PE LIVE: Interview with Naive Thieves Full Transcript by The Press Enterprise Lyrics
[Live footage of "Wake Up Now"]
Vanessa Franko: Hi, I'm Vanessa Franko. Welcome to another addition of PE Live. We are here at ProAbition in downtown Riverside. I am so excited—we are having my Amazon wishlist of inland bands, Naive Thieves, on the show tonight. Thank you guys so much for being here.
Cameron Thorne: Of course. Thank you for having me.
Franko: Well, I’m really excited because you guys have just had a banner year this year and I love your sound and I kind of love the story behind it. Can you talk a little bit about how the band started?
[Live footage and audio of "Sold Short" overlays]
Thorne: Yeah, sure. Levi and I, we both went to school together. We were actually the first two people that started the band. And we went to high school together; we were kind of friends both— We jammed together a little bit. And then we were in a band together for a little while after high school, and we had really good musical chemistry, and we decided that we were gonna kind of try something different. And that's kind of how Naive Thieves started.
Franko: Well, you know, and talking about something different, the first EP that you guys did, From Nowhere, there was a lot of ukulele. There's not a lot of ukulele so much anymore; can you talk a little about how the last four years the band has really evolved soundwise?
Thorne: Yeah, I mean, honestly we’re still trying to kinda figure it out. Like I'll be honest and say that we can't really necessarily pinpoint exactly what we're trying to go for even. Or nor do I think it's even necessary but when we first started we definitely were— We knew we didn't wanna do the standard instrumentation. We wanted to start at least in a very different spot, and we knew that we eventually wanted to take it in a different direction.
But yeah, that's kind of why— I picked up the ukulele because it was, I don't know, I have family that—a lot of my family’s from Hawaii—and a lot of my family played it and so it was just kind of like natural to at least attempt it. I just wanted to try it, and then over the years, I don’t know, it's just really hard to capture live; it’s really hard to translate live. And I just honestly kinda got tired of it.
Franko: Fair enough, fair enough. But you know, one of the things that I find so fascinating is that it doesn't matter what songs you guys are putting out. They're always really interesting. Can you talk a little bit about just how the songwriting process works for you guys?
[Live footage and audio of "You're No Good" overlays]
Thorne: Sure. It's pretty mathematical. Levi and I are still the main songwriters. We’re usually writing together, or if we're writing on our own, we're always constantly consulting each other and going like, "What do you think of this? How does this sound?"
And, I mean, not to completely break it down but there is a little bit of a science to the way that I write music. And first I start with the rough sketch of what I want the song to be, and then there's no words or even story involved yet. It's just kind of like I know what I want the song to sort of sound like and then I start writing a melody, and then from there—very mechanically. For me, I think that the story is very important, or the lyrics and the meaning, but for me, that actually comes secondary to the way that the words sound and the way that those words fall in the beat; the cadence is very important to me so I usually start there—figure out exactly the melody and the way I want— I might not know the words but I'll go like, you know, "Okay I want it to have this many syllables," like to that neurotic level.
Franko: I kind of love that. We could write some haiku together perhaps later. [Laughs] It could be really fun. So you guys just finished recording a new record. Could you talk a little bit about that and the new sounds we might be hearing?
Thorne: Sure. Anybody who has been listening to us from the beginning— This sort of jump that we took from From Nowhere to Le Sheik Rhat: sort of sonic differences. It's about that, if not bigger, to this new record. It's a lot— It's definitely— I don't wanna put any sort of pretense on it. I don't think it's necessarily heavier, it's not necessarily poppier, it's just different. And it's a little like— I don't wanna say even more raw. There are songs on there that are very like— I would consider raw, and then there's still like— We're taking it in different directions just 'cause it seemed like the necessary thing to do. It's the natural thing to do.
[Live footage and audio of "Wake Up Now" overlays]
Franko: So what's ahead for 2014 in the coming year?
Thorne: So we're gonna try and finish up this record we're working on right now. We actually just got some mixes back today. It's been a long process, but I think it's gonna be pretty awesome once people finally hear the finished product.
So next year—we don't have a set date yet—but we're aiming to release it hopefully the beginning of next year, 2014. And then after that, we'll see. Hopefully another tour or something.
Franko: So where can people find you online?
Thorne: People can find us all over the interweb. NaiveThieves.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and that might be it.
Franko: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming out. I'm really excited for this.
