Interview: Thank @ ArcTanGent
Thank by Jez Pennington
We recently caught up with Freddy and Lewis from the noise rock band Thank at the 10th anniversary of ArcTanGent festival. Fresh off the stage from their first-ever outdoor festival performance, the band talked about their journey, upcoming projects, and the unique creative process behind their music. From signing with Big Scary Monsters and releasing new singles to working on their eagerly anticipated new album, I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed, Thank has had a busy year.
With a style that blends noise rock with danceable beats, the band is all about pushing boundaries and creating a sound that's distinctly their own. In our chat, we discussed their latest diss track, their love for dance music, and what it means to keep things fresh after eight years in the industry. Here's what they had to say.
Loved your set! Really heaving in the tent, how was it for you?
Freddy: Good, really good. It’s our first outdoor festival somehow, despite being a band for like eight years. So yeah, it was really nice, really good crowd. We had fun.
First outdoor festival and the 10-year anniversary of ATG—how's that feel?
Thank by Jez Pennington
Freddy: It feels great, especially since I was at the very first ATG.
Did I hear that you've been to every ATG?
Freddy: Not me personally, but Cameron, our bass player, has been to every ArcTanGent since the beginning. That's quite a commitment. He really loves math rock.
That’s amazing! And with this being the 10-year anniversary, it seems more packed than ever. How does it feel to see it grow?
Freddy: It’s incredible to see it grow every year. Just good people doing good things. We’ve been treated really well, so I can’t complain. I’ve eaten some good burgers too—what’s not to like?
So you’ve been together as a band for eight years, and it seems like you’ve had a big year—actually, a big few weeks recently?
Freddy: Have we? [laughs] Yeah, well, this year, we signed with Big Scary Monsters, which is really exciting. We’ve also just got a booking agent for the first time ever, which is a relief because I was handling all the bookings myself. And there’s only so much one person can do, you know? Plus, we’ve just released a new single. And—I don’t think this has been officially announced yet—but we’ve got an album coming out in November.
Unofficially announced?
Freddy: Yeah, let’s say it’s been unofficially announced.
You signed with BSM two weeks ago, you’ve got an album coming out in November, and you released a single last week, “Writing Out a List of All the Names of God.” That must be a long list!
Lewis: What have we got? Yahweh... Jehovah... That’s about as far as we get.
Freddy: The title is actually a reference to one of the last times I visited my grandpa Ronnie before he moved into a nursing home. In his den, he had this handwritten list of all the names of God pinned to his corkboard. It was kind of fascinating because he had pretty severe dementia, but this was one of the things he felt he needed to remember: all of God's names. I hope that brought him some peace.
I love that story. But tell me about the song itself—I heard it’s actually a diss track in response to another diss track. Is that right?
Freddy: Yeah, so there’s a song by another band... well, should I say who?
Lewis: I think it’s funnier if you don’t.
Freddy: There’s a track on the latest Sleaford Mods album that seems to have a few lines about me, which is... interesting. They said I look like a "shouty Fred Dibnah in an All Saints jacket."
Lewis: To be fair, he kind of nailed it.
Freddy: I’ve never even bought anything from All Saints!
Lewis: This jacket does look like it could be from All Saints, though.
Freddy: It’s not, though. Anyway, the song is partly a response to that, but it’s only a small part. I’m not great at writing a song about just one thing; my lyrics usually end up being three or four different ideas mashed together with no real connection. But yeah, one of those ideas is about Sleaford Mods. And now that I’ve mentioned it, Jason Williamson might come lamp me. [laughs]
Can't wait. I also heard you've been known to say that noise rock as a genre needs more diss tracks.
Freddy: Well, I think so. There aren't many, and it's a worthy pursuit. I think being a hater is a lost art. Sometimes you gotta be a hater. But yeah, I don’t mean there’s like—the only notable noise rock diss track I’m aware of is “Mouth Breather” by The Jesus Lizard, which is about Britt Walford from Slint. Apparently, he was house-sitting for Steve Albini and accidentally flooded the basement, so the Jesus Lizard wrote a song about how he’s a mouth breather. That’s the only one I’m aware of. I guess there’s a couple of Future of the Left songs like “Manchasm” which is about Mark Foley from Strange News From Another Star. But you know, that's two now. Noise rock as a genre has been around for like 40 years, so maybe we need more. Maybe we'll do a whole album of diss tracks. Who else can we insult?
For anyone who hasn't come across you yet, how would you describe it? Because I've seen basically every word you could think of to describe it. Anxious disco grooves, harsh noise freak-outs, inscrutable…
Freddy: There are a lot of words.
A lot of words. How would you describe it?
Lewis: God, I think we just showed up trying to write pop music, but we're not very good at it. It just comes out all wrong.
Freddy: Yeah, there’s definitely an element of us trying to write pop songs—even if we’re not exactly succeeding! How would I describe our sound? I think whatever we do, we always aim to make it danceable. We want to create music that people can move to, something percussive that gets people shaking their butts. For us, it’s not really about melody; it’s more about blunt-force percussion. We’re all big fans of dance music in different forms. Steve, our drummer, is really into jungle. I love donk, jumpstyle, gabber—all that stuff. And Lewis is a big techno fan; he’s all about the hardware techno.
