Q&A with Thao Nguyen [Noise Pop]

Noise Pop Festival Program & website, 2009 [Link]

NP: I hear you’re looking for a fourth member, now’s your chance.

T: Yeah, and I would love if it was a woman. Mostly they have to be cool, but think I need that balance. Sometimes after three weeks or two weeks with these two dudes I haven't talked about my feelings in forever.

Thao Nguyen fronts the trio Thao with the Get Down Stay Down with Adam Thompson on bass and Willis Thompson on drums (no relation) whose second album, We Brave Bee Stings and All, came out on Kill Rock Stars in 2008. With Thao’s airy, animated voice dancing over jangly guitars and light, poppy rhythms, you can’t help but feel a little happier when you listen to them. Thao headlines solo at the Swedish American Hall on February 26 and promises to find out what puts the “Swedish” in Swedish American Hall.

Noise Pop: Are you excited to headline Noise Pop?

Thao: Am I headlining?

NP: Yes.

T: Really? Holy shit! No one tells me anything, I swear. I better be better than I thought I would have to be.

NP: So you’re excited.

T: Yes, totally. Sorry, it's just funny. If you knew the amount of things I don't know about what I'm doing for my job it would crack you up.

NP: Did opening for Rilo Kiley and Xiu Xiu in the beginning of 2008 pay off when you went out on your own later in the year?

T: When we released [We Brave Bee Stings and All], if we had gone on our own headlining tour it would have been just a string of shitboxes. But when we did that headlining tour a lot of people showed up who would not have had they not seen us otherwise with these other bands. There's no way that we had any sort of footing or clout. We used to play so many places with "tavern" in the name and it's just not that cool.

NP: Taverns can be tough. Any artists you’d love to play with?

T: I have a very deep affection for Andrew Bird, but I feel like if we shared the same bill I would be paralyzed because I'd feel too inadequate to play. And Mirah, I've always been a really big fan of her.

NP: How much songwriting does the rest of the band do?

T: I would say that I write all the songs. It's weird, I'm not really into control but definitely with songwriting I want it, so I prefer that the guys in the band not even hear the song until I feel like it is complete. And they write their own parts because they're much better at drums and bass than I am. I love that collaborative energy, it's just that the song—I need it to be my own.


NP: How did you find each other?

T: Willis and I went to college together and he was pretty much the first drummer I've ever played with. He's like my first rhythmic love and I think he's amazing. I know that he's irreplaceable because I've tried before and it didn't work out.

NP: And Adam?

T: We dated for a minute a long time ago. They are the best musicians that I have had the pleasure of working with. At the same time, we gel enough personality-wise, and we're of the same ethos and the same goals so it works, for the most part, really well.

NP: Working and traveling with these two guys all the time, do you sometimes crave the company of women?

T: I swear, for every 14,000 men there's one woman. Other bands you play with, the people in crews, the staff at venues—everyone is a dude. I know a lot of great female musicians but for whatever reason there's just less. When you do meet a woman that plays music—a touring musician, which is kind of a weird lifestyle—the camaraderie is almost immediate because we have so much to talk about, grievances and triumphs.

NP: I hear you’re looking for a fourth member, now’s your chance.

T: Yeah, and I would love if it was a woman. Mostly they have to be cool, but think I need that balance. Sometimes after three weeks or two weeks with these two dudes I haven't talked about my feelings in forever.

NP: Speaking of feelings, what music do you love?

T: Motown, late 50s and 60s soul and some pop, rock, and folk. That era and into the early 70s is primarily what I listen to, which is why it's such a disability for me to talk about new music that I might be interested in. I also listen to a lot of hip-hop and R&B and want to incorporate that more into the next album (not in an embarrassing way).

NP: No freestyling.

T: I’m not cool enough to do that.

NP: Are you glad you game out to the West Coast?

T: I'll say this about San Francisco: I think I've been to a lot of cities now—actually I'm pretty sure that they all blur together—but I only want to live here.

- JESS HEMERLY

Thursday: Emo Boys Don't Cry [Noise Pop]

Noise Pop 2006 Festival Program

Perhaps it's their connection to home that's enabled the long-time friends to create such intensely personal music, going all the way back to Thursday's first release, Waiting, on Eyeball Records in 1999. Whatever the cause, the group's tightly-woven melodies—driven by the dynamic guitars of Tom Keeley and Steve Pedulla, the haunting bass of Tim Payne, and the thundering drums of Tucker Rule—bind with Rickly's soul-baring lyrics to make songs that connect.

