Thrice is coming to Las Vegas with a special tour—one celebrating the 15th anniversary of its 2005 post-hardcore triumph Vheissu. The Orange County band will play the album in full, along with its B-sides. Drummer Riley Breckenridge reminisced about the making of Vheissu, how it feels playing those songs now and weird Vegas stopovers.
Beyond the 15th anniversary, why were you interested in doing a full-album tour? We’ve never done it, and a lot of our friends have done it in recent years. I think Vheissu was a really important record for this band. It was our second on a major label, and it was following up our most commercially successful record [2003’s The Artist in the Ambulance]. Commercially, we peaked there; we didn’t know it then, but now we do (laughs).
We were at that point where we could either play the major label game and go with a big-time producer that the label recommended, and try to make The Artist in the Ambulance, Part 2. Or we could put our foot down and take the creative route and use somebody as a producer who’s a little outside of the box. We could either play the game or not play the game, stay true to ourselves or hop on the major label machine and see what happens. And we put our feet down and [chose] creativity over commerce. That’s why this record’s super important to us.
It blows my mind it was on a major label, because it’s such a dense, interesting album. There’s so much going on. Yeah, it blew the major label’s mind, too (laughs). They were like, “What the hell do we do with this?” But that’s the record we wanted to make. That’s where our hearts were creatively, and it’s a really good blend of all of our influences at that time. Unfortunately for the major label, it meant that there wasn’t a single, really. But kinda knew they were taking that risk when they signed us.
You worked with British producer Steve Osborne, who’s known for harnessing really atmospheric music, and you can really hear that on Vheissu. He was a huge contributor to the way that record sounds. We had ideas of the atmospheric stuff that we wanted to do, and the instruments that we wanted to incorporate, but his knowledge of capturing that stuff—and then creating atmosphere with all these cool vintage pedals and tape delay machines—really took the sound to a different level. There’s no way we would’ve gotten it there without him.
Beyond that, with the meat and bones of the rock songs on that record, he comes from such a different place. He doesn’t really work with heavy bands, so his sense of rhythm and groove is way more subdued and almost sexy, It’s less abrasive and more groove-based. That was a big thing that he stressed with us, and it’s something we still talk about when we’re writing and recording. We always refer to what Steve would do.
The Alchemy Index albums came right after Vheissu, and those went a step further in terms of expanding your sound. Totally. [With] Vheissu, we were experimenting with a lot of stuff, but it was still through the lens of, how do we make this sound more Thrice? So if somebody had an idea, say on Rhodes piano, and there were some electronic elements or something, we’d be like, “OK, that’s cool, but how can we filter it through the Thrice sound and make it be more rock band-ish?” And then with Alchemy Index, it was like, no, let’s write an electronic and key-based song, or let’s just make an acoustic song, or let’s make this absurdly heavy song. We don’t need to chop everything up and try to make it into one cohesive sound.
Fifteen years later, is it strange to look back at how Vheissu really changed the course of your music and the band’s career? Yeah, it’s crazy. I can’t say for sure, but I think there’s a very good chance that we wouldn’t be a band anymore if it wasn’t for that record. If we would have made the choice to go with Mr. Big Time Hollywood Producer who told us that he could make hits and we’d played that major label game, I can see us getting really burnt out on it, and being really disappointed. To us, it was always more important to trust our hearts and make the music that we really wanted to make, regardless of how successful it ended up being. If you go down and flame out that way, at least you know you did what felt right to you.
I caught your tour with Thursday and Coheed and Cambria roughly 16 years ago, and all three bands were doing such interesting things. That was such a weird time in music. So weird. And through all of it Coheed is as big as they have ever been right now. They keep putting out records and touring bigger venues. I’m so stoked for those dudes. They’re sweethearts, and it’s awesome to see ’em doing that.
As you’ve been revisiting Vheissu, has anything about the music surprised you? I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy playing every song on this record, including the B-sides. There were only three or four songs on that record that have been in pretty constant rotation in our setlists over the past decade or so, so a lot of it feels really fresh. Some of it is brand-new: There’s one album track and one B-side that we’ve never played. It’s been going over well, and it feels good to play.
[When] we go back and play stuff from The Artist in the Ambulance or The Illusion of Safety, there’s not a lot of groove to it, and there’s not a lot of feel to be had in those songs, so it’s kind of physically uncomfortable to play that way (laughs). Part of that is because we’re getting old, and part of it is just because when you’re in your 20s and your idea of music is that faster equals better, you don’t take feel into account very often. These songs feel great to play, and we’re having a really, really good time doing it.
Are you guys working on any new music at the moment? We are. We’re in the process of writing individually right now. On tour, most of the day before we play, we have our faces buried in our laptops. We’re working in Logic or Reason or some other music program to put together little ideas that we have, and then we’re slowly sharing those with each other. Once we get done with this [tour], we’ll get together and start to work more collaboratively. That’s been the most effective method of writing for us over the years, so we’re doing it again.
I think a lot of bands have turned to that, because they’re balancing real life and being on tour. It seems like a more efficient way of working, because you can’t always be in the same place at the same time. There’s something incredible about being able to go lock yourself in a room with your band buddies for 10 hours and just jam forever. But when you [have] a wife and kids and other duties to take care of, it makes it difficult. Being able to share files and collaborate virtually with all this new music equipment is incredible. It’s been super-helpful to us.
Do any Las Vegas visits stand out to you from over the years? One of our best band buddies in the whole world is Mike [Minnick] and the guys from Curl Up and Die. Amazing band. They’re back together now and doing shows, and for whatever reason every time they play in Southern California it’s when we’re on tour, so I’ve missed all of the reunion dates. But back in the day we used to play with Curl Up and Die all the time. They’d come play Orange County, or we’d come out to Vegas and play Vegas with them and our buddies in a band called Taken.
There was a tiny record shop [Balcony Lights] that we used to play, where after hours they’d just slide all the record shelves off the store floor, so you’re playing in the middle of this crowded record store. We played another venue I can’t remember [the Castle] with Curl Up and Die and a band called 7 Foot Midget. There was an annual underwear show where everybody would play in their underwear, and some of us partook in that (laughs). And we also played in some casino with a cover band.
What I’m saying is, Vegas shows are always weird—whether you’re playing in an empty record store or in your underwear or in a casino with some, like, off-duty Guitar Center employees that are covering Stryper or something. it’s always a weird one in Vegas (laughs).
THRICE with mewithoutYou, Drug Church, Holy Fawn. February 27, 6 p.m., $28-$32. Brooklyn Bowl, 702-862-2695.
