There is something to be said for taking the old and making it new. With their self titled debut album The Honeymoon Thrillers have done that very thing. Drawing on influences from The Beach Boys and Elvis to The Clash and The Strokes, it is no wonder THT have developed a sound all their own.
In the winter of 09' lead singer Nathan Barlowe decided it was time to do something different. "I was listening to old records and just remembered growing up how simple and moving that music was that my dad and uncles would play," Barlowe says, "I sat down and wrote a song a day for 10 days and felt like that was the record." After a "happy accident", THT's sound was born. Nathan was recording the first demo tracks to what would become the album when he accidentally left a distortion pedal on. "I realized I had never really heard anything like what was happening. It was retro and modern all at once."
He immediately began searching for the right pieces to form the new band. After adding brother Cary Barlowe on lead guitar, old friends Chris Boyle (bass), Jared Byers (drums), and Josiah Holland (keys), the sound and vision of THT were coming together. Chris Grainger was brought on as producer and the band immediately went into the studio to start recording the album. "We really just wanted to capture the sound of the band as it was, and let the songs speak for themselves," Grainger says. "There was no trickery or studio magic. We used 3 mics on the drums and one in the hallway all recorded in mono. Everything was done at lightning speed just to get it down as it was." The album was mixed by Grammy winning engineer Vance Powell (White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather).
The result of capturing these songs "as they were," is a stunning debut that is light and dark all at once. The songs themselves are quite possibly what would have happened if The Everly Brothers grew up listening to The Smiths.
