Ian Thornley led Big crash on and off (mostly on) for over 30 years. Formed in Boston by Berklee College of Music students in 1992, Thornley brought the group back to Toronto and enjoyed a distinguished career from 1997 to 2003. This was followed by a breakup, a solo career with three more albums, and finally a reunion in 2010 that produced five more albums. Sixth, The rest of the storyhits stores October 24th.
I had the opportunity to speak with Thornley from his home studio.
Alan Cross: You've been pursuing a full-time music career for over 30 years. Did you ever imagine this would happen?
Ian Thornley: Well I didn't imagine it I wouldn't it is, but I never thought that far ahead to be honest. I never thought that I would still have to work for 30 years. I didn't think I'd still have to fight in the mud to earn a living. If I had thought about it back then, I would have thought that I would move on to producing other people and doing other projects—film scores or something like that.
Getting on the road becomes more and more difficult every year, and staying off it for long periods of time. We now have a little boy at home, and my daughter has grown up. It becomes increasingly difficult to live away from home, and sleeping on the bus becomes difficult. But I still love music. I'm still obsessed with it. And I'm trying to get better at it. In any case, I will continue to make music and continue to make a living from it, I will do it.
AC: Big Wreck's first albumBlessed memory…) came out in 1997, at the end of the golden age of the compact disc. Since then, everything has changed in business. Loaded question: How have you adjusted?
THIS: It's not like we were really successful, really busy, had a ton of money, and then suddenly someone turned off the tap. Our main source of income has always been touring, playing as many concerts as possible. We sold a ton of that first record just before people stopped buying records. Since then I have adjusted my expectations. I think a lot of musicians my age who have been through this need to give it a try. It's a big piece of humble pie when all the bands that came before us have really made it – they're still playing shows, whereas we… Well, we've been slowly maturing again the last couple of years.
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However, there was something of a liberation in this, because I did not have to serve the master. I didn't have to keep rewriting (Big Wreck hits) This song or Of. I don't have to conform to any previous expectations of what “The Big Crash” means.
AC: How has your approach and sound changed over all these albums?
THIS: I think he has become more sophisticated. The process is still the same. There are little shortcuts that we can use now, like my phone. I might be humming something into my phone when something just falls into my lap and I'm like, “Okay, that's something.” Sometimes I'll sit here at the computer and start mapping out a song, and sometimes I'll just record something on my phone and leave little breadcrumbs to come back to later. But still waiting for a little inspiration. And then you create it.
As craftsmen, I think we have become better. I think I feel better. And I'm better at distinguishing a good idea from a not so good one. In the past, many of the ideas I came across would turn into something else in the garage the next day when we started thinking about them. However, sometimes inspiration can become fuzzy and lost when you start pushing it in any direction. And then you end up putting it aside and saying, “No, I don’t think this is going to work.”
AC: How much time do you spend searching for the guitar sound you hear in your head?
THIS: It's part and parcel of the pursuit of the perfect chorus or the perfect verse, the grouping of words, the grouping of notes. Something that makes your hair stand on end and gives you chills. Today I think it's all about stupid rhymes and “Oooh, that was a good hook.” It's not about all the things that keep me up at night, like the sound of a guitar. I think this is all important. Half the fun of investing in the studio and recording is that it can often inspire another part or how a phrase comes together. Most musicians are reactive and you react to what you hear.
It's the same with the microphone and the effect you put on your vocals. You'll sing differently, handle the microphone differently, depending on what's going on. If you move the microphone an inch (one way or the other) in front of the amp, it will radically change the sound. Every now and then you stumble over some magic. There is no plugin for this. There's no app.
AC: This album The rest of the storywas recorded at Noble Studios in Toronto, which is a really nice studio.
THIS: We're lucky. We were going to release three EPs, but then we decided to release one EP and a full album. We booked the studio for two weeks to get the basic tracks for 17 or 18 songs. But Dave (McMilliam, bass) and Sekou (Lumumba, drums) record their tracks in about five days. Nick (Raskulinecz, producer) said, “You're going to need a truck to bring your guitars and amps here because we're going to have to use all these goodies.” We ended up cutting a lot of guitars there.
AC: Why is the album called The rest of the story?
THIS: I just thought it was a good connection with Pagesthe EP that preceded it. We were going to have Pages 1, Pages 2 And Pages 3but he became an entity in himself.
AC: Any surprises?
THIS: Surprises are something that happens every single day while you're in the studio. That's why I'm the first to arrive and the last to leave. And good things start to happen when someone says, “What if…?”
AC: What's next?
THIS: We've done a few shows before the end of the year and are heading into the first quarter of next year. We're going to be doing Live Across Canada and it should be fun. I don't think we've played them before. And we have a few more ideas that we are discussing.
The rest of the story comes out October 24. This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
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