Jenia interviews the band during their last stop in Montreal
While Thriving Ivory is slowly making a name for themselves here in Canada, the five member band from Santa Barbara, California, has been taking the States by storm. Their self titled debut album released on June 24th 2008, which includes the hit single “Angels on the Moon”, reached #1 on the Heatseekers chart and has seen them featured on talk shows such as Rachel Ray and Jimmy Kimmel. The unique vocals of Clayton Stroope and the powerful sound that this band has created have allowed them to stand out and get noticed by music lovers everywhere.
Their music was first introduced to me while I was visiting the States over a year ago. Their single was all over the airwaves and their music video had taken over VH1 but I had not yet heard of them in Canada. When I read that they had booked a show at Underworld in Montreal on April 19th I requested an interview with them. Not only did I want to sit down with one of my favorite bands and learn more about them, I also wanted to help introduce their music to Canadians.
The interview took place inside the venue with bassist Bret Cohune and drummer Paul Niedermier while vocalist Clayton Stroope sat close by getting a new tattoo added to the sleeve on his arm. The interview focuses mainly on the bands recent success and how they were able to get to where they are today in the music industry.
CONFRONT: Since this is the first time that Confront Magazine is interviewing Thriving Ivory, can you just give readers a brief description of how the band was formed?
BRET: We all met at college in Santa Barbara in California, it started with Scott [keyboards] and Clayton [vocals]. They met through friends and started writing songs and decided to start a band. They started seeking out other college kids and they found Drew [guitar] working in a coffee shop. They actually had a different bass and drum player originally but then they found Paul [drums] during his freshman year and I was really good friends with Clayton so when they got rid of their bass player they called me to come play and six years later we’re still together!
CONFRONT: How did you guys come up with the name?
PAUL: The name doesn’t mean anything. We get asked that all the time and it was just us sitting down in a room writing stuff down on a piece of paper. Everything that comes out of your mouth the very first time doesn’t really make any sense and it doesn’t really mean anything. Once you start putting songs behind it, the meaning kind of comes out. It’s nothing personal to us as a band but we like to let our fans interpret it.
CONFRONT: There are a lot of different interpretations of your sound. How would you guys define it?
PAUL: A little polka…
BRET: With a little hip hop mixed into it.
*Everybody laughs*
BRET: When people ask me the easiest way I can describe it is melodic alternative rock. It’s hard because people always want something to compare it or to familiarize it with and people always have a really difficult time. We get compared to a lot of different bands but with Clayton’s voice and our writing style and the way we play, people get a little frustrated trying to pinpoint exactly what we are. I always say melodic alternative rock.
CONFRONT: Do you guys as a band have any musical inspirations?
PAUL: Everybody in the band, individually, has their own bands that they listen to or look up to. Collectively, the five of us, I’d say U2, Coldplay, Counting Crows, Keane, Aqualung, Maroon 5 and John Mayer. If someone’s driving they can put in one of those albums and we’d be like “Okay that’s cool.”
CONFRONT: So it’s easy for you guys to agree on music? There’s no conflicting taste?
PAUL: Yeah we all basically agree!
CONFRONT: How do you feel about the success of your single Angels on the Moon?
BRET: Well it’s been a really long time with this song so it’s neat to finally see it getting popular and taking off. Scott & Clayton actually wrote it before I was in the band. It’s around seven years old. We’ve gone over different versions and kind of revamped it. It’s cool to have such an old song that you really like and that you really believe in finally catch on. This last year has been really cool for us especially with all the radio support. We’re starting to see that the number of people coming to our shows has increased and it’s a trip for us to see how many people know the song and to see audiences sing it back to us.
CONFRONT: I originally heard you guys when I was down in Cape Cod and it was being played all over VH1. It’s just recently that I’m starting to hear it more and more here. It’s getting a lot of airplay in Montreal.
BRET: Yeah it’s been slow. It’s like a slow moving snowball going down the hill and it’s getting bigger and bigger and getting a lot of momentum. It’s neat to see it here and in Toronto it’s getting played a lot too.
PAUL: It’s nice to come out and play these shows. You can tell which people have the record just by what they’re singing. When we’re going coast to coast in the States and going to little towns on the east coast and everyone singing the words! It’s kind of like “How do you all know these words!” It kind of shocked me. This time around, coming through Canada, it’s our second run and just like you were saying it’s crazy that we’re in a different country now and people are still catching onto the song. Their interpretations are sometimes completely different then that person in the States and sometimes it’s the same. Last time we were in Montreal we did a meet and greet after and during the show everyone was singing all the words. Then they came up to see us and the majority of them didn’t know that much English. It was just so cool that they were singing all the words, it’s like they made that connection.
