all photo credits: weworemasks

So at this point, this is the third (heh) Thrice interview to date for weworemasks, and it was just as fun as the first two times. I’ve never been shy about how much I like this band, so it was cool to get the chance to sit down with the bassist, Eddie Breckenridge, to talk all things tour, Major/Minor and what album he’d be interested in playing in full for an anniversary if the opportunity came up.

And I know it’s a bit dated, but the tour’s just starting and I got around to transcribing the interview today. Hit the jump and pass it along!

-grizzly

Roshan Bhatt, weworemasks: Thanks for talking to us, man. For the record, state your name and position in Thrice.

Ed Breckenridge, Thrice: Hey no problem – my name is Eddie Breckenridge, and I play bass in Thrice, and that’s about it. [Laughs]

WWM: I know it just started, but how’s the tour been so far?

EB: It’s been awesome. We’ve been friends with the guys O Brother before. But all the bands – Moving Mountains and La Dispute – are super awesome. There’s a really good vibe on the tour. Everyone’s been awesome and the kids have been great so far.

WWM: Yeah, the line-up is one of the most cohesive, well put together I’ve seen you guys with, did you guys handpick the openers?

EB: Well we like to pick the bands usually, especially if they’re available. Originally we were supposed to tour with Kylesa and they were the original support slot. Unfortunately, someone in the band had a family emergency – and as you know, we know that very well. They ended up dropping off the tour and luckily, La Dispute was available. We got really lucky. It sucks, and I really feel for them.

WWM: Yeah, you guys went through the exact same thing.

EB: Yeah, it’s been a rough two years, man.

WWM: I bet.

EB: But anyway – go ahead!

WWM: I’ve personally been waiting for MOVMOU to tour with you guys. Been a huge fan of them for years now.

EB: That’s awesome dude. We love those guys a lot.

WWM: Not to plug myself, but I wrote an album review for Major/Minor, and some of my friends liked a line I had about this being the “first true follow-up” album you guys have written. Each album is a departure from the last and this one seems to have expanded on the Beggars sound. Do you agree with that?

EB: Wow, yeah. I mean, it just kinda came naturally, to be honest. In the past, that’s been the case with everything we’ve worked on. We don’t want to ever force anything. You want to make corrections on what you thought was wrong with the previous record. You pull off influences from albums you’ve listened to, etc. It’s us four, since we all write. I don’t think we’ve ever had a song in our entire discography that’s been one person’s idea. That’s actually crazy to think about.

WWM: Dang, really?

EB: [Laughs] Yeah. I mean, we really enjoyed making this album. We loved the way the last record felt to play, so it was natural. It was lighter in mood than I thought it’d be – considering the last few years and amidst what was going on. I thought it was going to end up darker, but nothing ended up being that dark. A lot of what we were writing was uplifting, because we were trying to find moments away from the hard times. Writing this record was definitely a release from all of our own personal stresses.

WWM: When you talk about your last two albums, it felt like Beggars dropped very quickly after The Alchemy Index, and with Major/Minor, you took an entire two years to write/record/release the album. Did you guys purposely take your time? Was the recording process any different?

EB: The songs actually came faster than the Beggars songs. We would just take months off at a time. We took a couple of months off when my dad passed away, too. We started writing for it immediately after the tour cycle of Beggars. We took a week off and got back into the studio for almost a month. That’s also probably why the records are similar, now that I think about it.

WWM: There are a lot of themes on the new record. I’ve seen online and have wondered myself about – I don’t know if you’ve read any of it or not.

EB: I try not to [Laughs]

WWM: Yeah, I wouldn’t either. But specifically, songs like “Anthology” raise questions about the band’s future and what not.

EB: Yeah, we’ve gotten that.

WWM: A lot of people may feel like this might be nearing the end for the band. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but you guys have written a ton of songs. Are you guys happy with where Thrice is as a band currently?

EB: I think there’s always gonna be a feeling we have that there will be more for us to do. We haven’t finished a record with the intention of, “Oh yes, we did it!” I mean, we’re definitely not going to tour as much as we have in the past. Money is a lot harder now. Teppei and Dustin both have multiple kids. I love being on tour, but I totally understand where they come from.

I think we’re going to be creating music forever. Whether it’s in Thrice or individually by ourselves, I don’t personally feel like we will stop in the near future.

WWM: Good to hear and get some definite answers! Judging by your setlists, you guys love playing the new album. I’ve seen Thrice plenty of times, and don’t exactly remember you playing this many songs off of your most current album as much as you’re doing with Major/Minor.

EB: Yeah, definitely. We understand the importance of playing our back catalog and just older songs in general, favorites and what not. But we’ve gotten some complaints about why we’re not playing sets about “where our heads are at now.” People have seen us play “Silhouette” and “Deadbolt” plenty, I’m sure. With Major/Minor, we’re playing like 8 songs. We might change our set up eventually, because Riley and Dustin are seeing what people say and go off that. [Laughs] Overall, we wanna have a set that’s cohesive. But hey, we’re playing two of our oldest songs tonight!

WWM: This tour’s fairly lengthy. What are your plans afterwards?

EB: Yeah, it’s about 6 weeks. After we finish up with this one, we’ll head into winter, where we take some time off. We’re scheduling another US tour in the Spring. We’ve gotten offers overseas, but we’re not sure yet. We actually got word about a show in South Africa, but it’s happening over Easter, so I’m not sure how that’ll work out with family stuff. That’s sad, because that would be so amazing. I’m down for all of it, though.

WWM: Were there any plans for another b-sides collection or acoustic album of the sort?

EB: Oh, I would love to compile a real b-sides record onto a single thing. Some have been hard to get, you know. The only problem is how you work that out with three different labels. Hopefully we can figure something out, but it’ll definitely take some finagling.

WWM: A lot of your peers from the time you guys got kinda big – You know, like Thursday and Coheed and Cambria, etc. They’ve done anniversary tours or tribute tours for their respective albums. Is this something you guys have considered?

EB: I mean, we’ve talked about it a lot. Illusion of Safety is coming up on ten years. Or is it on ten years? That was a really important record for us, because it was the first one we got recognition for and touring for. I’d love to play all of those songs, but it would take some reworking of some old muscles though.

All: [Laughs]

WWM: If it was up to you, which album would you do a tour on?

EB: The whole thing? That’s rough man.

WWM: Yeah, it was meant to be a mean question.

EB: [Laughs] I think because it’d be the biggest challenge, I’d want to attempt the full-on Alchemy Index.

WWM: That would be a long ass setlist.

EB: Also, I might say Major/Minor, but we’re already doing that! But yeah, Alchemy Index would be hard to pull off live. We changed up a lot of the songs to play live, but it’s the most songs on a record that we haven’t done in the past. Certain songs just didn’t fit the format of a live show.

WWM: That’s pretty much all I have, man. Thanks a lot for your time and good luck with the tour.

EB: No, thank you. We really appreciate it.