Seattlest Interview: Hutch Harris of The Thermals

photo credit: Alicia J. Rose

At this point, who doesn't love The Thermals? Your mom might not like that they play their music so loud and that their second album title featured the f-bomb, but even she'd have to admit that all their songs are pretty dang catchy (her words, not ours). Personally, we have loved them since their debut, the delightfully messy, sneeringly lo-fi More Parts Per Million, born of the fertile womb of Bush administration angst. The Portland post-powerpop-punk three-piece has continued to grow and evolve (and change lineups) over time, such that their last full-length was a concept album about living in a right-wing fascist theocracy. But now here we are at the dawn of a new political era, and The Thermals have a cautiously hopeful album to match. It's about death, of course. We spoke to Valley Girl-voiced singer Hutch Harris in anticipation of the band's show at Neumo's tomorrow night (8pm doors, $15, all ages).

How would you say Now We Can See compares to your previous albums? It's more positive in tone, but at the same time, it's also focused on death. How do you reconcile the two?

The Thermals have always been about celebrating negatives and positives in unison. If the world is going to hell, if we're gonna die, if we can't get laid, we're still gonna have a good time. We think Now We Can See is our best record yet.

How was working with John Congleton to produce the album?
A lot of fun. John has a great sense of humor, and we laughed our way through the sessions. Larry David guided us through the recording--we watched Curb Your Enthusiasm on breaks, and after each take, we'd tell each other it was "pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good."

How's your new home with Kill Rock Stars? Speaking for Seattle, we wish you were still with Sub Pop, but we understand.

We are loving it. Honestly, we had no complaints with Sub Pop. They were very good to us, and we are still close friends. We were just looking for a different type of contract, simple as that. Speaking for Portland, we are thrilled to have Kill Rock Stars in our town.

Hutch on turning down offers to license songs in ads and editing your own Wikipedia page after the jump.