Thursday

Interviews | Aug 26th, 2006

Sorry Folks, No Image Is Here.

After label changes, rumors about breaking up, and four killer albums, Thursday has regrouped to continue to promote their latest album, A City By The Light Divided (Island Records) on the 2006 Warped Tour. Keyboardist and most recent addition to the band, Andrew Everding shared some important insight to offer help explain how a number of these rumors about Thursday were started.

How did you get involved with Shirts for a Cure?
We had done a t-shirt design for Shawn McGrath, who lost his battle with cancer; we did the shirt as a benefit for him to help pay his medical bills. Then, there’s this guy who runs the organization that does Shirts for a Cure, and we’ve been friends with him for a long time. It’s cool to see someone take charge and have a really specific element. A lot of people think it’s for cancer research, but all the proceeds go to help women who can’t afford breast cancer surgery.

How much emphasis does Thursday put on its live show?
In terms of record labels right now, I think it’s very important because it’s where bands make their money and financially survive. Thursday’s not that old, but we’re still going out there giving it out all every day even if we play for a half hour. We’re never going to make money selling records, unless Thursday sells like ten million records, which is never going to happen.

Since the tour is winding down, are you guys completely exhausted and eager to get home?
The longer the tour is, the better it is for your live show. Like this tour, is a very long tour with not a lot of days off and you spend the day out in the heat. You find yourself complaining like “oh my God, what am I going to do now, it’s so hot and when am I going to eat, I’m so bored” But then you have this half an hour a day where you get to play and everyone’s energy is completely insane.

How did you feel about Victory’s Hawthorne Heights scandal?
Did you see that e-mail? Oh, so people know about that, good. Someone had called us when that happened. We were writing our record, and in the practice space and I was watching TV and one day Hawthorne Heights was like every other commercial on the music channel. Then we saw this email about Victory telling kids on the street team to hide the Ne-Yo CD. There was like this call to arms for everyone to go out and buy the Hawthorne Heights CD so Victory Records could have this milestone for having the number one record in sales first week, and it was basically do whatever you have to do.

It seems that you guys are better off where you are now.
I love where we are right now, it’s awesome.

Although Andrew admitted the band shies away from playing songs from 2000’s Waiting in this live set, their thirty minutes at Warped had all the old-school Thursday fans singing along anyway. They included songs from Full Collapse, War All the Time and of course, their latest, A City by the Light Divided. They begin a US tour with Rise Against late this fall and Andrew promises the possibility of showcasing some of Waiting’s material.