In our latest spotlight, we chat to Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe of Leeds hardcore-post-punk beasts, THANK about the band’s intense, visceral sounds, local inspirations and much more!
What motivates the band, creatively, outside of music – think specific people, places, games and movies for example?
I’d say we are probably influenced as much by comedy as we are by music. In the early days of the band, around the ‘Sexghost Hellscape’ tape, we were drawing a lot of inspiration from Tim & Eric. I also find that I tend to write better lyrics when I’m reading a lot of fiction. I mostly find myself reading non-fiction books to be honest, but when I do read fiction some of the authors I’m most inspired by are Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula Le Guin and Russell Hoban.
How does the Leeds scene inspire you, if at all?
We consider ourselves very lucky to have come up through the Leeds DIY punk scene. In particular CHUNK, the spot where we rehearsed for our first 4 years as a band, was an amazing community and a real melting pot of genres. Unfortunately the music press doesn’t pay as much attention to Leeds as it does say London or Manchester, and that’s a shame in a lot of ways, but it also means that a lot of interesting bands are able to form and develop without the pressure of an expectation of hitting the big time. I don’t know whether bands like Objections, Lo Egin or Gullet Obvs would have managed to form in another city.
Are there any figures, bands and artists in the city that motivate you creatively, or otherwise?
I can honestly say that our band would not have existed without Blacklisters. Hearing them for the first time in 2012 kind of changed my life, and set me on the path that led to us forming Thank four years later. Plus the first two times I went to Wharf Chambers, which is now probably the venue we play most frequently, were both Blacklisters shows. Aside from that I always love overhearing what other bands are working on at our current practice space, Damaged Goods. Acceptance, Self Immolation Music and Tormented Imp are always making cool sounds, to name a few.
How do you define success as a band, and as people?
I can’t necessarily speak on behalf of the other guys, but for me personally, if I’m having fun doing it then that’s a success. Anything beyond pure enjoyment is just an added bonus.
Freddy, you were in standup for a while – does that help your energy on stage as a frontman?
If anything it’s probably the other way around. I have been playing gigs with bands since I was 14, that’s more than half my life, and the whole time I’ve kind of had this same stage persona, if you can even call it a persona. I talk far too much, I like to have a back and forth with the crowd, I treat the whole thing as a great big extended joke. Eventually I realised that I was essentially just doing standup, so I thought I’d try my hand at doing it properly. I was gigging as a standup sporadically from maybe 2013 to 2019. Not booking any gigs currently, but never say never.
Talk me through the connection with Falco from FOTL?
Initially it was probably less of a connection and more just me being an annoying wee guy. In my late teens I went to a lot of Future of the Left shows and made an absolute nuisance of myself, heckling Falco, hanging around long after kick-out time shotgunning beers with Jimmy, you get the picture. Somehow despite all that I managed to ingratiate myself with them, and over the past 10 years various bands of mine have ended up sharing bills with both FOTL and Mclusky. Falco doesn’t like very many bands, but for whatever reason he seems to like most things I do, and I count myself very lucky.
There’s an Albini story here too, where you ended up being invited to tour with Shellac?
That’s cool. This actually happened via the Falco connection! Shellac used to have various people they would hit up for support band recommendations whenever they came over to the UK, Falco was one of those people, and he kindly recommended an old project of mine called Beige Palace for their December 2019 tour. I thought it was a prank at first, they handled basically everything themselves, and you don’t generally expect to receive an email directly from Steve Albini himself. But it turned out he’d listened to our album ‘Leg’ on Falco’s recommendation, and liked it. The original plan for the second Beige Palace album ‘Making Sounds For Andy’ was to record with Albini, but unfortunately once we incorporated flights and accommodation it got too expensive for us, and of course sadly now that will never happen!
Anything you’d like to add before we finish up?
Listen to our new album ‘I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed’! Listen to my other band Solderer! Listen to Steve’s other band FAxFO! Go to local punk shows! If there aren’t any local punk shows where you are, book some! Strive to survive causing least suffering possible! Cheers.
