The Thermals to perform at Rhino’s

The Indiana Daily Student spoke with Westin Glass, the drummer of The Thermals, about touring, joining Kill Rock Stars and designing recording studios.

Indie punk band The Thermals will be playing at 8 p.m. today at Rhino’s with Cymbals Eat Guitars and Good Luck. Formed in 2002, The Thermals fifth album “Personal Life” was released Sept. 7 of this year.

Tickets for the show are $12 unless you are on 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.
 
IDS You moved from Seattle to Portland to be in The Thermals. How did you become the band’s drummer?

GLASS 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.

IDS Why did you decide to leave Say Hi?

GLASS 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.

IDS Do you still have a day job?

GLASS 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.

IDS “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?”

GLASS 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.

IDS Do you contribute to the writing of albums?

GLASS 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.

IDS What’s your favorite part of playing live and touring?

GLASS 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.

IDS What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you on tour? Do you have any crazy stories?

GLASS 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.

IDS Are you going to put them on stage?

GLASS 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.’

IDS Did you ever think about any other career options, or was it always just about being a drummer?

GLASS 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.