Just a handful of Vermont bands get big enough to tour in Europe — and Brattleboro indie band Thus Love will embark on another European tour after its U.S. one later this year.
The self-described queer post-punk band has also received positive press in Rolling Stone, The Guardian and other sizable outlets in recent years,
Thus Love's forthcoming album, All Pleasure, is out Nov. 1.
Band members Echo Mars and Lu Racine spoke with Vermont Public's Mary Williams Engisch to talk about their latest album and upcoming show. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Williams Engisch: Humans always feel that need to put music into categories. For folks who aren't familiar with your music yet: What genre would you put yours in? Like, how would you describe what it sounds like?
Echo Mars: Maybe post-punk pop. But jokingly and colloquially, I would say guitar music.
Lu Rachine: Yeah. I would say we're like a rock and roll band.
Mary Williams Engisch: Yeah, sweet —What did you grow up listening to?
Lu Racine: Oh, man, probably like the Clash, Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles.
Echo Mars: Yeah, I definitely got a lot of the Beatles. ... Peter Gabriel was a big one in my house.
Mary Williams Engisch: Southern Vermont plays a big role in the videos that are being released with a lot of the songs, and also within the songs too. Finish this sentence: Southern Vermont isn't just my home. It's___?
Echo Mars: A whimsical safe haven for anyone.
Mary Williams Engisch: Go deeper. Why does it bring you to that description?
Echo Mars: Some strange force brings a lot of like-minded people here and has, I think, helped curate some magical expressions in the art world. But it seems that people have an access to the creative divine here, and it permeates.
Mary Williams Engisch: You wrote that one of the songs on the upcoming album titled, On The Floor, that is, sort of, about looking outside of a structural, traditional school setting to find true education. Describe what that means. Where are you finding your true education?
Echo Mars: You know, allowing yourself to accept a state of almost like, communal failure, in a historical context and in an everyday context. Like, OK, things that I'm doing or thinking or my perspective of things aren't serving me clearly or other people, and maybe they're even harming people. And how do we shift things internally and externally, of course. I think a lot of that has to do with erasure — history erasure, cultural erasure.
Lu Racine: And there is no shifting things externally without working on things internally.
Echo Mars: And to take time doing it, right? That's like the main line, "Take time to think about it." This is a lifelong process here, being people.
We have learned a lot through other people with really powerful platforms, and how they're choosing to use it to bring awareness to these things is inspiring. You're not right off the bat gonna know the best way to make something better or more useful.Echo Mars, Thus Love
Mary Williams Engisch: Did you ever imagine that your passports would be stamped and you'd be mentioned in Rolling Stone, or you'd be in a rock band in front of huge crowds?
Lu Racine: It's a dream come true. It's funny that you just mentioned the passport stamp thing, because I was just looking at that like, 'Oh my God, I haven't even had my passport, like, not even probably two years ago and it's already almost full.' You know, it's wild.
I still remember our first time in Scotland. We went to Loch Lomond, just like sitting at the water. We saw this really beautiful tree, which is funny, like, I should be thinking about the music, which I am thinking about!
Echo Mars: What about 4,000 people in front of you? I definitely think about the moment that you're on stage. It happens really fast. One of my main focal points in my memory is trying to bring my body back to that place without all the brain chemicals, without all of the energy coursing through my body, trying to give a good performance.
I think about that from a quiet, still moment. And I think about all those people, and, I could still visualize all the faces, at least in the first couple of rows.
Mary Williams Engisch: Your album dropping just days before the general election. Are there any the themes that are tied to at least, like the democratic process?
Echo Mars: Oh God, I hope not! If our band operates anything like the U.S. government, I would be pretty disappointed in us.
Lu Racine: I think, like the timing, you know, wild. I think a really big theme of the record, All Pleasure, it's like about, breaking free of that apathy that enables everybody to normalize genocide, to normalize violence.
It's an incredibly scary thing, how numb everybody has become. It's incredibly important to utilize critical thinking, to be aware of your sensitivity to propaganda, you know.
Echo Mars: Being in a band, we have learned a lot through other people with really powerful platforms, and how they're choosing to use it to bring awareness to these things is inspiring. You're not right off the bat gonna know the best way to make something better or more useful.
Mary Williams Engisch: And circling back to the new album, the title is, All Pleasure. How does that reflect what you're seeing? You just mentioned propaganda, apathy, the importance of critical thinking and dialogue in a politically and emotionally charged year.
Echo Mars: I'm really passionate about how words are used. Specifically, how words can have several meanings, how words have had several meanings throughout history, how they are shifted through that.
And pleasure shifting away from just specifically a dopamine response and actually, like, pleasure being associated with joy, and joy being associated with fulfillment and connection. Accessing fulfillment to a greater extent that involves an interconnection with other people who are trying to unlearn the same things.
Lu Racine: "Take time to figure it out! Take time to figure it out!"
Echo mars: Hey, I know that song!
Thus Loves' new album, All Pleasure, from Brooklyn indie label Captured Tracks is out Nov. 1. The band plays a hometown release show at Brattleboro's Stone Church on Nov. 1 and at Radio Bean in Burlington on Nov. 10.
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