Thirsty

The artistic collaboration between ex-Quireboys guitarist Guy Bailey and Russian poet Irina D. must have raised a few eyebrows to say the least, therefore it’s all the more exciting that THIRSTY (with a little help from fellow musicians) defied initial scepticism and is proud to present their second album ‘Albatross’. Reason enough for an interview and a few explanations…

Music-News:
A British arthouse-inspired rock outfit combined with the occasional poetical lyrics sung/spoke in Russian is not your everyday formula (not suggesting you guys ever were about a formula to begin with)… How did the collaboration come about?

THIRSTY (Guy):
It was really a happy accident. I had known Irina D for a while socially – but we had never really discussed collaborating until one day – not quite sure what prompted this – she gave me this bit of paper with a few lines sketched out on it – the first verses of “From Donnie to Sonny” I think it was – and asked me to turn it into a song. Now I was always used to just working out a riff-based idea on the guitar and then trying to figure out something to sing on the top – like most guitarists I guess. So this was a bit of a challenge. But after about a week I came up with something in a certain mood that I hoped fitted her thinking about the lyrics – and something just clicked. So we decided to try another song… and then another… And before we knew it, we were roping in Simon and Chris. And then Lynn came and put down some BVs. And best of all, we asked Chris Kimsey and he loved it - and really helped us to shape the sound and feel of the project.

Music-News:
Guy, as main song-writer/composer, how would you say the second album differs from the first one?

THIRSTY (Guy):
In some ways, we were following the blueprint of the first album – because we had found a way to make music that we all loved playing and which was lots of fun. For me, starting with a finished lyric and building the music around it was totally new – and very inspiring. So we carried on with more of the same here.
What is different about ‘Albatross’ is that this time Irina was getting inspiration from her favourite books rather than from all the "fact being stranger than fiction" stories and histories from real life that she kept finding for the first record. As far as setting them to music, we tried to expand the sound with the addition of accordion and violin and harmonica on a few tracks. So, at least to my ears, there is a different sound - a fuller and more complete sound than on the first album.

Music-News:
Who came up with the album title ‘Albatross – inspired by Coleridge’s famous poem and in what context does the re-worked title track stand to the original source material?

THIRSTY (Guy):
Well, great minds think alike! The answer to this is easy really. The album title comes from the title of the lead off track “The Albatross” which is also going to be the first single and first video to be released. So, as you may easily guess this is a track which we all loved from the first moment. In terms of the original poem, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also one of Irina’s favourite poems and the original inspiration for her lyrics came from a couple of intense passages in the middle of the poem where Coleridge’s writing is so full of imagery that it sounds as though he was on another planet – which of course, being an opium addict, he was most of the time.

Music-News:
Irina, tell me a little about your artistic background and your creative input regarding Thirsty.

THIRSTY (Irina):
Ever since I was a child in Russia, I was always a really avid reader. I used to fight with my Mum when she was reading something that I wanted to get my hands on. Later I did a course on Literature in Moscow – so books and creative writing has always been a huge part of my life – even in periods when I was doing other stuff. About the time that Thirsty was coming together, I started to get really vivid senses of creative writing possibilities in some really weird real life stories which I had read about – stuff that was so strange that you could not make it up – like the pigeon fancying mobster – or JFK’s sister being lobotomised by their father – or the most famous Russian WWII sniper who turned out to be a woman. The thing which I had not anticipated was that Guy would be able to turn them into such great songs.

Music-News:
Is Chris still working as a ‘rock n roll lawyer’ or is Thirsty taking up the majority of the time?

THIRSTY:
He says yes but don’t tell any one!

Music-News:
Tell me a bit about the tracks ‘Parliament Of Fools’ and ‘Patriotic Little Trash’…

THIRSTY:
‘Parliament of Fools’ is taken from one of Irina’s lyrics which started out as a kind of satirical thing about Internet Trolls on Twitter – its ridiculous, they are just total nobodies with no life at all who just sit in their bedroom spitting out horrible and hateful stuff all over the internet and chasing each others tweets until there are literally thousands of them gathered together in a toxic gang sharing their bile and egging each other on.
‘Patriotic Little Trash’ was a poem which Irina wrote in about 15 minutes – but it took a ridiculous amount of time to get the music right. We had about three versions of the song over nearly 18 months but none of them worked – it only really started to become good in the very last weeks before we went into the Engine Room to mix it. We had created a Mott/Floyd/Freebird keyboard based thing with some terrific BVs from Lynn and when Guy started to sing the lyrics to Patriotic Little Trash on the top, we knew we had it nailed at last. What is it about? This one is about the cult of personality, dictators and despotism and mass media. We are not going to name any names - but there is a clue in the lyrics somewhere apparently.

Music-News:
Guy, during a conversation some years ago you mentioned that you were done and dusted with touring, so to speak. Does that still stand or do you/the band contemplate a future UK-mini tour to promote the Thirsty albums?

THIRSTY (Guy):
Well yes and yes!! I can’t see me wanting to go out on tour again like the Quireboys did - and still do. But I would love to do a few shows. Don’t get me wrong – the touring thing works great for the Quireboys and they are a fantastic live band. But it was never the intention with Thirsty to follow in their footsteps on the road or otherwise. That said, I would love to do just a few shows just to get the Thirsty music up and running and out there – since we all really love it so much. The problem much of the time is logistics. Simon Hansen is always on the road with Squeeze - and his playing is so integral to the sound that I cannot imagine playing live without him. And we all have other commitments - so that its a real headache just getting everyone in the room together.

Music-News:
How – as a collaborative whole – do you go about the creative process?

THIRSTY (Guy):
I guess that we kind of answered that already on the first question. The main thing is that the lyrics always seem to come first – although this is by no means a fixed rule. Then I try to figure out a kind of mood and style to go with the words and of course work on how I am going to sing them – you know - the melody thing. Then the tracks just grow organically – sometimes we jam together – sometimes we overdub a few ideas to see how they are going to fit together. The aim is to get to a place where the wonderful Mr Kimsey can start to work his magic.

Music-News:
What are your plans for 2017 with regards to your music/the band?

THIRSTY:
Well we are all totally focused on the launch of the album in a couple of weeks on 7 November and are very busy preparing for that. 2017 still seems a long way away. But we are hoping to be working through the spring on developing and launching singles and videos from the album and on putting some shows together. So – watch this space!! Of course, we are also already putting down a few rough sketches for songs for the next album too!

(Please read my review of ‘Albatross’ in the ‘ALBUM REVIEWS’ section)