PropertyOfZack had the chance to have a brief conversation with Geoff Rickly of Thursday not too long ago when the band came into town with Taking Back Sunday and it turned into a great interview. Geoff and I discussed how touring with Taking Back Sunday has come full circle, what the year has meant to Thursday as a band, the release of their new album, a remix release, and a whole bunch more. Read up and enjoy!

The band is currently in the final leg of the tour with Taking Back Sunday, Colour Revolt, and The New Regime. The tour started a little over a month ago, so how have the dates been?
The dates have been amazing. I think it’s obvious that our old stuff and Taking Back Sunday’s old stuff had a lot in common, but our new stuff is really different from each other; they’ve gone more into pop-rock and we’ve gotten a little weirder. The fact that the crowd embraces our new stuff and their new stuff shows to me that people who come to these shows are music lovers and don’t only care about one specific genre. I always know it’s going to be an amazing show too when the kids react to Colour Revolt because they’re one of my favorite bands, but you don’t necessarily think the younger kids are going to understand them. So when I see the crowd getting them I know it’s going to be awesome.
 
I guess it’s just a pretty special tour considering both band’s relationship over the years and how much you guys have both grown in terms of a fan-base. On one hand is the tour on its own just great, but on the other being able to see the crown night in and night out with a band that you guys started with as equally fulfilling?
I don’t know if I believe him, but every night Adam says that the only reason Taking Back Sunday got signed to do a record was because Full Collapse was doing so well. To think that this giant band that every song is practically a big hit feels that they owe some of that to us is really flattering, especially because they’re literally the nicest guys in the world.
 
This whole year has sort of been filled with giant tours from Underøath to My Chemical Romance. Has it been great coming back larger than life after a long period of down time?
It’s been a really special year because it was ten years to the day of the release of Full Collapse when No Devolucion came out. So to celebrate that with all these big tours and to remember the record that started our career and then have a record that now is redefining our career. Metacritic compiled all the reviews for the year so far, and No Devolucion is number three, which is so crazy. My favorite records of the year are Fucked Up, PJ Harvey, Touché Amoré, and they’re all on that list too, but to be number three is a nice surprise.
 
All of this touring is of course in support of No Devolucion. How has the response to the album been in terms of the live setting so far?
It’s gone great live. It’s a bit of a different show than we’re used to doing. It has some new elements that we’ve never incorporated before into shows, and to have it work the first time we tried it has been really cool.
POZ: Has it been refreshing to change it up after so long?
Geoff: Yeah, and the cool thing is that now that we have so many records we can mix in a lot of old songs and still keep it fresh for fans.
 
Would you say there has been a warmer initial reception to it then to Common Existence?
This is the warmest reception we’ve had since Full Collapse, and Full Collapse was so easy because no one had ever heard of us before it. After that everything got compared to Full Collapse, and this is the first time people are like, “This might even be better than Full Collapse.” It’s nice to not have it prepared. The fact that we have a classic record is something that I never could have asked for, but it also makes you feel like it’s a waste to put out new records if people only want Full Collapse. This year really changed that for us though.

 
Is it perfect timing considering you guys just put an end to Full Collapse on the Underøath tour and this is just a new start?
That’s really what it’s felt like. I feel like we would have failed if we tried to plan it that way, but because it just sort of happened it’s been a nice surprise.
POZ: Has that definitely refreshed the band because it’s not necessarily getting compared as a default to Full Collapse?
Geoff: Yeah, it’s kind of nice because everyone got to see us tour on Full Collapse. So for all the people who only want to see it, they got to see it. So they don’t really need the new record to be Full Collapse. So I think it’s not only refreshing for the band, but it’s refreshing for the people that like us too because we can do both. It’s just been a good year, especially spending it with so many old friends. I think if we do our own tour later this year we’d love to bring out bands that we love like Pianos, Touché, and La Dispute. Doing something that leans towards the new stuff would be great to do next.

A music video was released for “Magnets Caught In A Metal Heart” a few months ago. Was the feedback to that cool?
It’s weird because videos get played in Europe on MTV, so it’s cool that they play it over there, but there aren’t that many places to see videos here. People seem to like it on YouTube, but it’s a weird thing. We try to work with artists that we care about, so we worked with this cool couple from London that do these pop-up books and they made the video. You make this little piece of art and you try to make it into something cool, but it’s not like it used to be where music videos could be a sensation.
POZ: Are you guys considering doing another one?
Geoff: Steve in our band is a filmmaker, so sometimes he’ll just make a video. He made the “El Paso” video for Taking Back Sunday. Maybe he’ll make another video. It’s not a priority.
 
Following this tour nothing is in the works until September. Will we see any more dates announced before then, or are you guys taking off?
Just because we’ve been so busy, we probably won’t play anything in between. We were originally going to Europe, but we just wanted to take a little time off so we could keep touring on this record for a while because people find out about it every day. We just want to keep touring longer rather than all at once and give people a chance to find out about the record.
 
Is the band pretty excited for Soundwave Revolution?
Australia should be strange. It’s a festival, but the headliners are Van Halen and Alice Cooper, so I just image the people sticking the middle finger up at us while we play. We play before Sisters Of Mercy, who are one of my favorite goth bands, so who knows what will happen.
 
Should we expect more US or European touring in the fall?
We haven’t decided yet whether it’s going to be at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. That’s where we’re at. We’re definitely going to hit Europe again though on this record.
 
Are there any tracks that have yet to be released that we should be on the lookout for?
Everything we recorded ended up on the record. Because it’s the longest record we ever released we were toying with cutting a track or two, but it just didn’t feel right. You take out one track and you lose an important part. We were thinking about taking out “Stay True,” but then you’d lose the heart of the record. We do have remixes that were done by really cool people that we’re just waiting to release.