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Thunderbirds Are Now!
 I start our interview by asking Ryan Allen, lead singer and guitarist of Thunderbirds Are Now!, just whose image adorns the inside sleeve of their second LP, 'Justamustache'. Depicted is a cheesy looking photo of a young man with a fake mo shaving his chin with what appears to be blood dripping down his chest. Hopefully it's fake blood. Allen confirms that the man in question is his brother Scott, who plays keyboard and sings for the band.
So it certainly seems that Scott is the clown of the band, with most reviews of the TAN live show including an account of Scott running amok through the crowd.
"I would say that sleeve picture is pretty indicative of his personality: he's fucking insane," states Allen, matter-of-factly.
"He's also the sweetest, nicest kid you'll ever meet. He's just like one of those idiot-savant kind of people, you know? Like he doesn't know how to do his own laundry, but he can look at a keyboard and figure out how to use it in five minutes."
But it's not for lack of desire that Allen doesn't get as involved in the live antics.
"Well I was more like that when I didn't care as much about how we sounded live," he explains. "I would just throw my guitar onto the ground and jump into the crowd. But as time has gone on, I think that I have to be more responsible because I'm the only guitar player in the band and my guitar parts have gotten harder over the years, and my singing has become more important so I have to stay close to the microphone. But you know, I think we're all pretty animated live, and because Scott doesn't have an instrument attached to his body he gets the opportunity to just run amok. It's awesome to see, and it's really fun to watch him play."
The Detroit-based band definitely have the tunes to run amok to. Their brash bouncy guitars and keyboards recall Q And Not U, and being on Frenchkiss Records, it's not a stretch to say that TAN's crazy live show antics get some inspiration from Tim Harrington, who leads label-mates Les Savy Fav.
"I don't think Scott's ever worn a cat face or anything like that though," says Allen, referring to Harrington's penchant for making his face up with whiskers.
"I think it's one of those things where we're both coming from is that we're both bands of people who have seen a million bands and the ones that have been truly captivating to watch live are totally outnumbered by the ones that are just recreating their record. I've seen so many bands that have just made me want to go home because they were boring.
"With us, we're trying to make people feel like they're part of something. It's very important that there's an exchange going on between band and audience. The best shows are when kids go on stage, or Scott's hanging from the rafters or I'm falling into the crowd or something like that."
With their first tour of Australia, the Thunderbirds are also breaking in a new drummer, Matt Rickle. Allen explains that Rickle is an old friend of the Allen brothers - he also plays with Scott on his solo shows in Detroit. Rickle also has his own band, The Javelins, which Allen describes as sounding like Q And Not U mixed with a bit of a prettier Chicago sound, like The Sea And Cake. With that geographical comment, I ask if there is a Detroit influence on the Thunderbirds sound.
"If there is, I don't think we think about it at all," replies Allen. "I mean, Detroit music to me is like pretty much categorised as sounding like The Stooges or The MC5, you know? And whereas I like those bands quite a bit, it's not like I think of them when we're writing a song.
"Even though, some way, some how, it does trickle in there," Allen admits. "There's a lot of bands here that are doing that and doing it well, or not doing it well. But we don't want to be in any of that. The one thing about The MC5 and The Stooges that I really respect is their dedication to having a good live show. So if there's any influence: it's that."
Eddie Chan
 | dB Magazine proudly presents Thunderbirds Are Now! at Jive on Thurs 2 March with Les Savy Fav and The Hold Steady. |
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