Starting out as a bunch of 19-year old boys from New Brunswick, New Jersey, Thursday quickly grew from gigging in VFW halls and basements to playing on the main stage at 2002's Warped Tour. But despite the success of the post-hardcore group, its members are still small town boys at heart. "Now, being on a major label and spending so much time on the road, we still feel that need for connection to our home more than ever," says frontman Geoff Rickly. "The truth is it's still quite shocking to have done so much so early on."

Perhaps it's their connection to home that's enabled the long-time friends to create such intensely personal music, going all the way back to Thursday's first release, Waiting, on Eyeball Records in 1999. Whatever the cause, the group's tightly-woven melodies—driven by the dynamic guitars of Tom Keeley and Steve Pedulla, the haunting bass of Tim Payne, and the thundering drums of Tucker Rule—bind with Rickly's soul-baring lyrics to make songs that connect.

While the Cure is an obvious inspiration of the band, Rickly credits a '60s legend with encouraging him to get behind the mic. "Touring with The Cure was an unbelievable honor, and they surely are a huge influence on us, but the truth is that seeing footage of Janis Joplin when I was young really made me want to sing more than anything else in the whole world. It was the first time that I saw pure unrestrained passion that wasn't connected directly to masculinity like it was with Led Zeppelin or even the Who." With a little help from his punk vocal coach, CBGB punk diva Melissa Cross of Bibi Wa Moto, Rickly found a way to sing as expressively as the lyrics he wrote.

Thursday just finished its fifth major album, A City By the Light Divided, with producer Dave Fridmann (known as "the fifth Flaming Lip" for his legendary work with that band). "I believe it's the most beautiful and intense thing that I've ever been a part of," says Rickly.

Rickly is also excited to bring the "Shirts for a Cure" tour to this year's Noise Pop. The jaunt is helping raise money and awareness for the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment, which provides financial assistance to underprivileged women with need of breast cancer treatment and therapy. Just another example of small town boys making good. JESS HEMERLY

The Walkmen: A Fire Inside [Noise Pop]

Noise Pop Festival Program, February 2005

Following the breakup of underground favorites Jonathan Fire*Eater, organist Walter Martin, drummer Matt Barrick and guitarist Paul Maroon teamed up with singer/guitarist Hamilton Leithauser (Martin's cousin) and bassist Peter Bauer—who had been playing together as The Recoys—to form The Walkmen. Though the New York outfit has only been together since 1999, the guys have known each other since childhood. Leithauser met Barrick at summer camp back in fourth grade; he met Bauer in a DC park in ninth grade; and he was introduced to Maroon in high school when Maroon became the new guitarist in Martin's band.

"I called Walt on the phone when I realized that [The Recoys] weren’t gonna survive," explains Leithauser. "I said, 'Your singer is wack. I can do a better job.' He bought it, and a few months later we were in what became our studio, trying to get the ball rolling.

"This is what we have always wanted to do," continues Leithauser. "We've all been in bands since middle school, so we all knew that no one was going to out and out quit."

Armed with the remainder of their DreamWorks funding and backing from hopeful investors, the former Fire*Eaters bought a 600-foot space in what was once a Nash Rambler car factory in Harlem and converted it into Marcata Recording, which has been used by everyone from French Kicks to The Kills to, of course, The Walkmen.

"A lot of Harlem is really great," says Leithauser. "If you go north or south of Marcata you can find these fantastic old houses that are mainly on run-down, out of the way streets. It's right where Royal Tenenbaums was filmed."

As evidenced on both of their full-lengths, 2002's Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone and last year's Bows + Arrows (Record Collection), The Walkmen vary their emphasis on guitar, drums and keys to create a sound that continues to move away from their previous bands' garagey tendencies. While they're often compared to early U2, their influences range from The Velvet Underground to Fugazi and The Make-Up. The Walkmen's sonic diversity was driven home by the first single off of Bows + Arrows, "The Rat," which is markedly different than the rest of the album.

"We try to keep our stuff as varied as possible," says Leithauser, "because inevitably it always ends up sounding like us."

In addition to a recent appearance on The O.C., the band has been in Marcata working on its next album.

"We have a bunch of groovy songs that are just gonna knock your socks off," promises Leithauser. "I hope it's very different from the last one, but we'll have to wait and see."

Leithauser says The Walkmen are looking forward to closing Noise Pop this year and enjoying everything that the Bay Area has to offer.

"San Francisco's one of the only places," he says, "along with Chicago and Miami, that I could see myself living outside of New York." JESS HEMERLY

The Walkmen headline Bimbo's 365 Club on Sunday, February 27th.