So our sound is noise rock that’s trying as hard as it can not to be noise rock. It’s a bit like how I feel about metal. I listen to a lot of metal, but I think the best metal bands are the ones trying really hard not to sound like traditional metal bands—they just can’t help it. I love The Body because they’re always pushing against being metal, but it’s inescapable for them. Same with Liturgy—they’re trying not to be metal, but it’s just in their DNA. For us, it’s similar: we’re trying not to do noise rock, but that’s what ends up happening anyway. So, I’d say our music is noise rock against our better judgment.
Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming, yet-to-be-announced album?
Freddy: I think we can go ahead and talk about it. So, we’ve got an album coming out in November. It's called I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed. We’ve got two more singles coming out before then, with the next one dropping in about two weeks. We’ve also got some gigs lined up—we’re touring in October and November. We’ve got some exciting shows, like opening for Cherubs in Manchester and Future of the Left in Bristol. We’re also heading to Europe to play in Brussels, Solingen in Germany, and a place in France that I can’t remember the name of, but it’s somewhere new for us. There was a time when we had played more gigs in France than in the UK. That’s not the case anymore, but in our early years, it was tough to book tours in the UK. Meanwhile, people in France were really into it—they were ahead of the curve. So it’s always great to go back there, especially since we’re playing a new place I can’t pronounce, but I’m looking forward to it!
Thank by Jez Pennington
Lyrically, the titles I've seen are quite literal and factual. For example, I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed—which you do. And then there’s the list of names of God. Are the songs themselves as literal as the titles?
Freddy: When we first started, with our debut EP, I remember feeling really self-conscious because, compared to the other bands I’ve been the lyricist for, that EP felt very direct and literal. I thought, “Damn, everyone’s going to know all my business; this is so straightforward.” To me, it wasn’t hidden behind metaphors at all. I mentioned this to the rest of the band, and they were like, “We have no idea what you’re talking about.” So, I guess a lot of it seems quite direct and literal to me, but apparently, that’s not how others see it.
What's next for the band? Do you have any long-term plans or are you just here for a good time?
Freddy: Yeah, I think we'll keep going as long as it's still fun. We've found ways to keep things fresh, like changing up the lineup over the years and experimenting with how we write and perform together. It’s really exciting to be working with a bigger label now, and I definitely hope we do more albums—we’ve already started writing our third one, which is exciting. As for our ambitions, we’re looking to do bigger tours and play more festivals. This is our first outdoor festival, but next summer, we plan to do as many as we can. The only downside might be spending too much time in a van together and driving each other mad, but as long as that doesn’t happen, we’ll keep going until we're pensioners!
Lewis: Yeah, just until I'm at the point where I'm writing a list of all the names of God on a corkboard in my den. That’s when you’ll know it’s over!
So, is there anyone you were hoping to see here at ATG that you managed to catch?
Freddy: The main band I wanted to see was Show Me The Body yesterday, and I did, and they were fantastic. I really enjoyed their set. They did an unexpected cover of "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, which was great. While they were playing it, we realised that most of Show Me The Body's songs actually have a similar vibe to "Sabotage." It’s funny, there aren’t really any other Beastie Boys songs that sound like "Sabotage," but Show Me The Body seems to have taken that sound and run with it, like, “We need more of this in the world.” We hadn’t made that connection until we saw them perform it live, and then it just clicked.
Lewis: Yeah, definitely excited for Show Me The Body. But I’m also really looking forward to Electric Wizard. That’s a big one for me. I’m not usually into slower stuff, but they were my introduction to doom metal as a teenager, so I’m excited to see them. And we saw Meshuggah last night too, which was fun. There are so many great bands here, but sadly, we’ve been so busy sorting out our own stuff that we haven’t been able to catch as many of our friends' bands as we’d like. Bands like Modern Technology, Peach, and our label mates Delta Sleep—we would have loved to see them. It’s a great lineup.
Freddy: Steve, our drummer, was in the pit for both Show Me The Body and Meshuggah. I think he almost seriously injured himself, which would have been a problem for us today, but thankfully, he didn’t. I mentioned this in another interview earlier today: Steve hasn’t been with us since the beginning, but on his first tour with the band, he actually drummed with one arm for the entire two or three months of rehearsals leading up to it. So, he can definitely manage with one arm, although I’m sure he prefers using both! So even if he had gotten hurt in the pit, we would have made it work.
So, what I’m saying is, if anyone thinks they can take us out by breaking a limb or two, they’ve got another thing coming. There was also a tour where Lewis played with a broken finger. We’re unstoppable. Even though we have physical bodies that can be harmed, you won’t stop us from rocking. That’s all I can say!
Oh my goodness. So, what are you listening to right now?
Freddy: At the moment, I’m really into the new Uranium Club record. I’ve also been diving into a lot of older '80s hardcore, especially bands like No Trend and Saccharine Trust. I’m also obsessed with Lungfish and Neil Young right now. So yeah, I’d say those are the main ones: Lungfish, Neil Young, No Trend, Saccharine Trust, and Uranium Club.
Lewis: I’m into a lot of free jazz these days. The new JPEGMAFIA album is really good, and the new Spirit of the Beehive is also fantastic.
Freddy: Yeah, I think you played Spirit of the Beehive in the van, and I really liked it. I need to dig deeper into that.
Lewis: Oh, they’re great.
Thank’s new album I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed is out on 8 November via Big Scary Monsters. You can catch the band on tour around the UK and Europe this Autumn.
