Q&A: Nick Thorburn of Islands-- Local Cut

Q&A: Nick Thorburn of Islands

October 21st, 2009 [12:44PM] Posted by: Michael Mannheimer | 0 COMMENTS

To say that Islands Nick Thorburn (or Nick Diamonds, if you’re going with the whole persona thing) is a musical chameleon is an understatement. After leading spazz-pop trio the Unicorns on a crazy two year run, producing one of my favorite albums of the decade, 2003’s Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, Thorburn shut down the project. First there was the hip-hop side project, Th’ Corn Gangg, and then Islands—a band that saw Thorburn aided by Unicorns drummer Jamie Thompson, taking the band’s sound and adding does of calypso music and Graceland boogie. After last year’s more mature and fleshed-out Arm’s Way received little critical support, Thorburn and a smaller Islands band just released Vapours, one of the year’s best straight up pop records. Islands play tonight at the Hawthorne Theatre, and I spoke with him last month before the band left for a tour supporting Happy Mondays and the Psychedelic Furs.

WW: Hey Nick, how you doing today?

Nick Thorburn: Not bad, just hitting the road, getting everything ready to go out on tour.

You excited for this jaunt?

Yeah, it’s a new chapter, new beginning.

It’s kind of crazy that you’re opening for Happy Mondays and the Psychedelic Furs.

Yeah, it’s going to be interesting for sure.

Are you a fan of those bands at all? How did that tour come about, and is it weird to play with bands that were way more culturally relevant 20 years ago?

It’s definitely weird. I’m not actively a fan but I respect the heirs, you know? It’s going to be interesting because the usual people that come to our shows are younger people, teenagers and stuff, and I suspect this will be an older audience for sure.

I just got around to listening to the new record, Vapours. It sounds a lot more paired down than Arm’s Way and a lot catchier. Was that an intentional thing or just the way it happened when you’re writing the songs?

It wasn’t a direct reaction to Arm’s Way, not just critically, but artistically, it wasn’t like I was making a conscious decision to do something different. I think I have a very varied musical aesthetic and I’m never going to be totally consistent. But there was a little element of wanting to try something new, though some of these songs predate Arm’s Way. I just knew this set of songs would be appropriate for this record, and with this one it was definitely about singles and about making a record where each song could potential exist independently from each other, which I think is the way of the future—songs vs. albums. I wanted to try to adhere to that.

I like Arm’s Way, but I think it was a little critically misunderstood. But with this one there’s definitely clear pop singles. So that had to go into the process, right?

Yeah, for sure. I wasn’t over thinking it or anything but that was in my head.

So Jamie Thompson is back in the band now. How did that come about, and how much of the record happened because of his rejoining?

It was just me asking him, basically. I was making a record that I felt aesthetically lined up with the things he was doing since he left Islands initially. A lot of electronic music and modular synthesizers and stuff like that, and that was a direction I was looking to take the band.

What did he contribute to the new record?

Drum machines and programming and live drums, too.

Are you excited to tour with these songs?

We’ve done a couple of shows so we know what it’s going to be like, and it’s totally a fresh take on things.

Are you still working on solo stuff? You’ve done so much in the last few years—two Islands record, Human Highway, and I’ve read about a solo acoustic record. How hard is it to balance all those projects?

It’s not hard, really. I feel like I have a wellspring of material so I’m just kind of nourishing it and acknowledging it and maintaining it. So far it hasn’t proved to be a problem. While I’m young and fertile, that’s the time to take advantage of it, you know?

Do you write material on the road?

It depends. I wrote a lot of the songs on Arm’s Way on the European support tour for Return to the Sea. There are times when I feel really creative on tour and there are times when I feel a little bit like a shell, just redoing old material and stuff.

So for this tour is it a new lineup?

Yeah it’s Jamie and then these two guys from a band called the Magic, all of which played on the record. They’re playing synth and bass and guitar and lots of keyboards, basically.

Are you playing material from the entire Islands catalogue? It’s got to be hard to do the Arm’s Way stuff as a four-piece band.

It is, but we’re still trying it. The second record especially, but we’re doing a reinterpretation of those songs. We’re doing a couple of selected songs from each, a smattering of highlights from each record.

How fun is it to go back and rearrange a song for a smaller band?

It’s a challenge to look at it from a different angle. It opens up whole new things with space and dynamics and stuff. It’s cool, though.

One of my favorite songs on the new record is “Heartbeat.” Is that a vocoder or auto-tune you’re using?

Yeah, it is. I actually wrote a little thing on a blog yesterday kind of explaining the use of it. On a blog called Street Carnage, which I sometimes write for. I get into detail about the use and the decision to keep it and stuff, because I know it’s really played out as a vocal effect. But it was just something that happened and I tried to work around and record the vocals without the effect but it made more sense to keep it in. But it was definitely a weird decision because it’s so ubiquitous.

Yeah just turn on the radio and it’s everywhere.

And that’s one reason when I kept it in. It’s a good way to document the time the record was made. I’m keeping a record of me going along with everyone else.

Is it hard to ignore trends like auto-tune? I mean, Vapours is definitely the danciest thing you’ve done since the Unicorns and that’s kind of the zeitgeist this year. It’s big on the blogs.

That was part of the decision, to make a dancey and upbeat record.

How much of it had to do with the reception to Arm’s Way?

I already had an idea to make a really cohesive and direct and immediate pop record, and I wanted to do something different after Arm’s Way. After every record I want to make a different one next. It didn’t hurt that Arm’s Way wasn’t entirely understood.

Do you read a lot of your reviews?

I try not to but, you know, it’s hard no ignore. It’s hard not to.

What else does the band have planned for the rest of the year? Are you looking to put out the solo album next year?

Yeah and that’ll be a local key kind of thing. It’ll be given away or on the down low [laughs]. And then another Islands record probably. Same as ever, you know. I like recording and writing songs and I’m going to try to do it for as long as possible.

Link:
IslandSpace

Photo courtesy of Islands

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