THUNDER BAY - Ian Thornley has been making music for more than 24 years and it has become the only life he knows. But when he first started and made it big with the band, Big Wreck, that life felt a little more constrained than it does now.
“It felt like I was trying to fit myself into a suit that was fitted for someone else,” he said in an interview with the Thunder Bay Source.
Big Wreck and front man, Thornley, are returning to the stage this winter on a North American tour in support of their latest album, Grace Street. The 26-date tour will see them back in Thunder Bay performing at the Rockhouse on Feb. 14.
Big Wreck broke onto the Canadian music charts with 1997’s In Loving Memory Of . . . with hits like Blown Wide Open, That Song, and the Oaf.
After a second release in 2001, the band disbanded, with Thornley releasing several albums with the eponymous band, Thornley. In 2010, Big Wreck reunited and released two more albums, Albatross and Ghosts.
Thornley said returning to Big Wreck after a long hiatus was like a return to the past and a rebirth for the band at the same time.
“The way we are approaching this now is a lot different than it was back then,” he said. “It’s a lot more optimistic, it’s a lot more open, there’s a lot more communication, the vibe is better and I think by proxy the music gets better.”
Big Wreck’s latest album, Grace Street, which was released on Feb. 3, utilizes an eclectic mix of genres, styles, and musical eras.
“I think each song is it’s own journey on this record,” Thornley said. “More so than anything I’ve done previously. That was by design. We wanted every song to feel completely different.”
Produced by Garth Richardson, who has worked with bands including The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and The Melvins, brought a whole new bag of tricks to the recording process.
“He’s been at it for so long, he just has such an immense trick bag,” Thornley said. “He has ideas that would seem outlandish at first and then when you apply it in your mind and say let’s try it, and then before you know it, it makes it on the record.”
While Grace Street includes big old guitars and big fat drums, reminiscent of previous Big Wreck albums, Richardson also brought forward new ideas that Thornley said he never considered, including the use of wine classes.
“I’m sure you could find a sample of it somewhere, but actually doing it and doing it for real, not only was it fun and interesting, but it adds to the tone of the record and adds to the overall sonic way it comes off,” he said. “It feels real. It feels like human beings making music.”
With the album released just days after the start of the tour, Thornley said it can be exciting for fans to hear new music that has just been released, taking him back to his own experiences seeing his favourite bands on stage.
“I know myself, when I was young and going to shows and see bands, if they would play new stuff, I would always really dig on that and try to remember it and then pick up a guitar later on and try to figure out what they were doing,” he said.
Fans who have followed Big Wreck from the late 90’s and stayed with them during the reunion in 2010, will be treated to a mix of old and new on this upcoming tour.
“I think we struck a happy medium with new and older stuff,” Thornley said. “If people have been to a show before, it will be much like it was before, but with new music.”
“We are really excited to hit the road again,” he added. “The music tends to take on a life of its own. That’s something we always look forward to, seeing how the music will change and grow.”
For Thornley, returning to the recording studio and to the stage is not like it was in the past. He’s living his life his way, the only life he knows.
“We’re doing it our way and not trying to fit it into something and not trying to make it sound like whatever was big last week,” he said. “Just having a sense of artistic freedom. I think I value that a lot more now than I did then.”