CONFRONT: What’s a day in the life of Thriving Ivory like?
PAUL: Tattoos. Booze. This last run through Canada has been pretty nuts. We go out pretty late. I mean we’re only here twice a year.
CONFRONT: I heard something about a hotel in Toronto…
PAUL: Oh yeah. We opened up the window and the Blue Jays were playing right there. Then something happened and we got booted out of our room.
BRET: Half way through the baseball game. They were playing the Oakland Athletics which is our team so we were really excited and during that fourth inning they kicked us out.
PAUL: Yeah so they booted us but other then that it was great. We were in Toronto last night and we got tattoos before the show. Then we went out to this great bar after.
BRET: When we’re in the States a typical day is: wake up in the hotel, drive anywhere from 8 hours on, check into our next hotel, go to load in, sound check, go back to our hotel shower and get ready. Then we come back to do our show, load out, then go back to our hotel and start all over again in the morning.
PAUL: In between there there’s a little bit of coffee and food and maybe a nap.
BRET: A bit of Mcdonalds.
CONFRONT: How has your music evolved over the course of these six years that you’ve been a band?
*Loud talking and laughing interrupts the interview. Clayton and a few other people are moving the tattoo table backstage before the doors open*
PAUL: I’m sorry?
CONFRONT: How has your music evolved?
*Paul turns to the group of people who are now right near us*
PAUL: Guys! Please! Shh!! *starts to laugh* I’m just joking!
*He turns back to the interview*
PAUL: I’m sorry! One more time…
CONFRONT: How has your music evolved since the band formed?
PAUL: Well like Bret said the songs are different then 6 or 7 years ago. It’s a lot more..*He gets drowned out by the laughing from the others off to the side so he leans right into the recorder* IT’S A LOT MORE MATURE NOW.
*Everyone laughs*
PAUL: They’re just pieced together more properly now. A big part of what we do is our live shows too. We really want to put on a good live show. We spend a lot of time and hard work to take everything off the album and translate it to the show.
BRET: I think another huge part of it is that after six years you get more comfortable in your skin and with who you are as a band and musically what our vision is. There are some old songs out there and a lot of stuff you can find on limewire that are good songs and we get requested to play them. It sounds like a young kid becoming a teenager becoming an adult kind of maturing and growing and becoming comfortable in their skin. We definitely feel good and we have a focused direction of where we want to go and what we want to do.
CONFRONT: Alright so I’m going to ask you guys 5 questions that Confront asks all the artists they interview.
PAUL: Okay but for every five of your questions that you do we get to ask you one. Deal?
CONFRONT: Sounds good. What’s the first and last CD you bought?
BRET: First CD I bought, I almost hate to say it was in the third grade and it was Vanilla Ice.
*Paul laughs*
BRET: The first rock album I bought was Appetite for Destruction by Guns ‘N’ Roses and I was in the fifth grade. It was a cassette and I still have it.
CONFRONT: Wow so your taste really changed in those two years.
BRET: *laughs* Yes it did. There was some Billy Joel in between there on the way to Guns ‘N’ Roses. The last one I just bought was The War. They have a five or six song EP on Itunes and I just got that about a week ago.
PAUL: My first was Green Day’s Dookie album. If it wasn’t that then it was the one right before. Do you remember?
CONFRONT: Nope
PAUL: Okay, well it was awhile ago. Most recently I just went on Itunes and bought one from good friends of ours called Audrye Sessions from Oakland. Their album just came out. It’s really amazingly good. Another one I bought is another good friend of ours and they’re called Barcelona. They’re from Seattle, Washington. They just put out a music video.
CONFRONT: I’ve actually heard of them!
PAUL: Have you? They’re really good. We toured with them. Their album’s not out yet. It’s out the 24th. Their music video is out now though.
CONFRONT: Well I’ll check it out.
PAUL: Yeah definitely do that.
CONFRONT: Okay, first and last concert you attended.
BRET: First concert was a Whitney Houston one that my parents took me to.
*Paul laughs*
BRET: She actually didn’t show up which was really sweet. I still remember that. Other then that it was the Beach Boys.
PAUL: And that was your most recent?
BRET: Oh most recent? The last one I can think of was Death Cab for Cutie at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.
CONFRONT: That must have been a good show.
BRET: Yeah I love Death Cab so it was a great show.
