Last night, I sat down for a phone interview with Westin Glass, the drummer of The Thermals before their show in Minneapolis. We talked about furbys, architecture, and the concept behind their latest album Personal Life.
The Thermals will be playing at Rhino's w/ Cymbals Eat Guitars and Good Luck this Monday, October 4 at 8 PM. Tickets are $12 unless you get put the guest list. All you have to do to get on the list is tweet at the band and tell them that you are bringing a furby. Pretty rad if I do say so myself.
Katie: You moved from Seattle to Portland to be in The Thermals. How did you become the band's drummer?
Westin: I was living in Seattle and I was in a band called Say Hi and we did some shows with the band The Big Sleep. They had previously toured with The Thermals and six months later they were coming through town on a different tour, and I went to their show and they told me they were looking for a drummer. At that time I was already living in Portland because it just seemed like a cool place to be and I was getting burnt out on Seattle a little bit and it just really worked out. I drove down and played with them a couple times in Portland and I guess they liked me.
Katie: Why did you decide to leave Say Hi?
Westin: I was never really a member of that band and more just like the guy who went on tour and played the drums. Say Hi really is just one guy, Eric Elbogen. He just always has a rotating cast of musicians playing with him on the road.
Katie: I visited Portland and Seattle this summer and they seemed pretty similar in a lot of ways. How was the transition from one city to the other?
Westin: They're both Northwestern cities, so they share a lot of similarities but once you get in there, there's a huge difference. Seattle is cocaine and Portland is marijuana. Seattle is super active and Portland's just super mellow, chill, and laid back. I love Seattle, I'm really glad that I lived there for the time that I did and I love going back, but my rent was so much. I had to work so much to support my music habit. I'm a little older now and I'm a little more mellow and I like where I'm at in my life.
Katie: Do you still have a day job?
Westin: No, I would probably enjoy that but we tour so much that no one wants to hire me. My friend owns a food cart in Portland. You know, Portland is famous for food carts. I work in that sometimes when I'm in town. I'll go work a shift or two in the food cart. It's called Sonny Bowl, they have vegan rice bowls.
Katie: The Body, The Blood, The Machine was about religion. Now We Can See explores death and regret. Can you tell me about the concept behind your latest album, Personal Life?
Westin: It's about the ups and downs and further and further downs of relationships. It's about how weird to have this person that you love so much and you put so much trust in. And then at the same time you're both kind of douche bags. People do really bad things to each other in relationships a lot of times. It wasn't a planned out thing, it wasn't a concept that we had all talked about beforehand, it just sort of organically evolved. I guess it was just what was in the air at the time.
Katie: Do you contribute to the writing of albums?
Westin: Yes. We all went into a practice space and worked out all the songs together. A lot of the songs would start with Kathy's bass line, she would just come up with this cool bass line, and then we would all just sort of build around it. Hutch writes the lyrics and we always worked out song structures together, which was pretty awesome. It was a really satisfying experience. I've been in dozens of bands over the years, but finding people that you really click with so well is very very difficult and I feel like with Hutch (Harris) and Kathy (Foster) I've really found that and I feel so lucky to get to make music with them because we all just really get each other in a way I think. It's really cool.
Katie: What's your favorite part of playing live and touring?
Westin: I love tours so much. I love wearing the same clothes for three weeks; I do that at home anyway. We're at the end of the first week of the tour and we've got four weeks to go. At the end of a tour that long you just turn into a different creature. You're really dirty and tired all the time, it's just really fun for me. I really enjoy it.
Katie: What's the weirdest thing that's happened to you on tour? Do you have any crazy stories?
Westin: We've been using twitter to solicit Furby. You know the toy, the Furby, trying to get people to bring those out to shows and giving people spots on the guest list in exchange. We've been trying all week. Tonight, we're in Minneapolis, at the Triple Rock Social Club, where we're playing. I'm pretty sure there's someone bringing us three furbys to the show. Hopefully by the end of next week our whole van will be filled with furbys just chattering at each other.
Katie: Are you going to put them on stage?
Westin: Yeah, we are. I think by the end of this tour we're going to have people throwing them on stage every show. Just like they used to do with the Foo Fighters. We're going to be like no more furbys, people stop the furbys.
Katie: The band left Sub Pop to find a new home at Kill Rock Stars in 2008. Why did you guys decide to make that switch?
Westin: That was right around the same time that I was joining the band so I didn't really have any part in that decision, but I think Hutch and Kathy's contract was up at Sub Pop. They had been really happy with Sub Pop the whole time, but they were just looking for a different type of contract for their fourth record and Kill Rock Stars was willing to do that. Also, how many bands get to be on two of the most amazing Northwest record labels, ya know? It's fucking really cool to be on Kill Rock Stars.
Katie: Did you ever think about any other career options or was it always just about being a drummer?
Westin: I went to school for architecture and I worked in the field of architecture for a long time. And maybe someday I'll go back to that. I would like to design recording studios. The recording studio may be a dying thing, there may not be many anymore, but I'd like to combine the music and the architecture.
