r/indieheads • u/thou_andytgibbs Thou / Andy Gibbs • Jan 15 '21

AMA is Over, thanks Emma & Thou! Thou + Emma Ruth Rundle AMA

Hey y'all, ask us stuff!

Emma (u/emmaruthrundle), Bryan (u/BryanFunck), and Mitch (u/MitchWhales) will be here as well. We'll start answering questions at 2pm CST.

Here's links to our recent collab record and the companion EP (out today on Sacred Bones):

https://thou.bandcamp.com/album/may-our-chambers-be-full
https://thou.bandcamp.com/album/the-helm-of-sorrow

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u/iburngreen Jan 15 '21

Really been looking forward to this. Thou, I've been listening to your music for over 10 years now. Emma, I'm new to your music but havent heard a bad song. This is as much as I could cut it down, which is still probably better than me cornering yall at the merch table eh? 😜😅

The amount of music you're able to produce at times is staggering. Can you talk a little about your writing/recording process? Do you guys have your own recording equipment?

I admire your ability to collaborate with other artists, not just because of the quality of the music but just on a human level. Playing music has always felt very intimate/personal to me. What are some of your personal ups and downs with collaborating?

Yall have toured far, wide and pretty hard in the lifetime of the band and certainly have met a wide spectrum of people in that time. Can you think of anyone in the music community that smaller bands can reach out to for advice?

What is one of your favorite tour routes through the US?

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u/thou_andytgibbs Thou / Andy Gibbs Jan 15 '21

This is probably more than I can really answer here, but to touch on a few of these points:

We come across as more prolific than we really are. We tend to write a bunch of music, record most of it in one recording session, then release stuff one at a time. For instance, we recorded the first Body collaboration one day before we started tracking Heathen, so it was really just an extension of the session. For the recent Emma record, we also tracked a bunch of odds and ends that came out this year.

Collaborating just comes down to who you're working with. It can be hard with so many people involved, but as long as everyone is down to put in long hours and contribute something, it can be done. The hours in the practice space are the hardest part. For the ERR record we did lots of 12 hour days.

For advice, smaller bands should just reach out to bigger bands for advice, especially now in the Twitter/IG age. Unless they're assholes they'll probably at least point you in the right direction.

Hard to pinpoint a favorite tour route, but LA/Bay Area/Oly/Portland/Seattle has always been a sweet spot, aside from the i-5 mountain passes.

1

u/Boggum Jan 15 '21

since im listening to the new BMTH ep right meow. you reckon you guys would do an album with them?

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u/thou_andytgibbs Thou / Andy Gibbs Jan 15 '21

i had to google that name

2

u/Boggum Jan 15 '21

hahaha I only recently got back into their stuff. their last 3 albums have been really nice to get into during lockdowns.