two months they announced
some festival dates, followed a year later
by the announcement of their new
album, To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere.
To achieve new levels of drone tone on
their ninth studio album, Teranishi and
Kensrue experimented with custom string
gauges, dropped and offbeat tunings on
their baritone guitars, and added choice
chorus and overdrives to their sonic
palette. The result is a tastefully written
and produced album that should leave the
Thrice faithful feeling nothing less than
satisfied. To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere
has the group’s unmistakable signature
elements: catchy melodies, nuanced
songwriting, and parts designed to illicit
an emotional reaction from the listener.
We recently caught up with Kensrue
and Teranishi to discuss the sonic
evolution of Thrice, the new album
(which Kensrue considers their most
melodic release to date), and how
members of the band Brand New
inspired Thrice’s return from a nearly
four-year hiatus.
PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016 85