Thumpers Discuss Debut Album ‘Galore’, Sub Pop Signing

Admittedly, it does seem a tad unusual when a band of British roots gets their big push over the pond first. As it turns out, Thumpers are a duo who’ve been faced with such a predicament and they tend to agree. But when you’ve got Sub Pop releasing on your side, any obstacles can be overcome.

“We were in Seattle for like three days at the end [of our tour],” begins the band’s John Hamson Jr., “and they just were so generous and took us out and showed us their Seattle. We met JP who founded Sub Pop and signed Nirvana and that was just like…”

Understandably, the experience was somewhat surreal for the pair: “After our show in Seattle, we had a three-way conversation,” Marcus Pepperell offers. “He has a way with words, he’s very economical, but poignant. It was a really poignant moment. In fact, the whole trip was, because of the idea of people seeing us for the first time, even though they’d already invested in it. So the whole thing just felt…” John continues. “In this really crowded bar, and he was just so genuine. I welled up.”

Needless to say, even with someone like JP [Jonathan Poneman] and Sup Pop stood behind them, the decision to release their forthcoming debut ‘Galore’ over in the US first was not an easy one. The duo were already well aware of the support they’d received off the back of their singles in the UK, and they were determined to try and keep momentum going.

“We tried really hard to make sure the record came out as soon as possible,” explains John, “it’s just the way shit goes. That’s the other thing we were worrying about, we had so much support from you guys and other people, and I didn’t want it to seem like a fuck you, because obviously it wasn’t, but we did everything we could to try and… it’s just where we were at in the industry in the UK.” He even manages to be optimistic about the situation. “And the fact that we’ve actually even got a UK release… a lot of bands still don’t have that. At least we have one now.”

Luckily, even with their debut already on shelves on the other side of the Atlantic, the band are still feeling fresh and positive about the full release’s prospects in their home market. “I was just thinking about this today,” concurs John, “it doesn’t feel like that long ago, it still feels quite… which is great. I hope that the record does develop people’s idea of us as well, because we’ve released quite a few singles so far, and i think there’s definitely.. surely every band says this, but there’s a deeper side to us, we’re not a singles band, we’re not just a singles band.”



Thumpers’ ‘Galore’ is out 19th May.

Taken from the new, free DIY Weekly, available to read online, download on Android via Google Play, or download on iPad now.