PAUL: My first and last could not be any different from each other. First one was probably Tool or The Offspring I was probably 12. The last one I went to was Ray Lamontagne. Do you know him?
CONFRONT: Nope
PAUL: He’s from the southern States. He’s really folk-y and Bob Dylan-y. He has a really amazing voice.
CONFRONT: I’ve actually never heard of him!
PAUL: See we’re all learning here!
CONFRONT: Yeah teaching each other!
*Everybody laughs*
CONFRONT: Finish the sentence: I have never..
BRET: I have never skydived.
PAUL: I have never…oh this game always gets me in trouble. I have never taken seven shots of tequila in a row.
CONFRONT: And I would never…
PAUL: Take seven shots of tequila in a row. Six is my limit.
BRET: I would never go to a Britney Spears concert.
CONFRONT: What do you guys want your legacy to be? Either as a band or as an individual.
PAUL: Best band ever created.
BRET: Best band in the universe!
*Everybody laughs*
BRET: That we spark new life into the world of music and give people new ideas and new directions of writing. Music’s a constant evolution and that we did our part to keep that going and bring about new great music. That’s what I want.
PAUL: I want us to be the Rolling Stones, U2 type of band. The band that’s there for awhile.
BRET: Not just one album or one single.
PAUL: Yeah, not the flavor of the week.
BRET: Not a band that dies out by their second album. I want to be doing this until I have arthritis in my hands and I’m grey all over.
PAUL: You will not be in the band
*Bret laughs*
CONFRONT: Do you guys have any pet peeves?
PAUL: Oh yeah! Driving around in a band with six other people for about seven or eight months out of the year, oh God I could just go on forever. How about I just give you a pet peeve for everybody in the band?
BRET: That’s going to get you into trouble.
PAUL: *laughs* Scott is obviously snoring. It’s like a grizzly bear. Bret eats so slow that it makes me feel like I’m eating fast but I’m not, I’m eating at a normal speed.
BRET: *laughs* It’s true.
PAUL: Clayton is never serious. He’s always drumming and he’s always making noise and he never shuts up. It’s funny though. Drew asks too many questions. He’s always asking questions.
BRET: I hate indecisiveness. It drives me nuts.
CONFRONT: Do you have one for Paul?
BRET: Well that was mine in general. If I had to pick one for Paul…
CONFRONT: Just because he’s picked apart the entire band.
BRET: My pet peeve with Paul would have to be…
PAUL: That I eat too fast?
*Everybody laughs*
BRET: That he drums too hard. No I’m kidding. Paul kind of snores too.
PAUL: I do snore.
CONFRONT: So you guys seem to have a problem with snoring in the band.
BRET: I don’t!
PAUL: Well yeah two of us snore!
BRET: Everyone’s starting to develop that habit.
PAUL: Yeah but on the road you get so little sleep. So when someone’s there and they’re snoring away it just doesn’t help.
CONFRONT: So I have one last question for you guys.
PAUL: Then it’s our turn!
CONFRONT: What can fans expect when they go to a Thriving Ivory show?
BRET: People that really like the band and listen to the album can expect a show that’s better than the album. A lot of the time the reaction we get from people is that they really love the album but the album in some sense is mellow and when they come see a live show they just say it’s so much more then the album. They think there’s more energy and it’s a little more rockin’. What else? Back flips! Midgets! Unicorns! Paul?
PAUL: I forgot what the question was.
BRET: What fans expect at one of our shows.
PAUL: Oh yeah. Not so much an emotional rollercoaster. We try and have highs and lows on the set. We try to replicate the good part of the songs. Overall just come in and have a few drinks and feel really good when you leave. Obviously we want to make the fans come see us again.
CONFRONT: Alright well thanks so much guys!
BRET: Yeah! You’re welcome.
PAUL: Thank you! Are you coming to the show?
BRET: Of course she is..right?
CONFRONT: Wouldn’t miss it!
Once the interview had wrapped up, Bret & Paul proceeded to ask me a series of questions including “What five things would you bring to a desert island?” Their sense of humor and their lively personalities made it really enjoyable to sit down with the two of them. I stuck around for the show later that night and was completely blown away by the raw intensity of their live performance. Not only are the five of them exceptionally talented musicians but they know exactly how to engage a crowd. During the final song, which was their single “Angels on the Moon”, the crowd was singing along so loudly that Clayton’s voice was completely drowned out. I looked around and saw smiles plastered on all the fans faces and then turned back to the stage to see the band reacting the same way.
Be sure to check them out next time they’re in Montreal! For now you can find more information on them at the following websites:
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