Orange County, California

Music has always been best when its made for the sake of making music. That was the mantra of most of the rock acts from the late 60's and 70's, the era when rock become something more than just the background noise at a party that your parents never cease to complain about. Rock became a powerful force, moving people and forever changing the society in which they live. Religion-esqe to some, Rock has never left the popular consciousness even as time moved forward and pop/dance music leaped to the forefront in record sales. New act after new act continue to flood airwaves, churning out hit singles, and that's all.

"It's all about singles, its all about flavor of the month. It seems like bands that are coming up these days, newer bands that are all getting huge and then dying out right away,” says Teppei Teranishi, lead guitarist for the rock band Thrice, whose ten-year career proves rock will persevere. "It seems like the shelf life for a band is a year or two. That's not something that we're interested in. Its never been what we wanted to do."

Today's pop acts produce discs with few bright points, accompanied by an ever-increasing price tag. A disappointing trend to those looking for more substance than just a flavor of the week/MTV ready anthem. After creating this trend, the music industry, as we know it has found itself in big trouble. The Internet has crept in, creating a severe drop in sales and a panic to go along with it. Why pay an obscene amount of money for a disc with one song on it you like, when you can download the song for free? This concept has jolted the industry, foretelling a near immediate demise unless the comfortable ways of the present are updated with the times.

"It'll be interesting to see how things shift. I think in the end it'll be for the better. The music industry as been kind of at this awkward stalemate; everything's been just kind of lifeless and really stale. And if things come crashing down it might be a good thing you know what I mean? It could just be rebuilt back up and hopefully be rebuilt in a way that's a little bit more conducive to selling music rather than celebrity… We've never really been interested in taking that route and becoming ultra commercial so it’s been to our advantage."

One listen to Thrice's newest project, The Alchemy Index, and the reason for their longevity is apparent. The album is a concept piece originally conceived by lead singer Dustin Kensrue. The project consists of 4 six song EP's, each dedicated to one of the four elements, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. A heavy undertaking to say the least, one that would have to go through much consideration before seeing its way to the shelves.

"He (Dustin) brought it up and we entertained the idea. We were a little skeptical at first but we talked about it and it sounded like it could be cool, but first we actually decided to do it more like a weird side project," offers Teranishi. "It was going to be a Thrice project, but we were treating it less like a record and more just like an experimental thing to do on the side… As we were writing the record it really started to take shape and we were writing some cool stuff so we decided to release it as our next record."

The record's subject matter was not the only experiment the band would undertake. When recording a record, many bands tend to live together in a house and record every free hour they have. No stranger to that process, Thrice took a different approach to The Alchemy Index.

"Every other record we've done we've gone away from home, taken ourselves out of our element, and gone to New York or Washington DC. We've always kind of made it a thing to pull ourselves out of our element and just really be in a place of isolation and just focus on making the record for a month or 2. This time around we just wanted to take it easy." Teranishi says, unveiling a window into the kind of guys that make up Thrice.

The California four piece, comprised of Teranishi, Kensrue, and brothers Riley (Drums) and Eddie (Bass) Breckenridge, clearly place a strong emphasis on family. To embark on Alchemy, the band set up shop in the home of drummer Riley, and worked on the album in a more conventional 9 to 5 way, leaving time at the end of the day for all to go home and be with their families. "Being at home and being amongst your family and friends I think kept it kind of fresh you know? You never felt super drained or super worn out and I guess it allowed you to be inspired by living life. I think that when you, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, really, but when your working on a record 12 hours a day for 2 months straight, you know your life just becomes that record, and sometimes its just a little too all encompassing. So we kinda tried to do something different."

Working close to home was not the only new approach the band employed on the Alchemy sessions, as the band decided not to use the aid of an outside producer or engineer, leaving the band to focus on their creative vision. This choice also allowed Teranishi to act as engineer, nourishing a longtime hobby.

"This is the first thing I've ever really recorded," confesses Teranishi.  "I've been interested it for a really long time, I've jest never really done it. I've always recorded our demos and a couple songs for us that we put on small comps. It's kind of a big project to take on as your first thing but I think it was really cool from an engineering perspective cause I got to explore every angle of engineering."

A project like The Alchemy Index is no easy task for your first real engineering assignment, not to mention being the lead guitarist in a band long known for their passionate fretwork over the last ten years. Teranishi clearly knows his way around his instrument, making way for him to focus more on his work behind the glass.

"Both (roles) were just as challenging, but maybe more as an engineer cause when you're an engineer you have more than one thing to be thinking about, you think about everything. How everything's gonna’ fit together." reveals Teranishi.

_________________________________ “It was going to be a Thrice project, but we were treating it less like a record and more just like an experimental thing to do on the side… As we were writing the record it really started to take shape and we were writing some cool stuff so we decided to release it as our next record.” - Teppei Teranishi _________________________________

 

Each element gets its own stylistic treatment, each one different from the last, yet Teranishi manages to make it all fit together, really allowing the core of each element to ring true. The record sounds seamless, but it was more challenging than the final products crisp production would suggest, each EP presenting a unique challenge.

"Fire was definitely the toughest for me to record just because it’s so dense. You want everything to sound big but then you gotta’ have it fit together," states Teranishi.  "It's a really big challenge to make everything fit but still sound big. And then with water its predominantly electronic with synths and stuff like that, and earth is the total opposite. It’s stripped down and it’s all acoustic instruments. Piano, acoustic guitar, Acoustic bass, horns so its definitely a huge undertaking, but I think it was a really cool first project."

Not having a big name producer to hinder them allowed Thrice to record everything the way they wanted both when and how they felt necessary, giving way to some more eclectic approaches.

"The way we recorded it (Earth) actually was we moved our whole recording rig into the living room and tracked all the things out in an empty living room with wood floors. We just wanted it to feel natural and kind of like you are sitting in a room with a few musicians playing some songs. Just trying to catch that whole vibe of fun and kept things real I guess," Teranishi provides.

Fire and Water were released this past October, and Earth and Wind are scheduled for a spring release. Conceived and intended as a whole, the decision to split the album into two halves was not an easy one to make.

"We really feel like the project is all four volumes. When I talk about The Alchemy Index I'm talking about the project as a whole. And definitely what we've put out there so far I feel like its an incomplete picture of what it is." admits Teranishi.

Thrice's eventual decision to divide the record was made with their fans in mind.

"Its kind of ironic cause as a sound we felt like splitting it up was the best way to let people take that whole project in," says Teranishi. "We felt like if we just release the whole record and dump 24 songs on people right away and overcharge the music- we just felt like that's a little too much, and people wouldn't allow themselves the time to really take in each element and each song for what it is and just skip around and try to find their favorites."

The concept of an album as a whole is an old trend that is slowly getting back on its feet, thanks largely to bands like Thrice and projects like The Alchemy Index. It will be hard for radio stations and listeners alike to find a track from Fire or Water to single out for airplay, as every track beams with the energetic spirit of a band that has set out to accomplish something lasting, not just this weeks best top-down-windows-open car ride anthem.

Teranishi says that the shift the industry is taking will eventually be for the better. If more bands take their cue from The Alchemy Index, he just may be right.