{"id":25209,"date":"2013-11-08T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T13:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=25209"},"modified":"2017-03-01T13:18:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T13:18:49","slug":"new-noise-thumpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2013\/11\/08\/new-noise-thumpers\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW NOISE: THUMPERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Pull Tiger Tail\u00a0<\/em>members go it alone as new-found duo Thumpers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Thumpers_Desert_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Childhood friends Marcus Pepperell and John Hamson Jr. used to play in indie-rock outfit Pull Tiger Tail,<\/em> but after a label dispute, the pair decided to disperse in opposite directions and take some time to recharge their batteries before returning at the and of 2012 as Thumpers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Their vibrant, dynamic and textured pop music was celebrated when they signed to label Sub Pop\u00a0<\/em>who will be releasing their debut album at the beginning of 2014. We caught up with the boys to chat about playing in Friendly Fires, re-inventing their sound and playing gigs in biblical mudstorms.<\/p>\n

How were Thumpers born? What’s your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We met when we were eleven years old and picked up instruments at pretty much the same time. It was always about being in a band and making music\/writing songs rather than being a virtuoso on an instrument, and i think that stood us in good stead for developing some kind of songwriting style. We were in various teenage rock bands to varying degrees of success and toured endlessly, cramming all our gear in the backs of parents’ cars.<\/p>\n

What’s been happening in-between your previous projects and Thumpers? Have you taken time out to completely re-invent yourselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After our last band finished, there was definitely a period of licking our wounds. I went to play music in other peoples bands (Friendly Fires, Noah and the Whale, Cocknbullkid) which definitely emotionally freed me up from previous baggage and was great at finding my love for it all again. I think the bad experience we had with our previous projects really made us question why we wanted to do any of this, and so a lot of the time away was recharging and searching for the energy to take it on again, which thankfully we found. In that sense, there was no goal of reinvention, we just knew we had to make and find a sound we’d be happy playing and exploring for hopefully a long time. Re-invention has this undertone of cynicism but for us it was actually much more about rediscovering our naivety.<\/p>\n

How was the summer for you? What festivals did you play and how were the new tracks received live?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The summer was really grewt but super busy. I think our total for festivals visited was 16 by the end, including Reading and Leeds. We’re still a pretty new band, the majority of the set is new to people so we were blown away by the responses we had –\u00a0 especially at Leeds where the crowd fought off a biblical mudstorm to watch us play.<\/p>\n