Thank

Name, where are you from?
F: I am Freddy from the rock band Thank. We are based in Leeds, but I’m from Halifax.
L: I am Lewis from the rock band Thank. We are based in Leeds, but I’m from Hull.
C: I'm Cameron and I'm from Leicester, “The Shining Jewel of the East Midlands”.

Describe your style in three words?
F: Evil clown librarian.
L: Techno interests me.
C: None more black.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
F: Probably the second time Beauty Pageant came to CHUNK, our old practice space. I can’t describe the gig without sounding like a sad old man reliving his glory days, but suffice to say all punk shows should be like this one.
C: Radiohead at Old Trafford, 2017. The venue got changed after the arena attack, so it was a bit tense but you could tell everyone was there to have a good time. They essentially played a greatest hits set with two encores, ending with a crowd-led reprise of 'Karma Police' after the song ended. I heard several thousand people belting "For a minute there, I lost myself", and I ascended.
L: That’s proper difficult, but there was an incredible all-dayer at Temple of Boom in Leeds a few years ago, headlined by Full of Hell. A great selection of some of Leeds’ best hardcore/grind/whatever bands, topped off with probably the best “extreme” band in the world. Absolute carnage.

If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?
L: Blur and Oasis so we could show them what proper music is all about!
F: I think I would have to say Cocaine Piss and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, which is hugely coincidental because we are due to play at Raw Power Festival with both of those bands later this year.
C: Young Knives and Gwen Stefani.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
F: For better or worse, my life was irrevocably changed by nu-metal. Giant trousers and military surplus parkas all the way!
C: Mid '00s indie, for my sins. Not really a subculture, it just landed at the right point in my teens to scoop me out of the metal phase and drop me into being a "hipster". I listened to the first Futureheads album and decided to start playing guitar.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
C: George Michael, for the bants and leftist politics. Or Lady Di, for the real tea.
L: I’d really like to meet the composer Alexander Scriabin. His music is incredible, but he never finished the piece he really wanted to write. It was meant to be a week-long performance in the foothills of the Himalayas, with a huge orchestra and choir, dancers, incense and lights. It was supposed to bring about the end of the world and replace humans with “nobler beings”. Sounds like he’d be a laugh for an hour.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
F: Not with this band, but Theo and I once played a gig in a squatted former munitions factory in Strasbourg, and afterwards we slept in an airlocked bunker in the basement. Cool as heck.
L: Even after years of playing there in various bands, it still feels special playing at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Best venue in the world.
C: The Charlotte, Leicester, RIP. One of the few places bands would actually visit on tours back in the day. We’ve still not played in Leicester (hint, hint).

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
F: I’m amazed that Whatever Brains has never become a cult classic band. All their releases are good, but the later stuff in particular sounds like a noise rock version of The Residents. It’s like Cali-punk written and performed by extraterrestrials.

Thank recently released their new LP 'Thoughtless Cruelty' via Box Records and Exploding In Sound. Listen, purchase or stream it via linktr.ee/thankleeds.