“I really love where we’re at now.”
Ian Thornley, frontman of Canadian rock band Big Wreck, is in a good place after many years of struggling to balance artistry and industry.
“I’m still learning,” Thornley told iHeartRadio.ca. “I learned the bare minimum that I need to to get by about the business because it’s so against anything art related or music.
“The more I focus on how the business works and what I really need to do to make it, the less I’m focusing on music.”
Thornley said realizing he can’t control what happens commercially has eliminated the stress of trying to fit in and trying to make his music sound a certain way.
“I’ll never really be able to bend to whatever’s going on in the marketplace,” he explained. “I might get lucky one of these days when the marketplace will bend around to whatever we’re doing, and that’s the best way.
“At the end of the day what you really want to do is please yourself musically and artistically and have something there that you’re very proud of and something that moves you, as opposed to wondering if this will move someone else.”
Big Wreck came to be in the early ‘90s while Thornley was attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. The band's debut album, 1997’s In Loving Memory Of… spawned hit singles like “The Oaf” and “Blown Wide Open” and went double-platinum in Canada.
But, what seemed like the start of something big turned out to be a wreck. Not long after the release in 2001 of sophomore album The Pleasure and the Greed — a commercial flop — the band broke up.
“There are a lot of reasons for it but essentially the four of us just sort of did it wrong, for lack of a better word,” Thornley explained. “We lost sight of the reasons why we started doing it in the first place.
“There’s got to be a certain amount of openness and communication that I think we were lacking the first go-round.”
Thornley was not silenced, though. He formed a band called Thornley and released two albums via Chad Kroeger’s 604 Records.
“It never really felt very comfortable,” Thornley said of the project, which he described as having “more of a focus on the commercial side of things, which has never really been my forte.”
Just like Big Wreck had dissolved after two records, so too did Thornley’s eponymous band.
“The second record sounded to me like half of it was the label saying ‘no, we need it to sound more formulaic and robotic’ and then [producer] Nick Raskulinecz and I saying ‘we want it to sound like this.’”
Thornley decided it was time to take control and found a kindred spirit in indie label Anthem (Rush, Max Webster).
“I started to steer the ship towards what I wanted to do as opposed to what I thought might appease the label that I was with at the time or might hit at radio,” he recalled. “I started looking at what makes me happy musically.”
At the same time, Thornley reached out to former Big Wreck guitarist Brian Doherty — “just because I missed the guy” — and the two men rekindled their friendship. When guitarist Paulo Neta was unable to do a gig because of his honeymoon, Thornley asked Doherty if he’d fill in.
“It was really that simple,” he said. “It was weird how natural it felt. I thought it would be strange to have him there after eight or nine years since I played with him, but it felt great.”
Thornley and Doherty went into the studio and started crafting what would become Albatross, the 2012 album released under the name Big Wreck.
“It didn’t make sense to me because it was only two of the original members,” Thornley recalled. “Brian and I were pretty hesitant.”
The sound of Big Wreck 2.0 resonated with fans. The album debuted at No. 5 and hit No. 25 south of the border — and earned a Juno Award nomination for Rock Album of the Year. A follow-up, 2014’s Ghosts also topped the charts and scored a Juno nod.
On Feb. 3, Big Wreck is unveiling Grace Street, which includes the recently-released single “One Good Piece of Me.” The song doesn’t truly reflect the album, which includes instrumental pieces and tracks that pass the seven-minute mark.
“I don't think I would like ‘One Good Piece of Me’ if that other stuff wasn’t on there,” admitted Thornley. He calls the lead single an “unabashedly pop tip of the hat to ‘80s Top Gun era pop rock.”
He added: “I do love it because while being something that’s very raw emotionally and something that’s close to me, there’s also a certain tongue-in-cheek-ness about it that I find very endearing.
“Having something that’s that sort of digestible alongside an instrumental or certain other songs on the record, is what makes it work.”
Having learned a lot in the journey to the Big Wreck of today, Thornley is a good person to give advice to young musicians hoping to make it.
“It’s not something you ever finish. You just have to keep going, you have to keep learning, and you have to keep yourself inspired,” he offered.
“There’s no such thing as a bad style of music. You have to keep your mind open when it comes to listening to new stuff.”
To support the new album, Big Wreck — Thornley, Doherty and Neta with drummer Chuck Keeping and bassist Dave McMillan — is setting out on a 29-city tour that kicks off Jan. 25 in Nanaimo, B.C. and ends on March 13 in Fredericton.
At 44, Thornley knows he has to take care of his instrument on the road.
“For the first time, I’m taking vocal lessons. That’s helping. My vocal coach and I are just doing all kinds of different things that I’ve never really experimented with before that are certainly going to help with maintenance and longevity,” he explained.
“That coupled with all the tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way from guys that are really trained singers.”
Thornley said he finds it hard to hold back. “I like to empty the tank every night. I like to give everything that I have for a show and that includes vocally,” he said. “But I’ve learned how to do it so it doesn’t hurt. I’ll finish a show and I’ll still be able to speak.”
Check out the Big Wreck tour dates below:
Jan. 25 – Nanaimo, BC – The Port Theatre
Jan. 26 – Victoria, BC – Distrikt Nightclub
Jan. 27 & 28 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore Ballroom
Jan. 30 – Kelowna, BC – Kelowna Community Theatre
Jan. 31 – Cranbrook, BC – Key City Theatre
Feb. 2 – Calgary, AB – Flames Central
Feb. 3 – Red Deer, AB – Red Deer Memorial Centre
Feb. 4 – Grande Prairie, AB – Better Than Fred’s
Feb. 5 – Edmonton, AB – The Ranch Roadhouse
Feb. 7 – Medicine Hat, AB – The Esplanade
Feb. 9 – Regina, SK – Casino Regina
Feb. 10 – North Battleford, SK – Gold Eagle Casino
Feb. 11 – Saskatoon, SK – O’Brians Event Centre
Feb. 12 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
Feb. 14 – Thunder Bay, ON – Rockhouse
Feb. 16 – Oshawa, ON – Oshawa Music Hall
Feb. 17 & 18 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
Feb. 19 – Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place
Feb. 21 – Waterloo, ON – Maxwell’s
Feb. 23 – London, ON – London Music Hall
Feb. 24 – Barrie, ON – Mavericks
Feb. 25 – Sarnia, ON – The Station Music Hall
March 6 – Ottawa, ON – Barrymore’s
March 7 – Quebec City, QC – Le Cercle
March 8 – Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre
March 10 – Moncton, NB – Molson Canadian Centre at Casino New Brunswick
March 11 – Halifax, NS – The Marquee Ballroom
March 12 – Charlottetown, PEI – PEI Brewing Company
March 13 – Fredericton, NB – Boyce Farmers Market
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