Thorne: Thank you so much.
[Live footage of "Wake Up Now"]
Vanessa Franko: Hi, I'm Vanessa Franko. Welcome to another addition of PE Live. We are here at ProAbition in downtown Riverside. I am so excited—we are having my Amazon wishlist of inland bands, Naive Thieves, on the show tonight. Thank you guys so much for being here.
Cameron Thorne: Of course. Thank you for having me.
Franko: Well, I’m really excited because you guys have just had a banner year this year and I love your sound and I kind of love the story behind it. Can you talk a little bit about how the band started?
[Live footage and audio of "Sold Short" overlays]
Thorne: Yeah, sure. Levi and I, we both went to school together. We were actually the first two people that started the band. And we went to high school together; we were kind of friends both— We jammed together a little bit. And then we were in a band together for a little while after high school, and we had really good musical chemistry, and we decided that we were gonna kind of try something different. And that's kind of how Naive Thieves started.
Franko: Well, you know, and talking about something different, the first EP that you guys did, From Nowhere, there was a lot of ukulele. There's not a lot of ukulele so much anymore; can you talk a little about how the last four years the band has really evolved soundwise?
Thorne: Yeah, I mean, honestly we’re still trying to kinda figure it out. Like I'll be honest and say that we can't really necessarily pinpoint exactly what we're trying to go for even. Or nor do I think it's even necessary but when we first started we definitely were— We knew we didn't wanna do the standard instrumentation. We wanted to start at least in a very different spot, and we knew that we eventually wanted to take it in a different direction.
But yeah, that's kind of why— I picked up the ukulele because it was, I don't know, I have family that—a lot of my family’s from Hawaii—and a lot of my family played it and so it was just kind of like natural to at least attempt it. I just wanted to try it, and then over the years, I don’t know, it's just really hard to capture live; it’s really hard to translate live. And I just honestly kinda got tired of it.
Franko: Fair enough, fair enough. But you know, one of the things that I find so fascinating is that it doesn't matter what songs you guys are putting out. They're always really interesting. Can you talk a little bit about just how the songwriting process works for you guys?
[Live footage and audio of "You're No Good" overlays]
Thorne: Sure. It's pretty mathematical. Levi and I are still the main songwriters. We’re usually writing together, or if we're writing on our own, we're always constantly consulting each other and going like, "What do you think of this? How does this sound?"
And, I mean, not to completely break it down but there is a little bit of a science to the way that I write music. And first I start with the rough sketch of what I want the song to be, and then there's no words or even story involved yet. It's just kind of like I know what I want the song to sort of sound like and then I start writing a melody, and then from there—very mechanically. For me, I think that the story is very important, or the lyrics and the meaning, but for me, that actually comes secondary to the way that the words sound and the way that those words fall in the beat; the cadence is very important to me so I usually start there—figure out exactly the melody and the way I want— I might not know the words but I'll go like, you know, "Okay I want it to have this many syllables," like to that neurotic level.
Franko: I kind of love that. We could write some haiku together perhaps later. [Laughs] It could be really fun. So you guys just finished recording a new record. Could you talk a little bit about that and the new sounds we might be hearing?
Thorne: Sure. Anybody who has been listening to us from the beginning— This sort of jump that we took from From Nowhere to Le Sheik Rhat: sort of sonic differences. It's about that, if not bigger, to this new record. It's a lot— It's definitely— I don't wanna put any sort of pretense on it. I don't think it's necessarily heavier, it's not necessarily poppier, it's just different. And it's a little like— I don't wanna say even more raw. There are songs on there that are very like— I would consider raw, and then there's still like— We're taking it in different directions just 'cause it seemed like the necessary thing to do. It's the natural thing to do.
[Live footage and audio of "Wake Up Now" overlays]
Franko: So what's ahead for 2014 in the coming year?
Thorne: So we're gonna try and finish up this record we're working on right now. We actually just got some mixes back today. It's been a long process, but I think it's gonna be pretty awesome once people finally hear the finished product.
So next year—we don't have a set date yet—but we're aiming to release it hopefully the beginning of next year, 2014. And then after that, we'll see. Hopefully another tour or something.
Franko: So where can people find you online?
Thorne: People can find us all over the interweb. NaiveThieves.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and that might be it.
Franko: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming out. I'm really excited for this.
Thorne: Thank you so much.
[Live footage of "Wake Up Now"]