While we vacation you can enjoy this interview is from the death blog called notesunearthed.com they also have a flattering review of our new record on there. Here's what it said:
Notes: Can you tell us a little about when and how NTP formed? Where did you meet each other and has the band lineup changed at all?
NTP: New Thrill Parade used to be known as the Gross Gang. There were far less of us at that time, and we were much more of a riffy, aggressive houseshow band, with all the violent dancing and flopping around and all that. At some point it became clear to us that some people's reactions to this type of music made other types of people want to leave the room so as not to get throttled. When we reconvened as New Thrill Parade in summer of 2004, we decided not to allow audience members to make that decision for other audience members. We thought it would be better for everyone, ourselves included, if the music itself made people want to leave or stay. So we began playing slower and more deliberately, and with a touch more irritability.
Basically at the time, Santa Cruz was chock full of music that was cute and fun, so we decided to be ugly and jarring. We didn't have to try very hard.
Notes: Where did the name New Thrill Parade come from then?
NTP: The name New Thrill Parade comes from a Phil Ochs song called 'Crucifixion.'
Notes: Your sound is so creative and dramatic at times, but there is a definite tongue-in-cheek element to many of the songs like "Gift Horse" that address serious topics, but also include a measure of humour. Did you start out with this musical style in mind or how did it come about?
NTP: The humor element in our music comes very naturally to us, as the bands interactions with one another are almost solely humor-based. However, our tone and ideas are serious ones. The humor, we hope, helps some listeners swallow our bitter pill jams with greater ease.
The dramatic aspect was and still is at the forefront of our ideas for the band. There are many reasons for this, but among them is a distaste for traditional notions of masculinity as represented in all realms of entertainment. There is nothing more stale and boring than an otherwise decent, interesting band fronted by some Chad howling and whining about his ex-girlfriend. Our penchant for "drama" lets us skirt, so to speak, that type of banality while wallowing in our own homemade, comfortable brand of banality.
Notes: Tell us about your song writing process. Does one member typically bring in a completed song that is then refined, or does the writing happen when you are together?
NTP: There are songs which take us two months to write, and songs which take us fifteen minutes. Generally one person will come up with some part, and everyone else will decide whether they want to play along nicely with the part or try to destroy it. Since we roll 5 to 8 pieces deep at any one time, there are healthy amounts of folks who want to do both things. We all take turns being team players and song wreckers. Hopefully we achieve some sort of equilibrium, but that's for our listener to decide. Hi Adam!
Notes: According to Wonderquest.com, where your myspace page links to buy the album,
Slumber in Colorland is a limited release album with only 500 pressings and is only available on vinyl. Why did you choose to release only on vinyl? Will future releases have CD options as well?
NTP: We chose vinyl because in ten years all compact discs will be in landfills leaking digital gases into our drinking water, while LPs will be spinning happily on turntables all across the barren, choked, flora-less wasteland which our children will inherit.
Every vinyl copy of the record comes with a CD-R so that the digital folks can share the music with ease. We would like as many people to hear our music as possible, in any medium possible.
We printed 500 copies essentially because that is what we could afford at the time. If anyone would like to pay for 'real' CDs to be made of
Slumber In Colorland, we heartily welcome them and their wallets to the NTP family.
Notes: How did you get hooked up with Litterbox Records?
NTP: Seth was an early supporter of the band in our first year of life, and he was very vocal about wanting to help us. His assistance in pressing our second EP was invaluable, and we thank him.
Notes: Do you have any plans for an upcoming tour?
NTP: Not at the moment. In April we set off on a happy little West Coast jaunt that ended abruptly halfway through when Of The Redwoods, our long-suffering van, decided to stop helping us in Kennewick, WA. So right now we are stationary, and perhaps this is where we should be for the time being. We have never really been able to successfully support ourselves via the traditional 'punk rock' touring model anyway. Our band doesn't seem to mesh well with exchanges of currency in any form, actually.
Perhaps, in a larger sense, the romance of "hitting the road" or "beating the bushes" or "eating shit for 23 hours and playing music for 1" will have to be thrown by the wayside, especially for bands like ours. Perhaps it should have been years ago, judging by the current energy crisis which everyone has known about for years and still done nothing about. We are as complicit as anyone in our willful ignorance.
The old tour model is uncomfortable, wasteful, ecologically shameful, irritating, and financially tragic, but the main problem is that it's a cubic fuck-ton of golden fun. We wish we were touring at this very second, believe me.
Notes: Can you each name one current band or musician you admire and why?
NTP: Personally, I would select any living Gibb brother, aside from Robin. As a band, however, I think we all admire Kate Bush, who still makes very interesting music and is a shining testament to the triumph of individual artistic will over a complacent, self-satisfied musical universe.