A Ritualis Metallum Infernalium tem o prazer de apresentar mais uma entrevista inédita em Portugal. Desta vez a banda visada foi Thou, essa bela salada de sludge/drone/doom dada a conhecer mais uma vez pelo Zyklon.

Fiquem então com a entrevista efectuada a Andy Gibbs, guitarrista:

Ritualis Metallum Infernalium must confess that this interview is an honor for all of us. Having the opportunity to interview a great band like Thou, is a great achievement and the fact that Thou is only the second American band interviewed by us, makes it even more special.

1 – You could start by telling the readers, how the idea of creating Thou came up and what is the band's purpose. In other words, what do you want to achieve with it?

Thou started whenever previous bands broke up and we had nothing to do. We had been toying with idea of a slow, heavy band but never really set up parameters for it or anything. I honestly had no idea we would sound as heavy as we do. As for purpose...I don't know. We do this band for ourselves. We hope to write solid songs that move us and have compelling lyrics to accompany those songs. We also hope to stay grounded in our approach to music and not turn into egomaniacs if we achieve some type of "commercial" success.


2 – Nowadays, the tendency to label bands in the most specific and ridiculous way, is growing way too far from the tolerable. Your sound is commonly described as a "salad" containing elements of sludge, drone and doom. Do you think that's an appropriate description or would describe it in a different way?

While I'm interested in the many sub-genres of metal/punk/hardcore/whatever, I don't get too caught up in semantics. To me, we're just a slow and heavy band. If someone calls us "post-metal" or "sludgy, droning doom" and it helps someone else get a good idea of what we sound like, then awesome. I don't lose sleep over this stuff.


3 – Being such a recent band, it is really surprising to witness the maturity of your whole music, I mean, it seems like you've been playing for decades. But, from the photos I've seen, you seem a bit younger than I thought. How old are you guys and for how long have you been playing?

We range from 22 to 28. Matthew and I are both 25 and have been playing music together since we were kids, so our musical chemistry is pretty well-developed. Thou has been a band for....3 years, I believe. Bryan is a recent addition. We've all been in bands and have been playing our instruments for a long time, so that may account for something.


4 – If I'm not incorrect, you belong actually to the label Autopsy Kitchen Records, which has released a lot of quality stuff such as splits with Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Nunslaughter and so on. Are you generally satisfied with your label? Do they press you to work on new albums and EPs or are they more like calm and relaxed guys?

We aren't signed to AKR, but they put out the Peasant CD. We've been involved with a number of labels, from bigger guys like Southern Lord, Level Plane, and Robotic Empire to equally awesome smaller labels like Gilead Media, Shaman, Woodsmoke, Noxious Noise, etc. No one has pressured us to do anything. We take a very informal approach to dealing with labels, and try to work with as many of our friends as possible while still churning out good records in an effective way. All the labels we've dealt with thus far have been great to work with.

5 – You've stepped on the pedal on 2007 and you haven't slowed down a bit, in terms of releases. Until now, you have released one demo, two splits, three EPs and two full-lengths. That's a hell of a curriculum and I suppose that you don't intend to slow the pace too soon. Are you that prolific every time you gather around to compose and rehearse?

All of that stuff came about because people were asking us to put records out on their labels, and we just took all of them up on it. We're going to slow down next year, somewhat. After the next full-length we're going to re-evaluate our situation and decide our pace from there. We certainly aren't extraordinarily prolific at every practice...sometimes a song happens quickly, sometimes it take weeks or months. We were just in a creative period of time this past year, I guess.


6 – Speaking of composing, I'm really curious about the way you guys create your songs. Specifically, from where comes your inspiration to compose such dark yet dynamic songs? Is it something that comes out naturally or do you plan every single section of every song?

It's not meticulously planned out or anything. Usually what happens is I'll have half of a song written, and Matthew will have a different half of a different song written. 9 times out of 10 they end up fitting together really well. If they don't, we try and write something on the spot. If that doesn't work, we go home and individually work on new stuff and try again next practice. Sometimes we just jam a part out on a whim and it just stays that way.

7 – I guess now it's the right time to ask you who are the people, I mean, the bands that inspired and inspire you, more than anything else. And by the way, do you all share the same interests and influences?

We all have pretty different tastes.
Mitch - 311, Mos Def, Nina Simone, Dirty Projectors
Matthew and Terry - black metal (ie - Craft, Sargeist, Lurker of Chalice,etc) and doom (Electric Wizard, Graves at Sea, Goatsnake, etc), and of course Sabbath, Earth, Boris, and High on Fire
Bryan - bad 90s pop music, the Smiths, Avail, Earth Crisis, Mirah, some black metal.
Andy (me) - all of Matthew and Terry's stuff plus some hardcore (Catharsis, Minor Threat, Acts of Sedition, Double Negative), motown (Four Tops, Otis Redding), and Mirah.

We are all into Fiona Apple and Pearl Jam, too. Seriously.

8 – About your splits, I'm really curious about them, since they were both with bands very different from your brand of sludge/doom. "Thrive and Decay" is shared with the death metal band Black September and "We Pass Like Night, From Land to Land" had you together with the blackened thrash/folk act, Leech. I didn't have the opportunity to listen to those records, but I still wanted to ask you if they turned out to be a good collaboration. Do you think that both bands complemented the splits in the best way, being such different outfits?

I think the collaborations worked. We usually pick a song that we think will fit with the other band's song.

9 – I have to confess that I don't pay too much attention to the lyrics on most of the bands, but luckily I've decided to check yours and got really surprised. I appreciate them a lot, they most of the times tell dark stories about despair and a society collapse which is a very intriguing and interesting theme. Who's the guy in the band that deals with the lyrics and does that all come from his own imagination?

Bryan writes almost all the lyrics, but he sends them to us first and we throw our opinions in when needed. Most of the songs come from a blend of dorky fantasy-novel imagery and the real-life corruption we witness in our everyday lives.

10 – With such a fast pace, in terms of releases, as I verified, I guess that you have already scheduled another bunch of releases, some for this year and some for 2009. Can you confirm us anything and talk about the next works from Thou? Will they be different in any way and will they introduce innovative ideas?

Right now we're working on a bunch of splits that will feature some more "out-there" songs that wouldn't fit on a full-length...more experimentation. After that we'll be working on the next full-length, which will hopefully be out next summer. After that....well, we're still talking about what's next.

11 – Maybe this would be asking too much, but my wish to see Thou live is real and unfortunately I haven't got the time and money to pay a trip to USA, just to see you live. So my hope is that one day, you'll do a European tour and if I'm lucky enough, you will choose to play a gig in Portugal, which is just right next to Spain. Do you consider this possible, coming to Portugal one day, in the next few years to play a live show? I heard your live shows are pretty awesome…

We're trying to come to Europe next summer for a few weeks, but we haven't committed to a route yet, so I can't say if Portugal is a possibility or not. If not this summer, next summer could be more of a possibility for your neck of the woods.

12 – This is the end of our interview and I've enjoyed a lot doing it. I sincerely hope to see you one day live and I wish you the best of luck for your future releases. Do you have anything left to say to the readers?

Thanks for the interview. Stay hard.

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