INTERVIEW: Thumpasaurus

In the midst of their US tour in support of recent album The Book of Thump and new space opera EP Where Does The Love Go?, WTBU DJ Carrie Sheehan caught up with Henry Was and Lucas Tameran of Los Angeles punk-funk band Thumpasaurus for a frank discussion of their path to renown, aesthetic development, and the powerful appeal of John Travolta’s face.  

Carrie Sheehan: Well, I’m just gonna start with the small talk — how has the tour been so far?

Henry Was: Yeah, the tour’s been really… unreal. It’s been amazing going to new places and seeing that there’s people who care about this thing. I’m always surprised when people show up. I’m like where — How did you guys find out about this? Like, how do you know the band? But it’s been really incredibly getting to get out and share what we’ve been brewing. We just played New York last night. That was just about sold out, and amazing. St. Louis was packed, Chicago was packed. And I mean… just that this can be a job.

CS: I can imagine that feels great.

 HW: I keep forgetting we’re doing something that… people can theoretically make money at this. [laughs] I don’t know if we’re making money, but I’m in a band with all my best friends going around right now. I feel like I’m on vacation. I would pay to do this. And in a sense we might be! But you gotta start somewhere.

CS: You mention the growth of your fanbase — It seems like you guys have had a great grassroots thing going on. And your collaborations with Knower and Vulfpeck have helped you reach a very targeted maybe-niche, maybe-not-niche audience. So you have a very specific kind of aesthetic and presence online, what would you say about the planning behind all that? 

HW: Yeah, wow, compound question, here we go! [laughs] So, starting from the beginning, the stuff with Knower and Vulfpeck has been really great and those are definitely bands that we feel a sort of alliance with in the school of not taking things too seriously and having a good time with it. I think there’s a lot of bands that are kind of rounding that corner and coming into that headspace, and that ties a lot into the aesthetics of the internet-y kind of stuff.

I think when we started the band, that all brewed together into this mix. I feel like it’s part of this reaction to being in college and music school where you’re supposed to do things a certain way and there’s always a right and wrong answer. We just tried to see how opposite and how far out we could go, and tried to create an environment where people could do that with their bodies and minds. Just be goofy and not think about it all.

I think that using Mark Zuckerberg as our own personal Darth Vader [laughs] and having a Space Barn spaceship and stuff like that were just tools we pulled that relate to everyone. Which is something you see a lot in the internet age with memes that all have these layers of context. It allows people to grab onto what’s going on even if they don’t know why, and just be silly. Just use the time to let loose.

That kind of pivots to talking about our audience. I think there’s a part of it that accesses that music school niche, that you’re referencing, I think. And we did for the most part all go to jazz school. But the way we see it, we’re making pop music, it’s just pop music to us. And from what we’ve seen, the audience that comes to the live shows is everyone from people 60-and-older that were going to clubs in the 80’s to — a lot of our shows aren’t all-ages, but 14 year olds in Montana have sent us art and weird graphic design stuff they make for the band. It can be a kids’ record or a really mature record — not that kids’ records aren’t mature. We try to make it something everyone can be a part of.

CS: I was watching your new visuals for Where Does The Love Go? last night [featuring a surreal 17-minute journey through John Travolta’s filmography] — so speaking of the memes and having a good time, I was wondering where you see the connection between your work and the oeuvre of John Travolta?

Lucas Tamaren: John Travolta was introduced by this guy Ben — he runs and creates the visuals in our live show. I think one time we were playing part of [Where Does The Love Go] live, he threw these John Travolta images and clips behind us and it kinda just clicked, very viscerally. Something about his face and his career — he just evokes such emotional responses from us, at least. So we just ran and ran and ran with that idea. Way too much time was put into this project [laughs].

CS: [laughs] I can see what you mean about the primal connection. 

LT: [laughs] He has such a face! So much love in his face. And then he like, sinks down so darkly. And with the context of the media — he’s sort of a publicly crucified and glorified figure. That’s really interesting to us too. So we threw together all of these elements, and Travolta was the perfect hero for our story.

CS: You talked about getting your start in college, and that there is a good bit of your audience that comes from that music school background. As a college radio station, we’re definitely interested in not just listening to music but playing it as well. Do you have any advice for people who are still in college and are looking to get a band started with their friends?

HW: I would say just do what’s fun and exciting. That kind of snowballs into whatever ideas you can come up with, but if you’re genuinely interested in having fun with it or getting something out of it that’s personal, go for it. I feel like our own discovery was discovering that within ourselves and our ideas sprang from that. But it starts with, oh, this is dope to do. Nothing could be more fun than doing this.

LT: We also played a sh*t ton. We started as a folk band, and we started playing house parties. It was like, alright, this [acoustic folk] is not cutting through to people in this context, although I loved playing that so much.

HW: I think a big part of that was just not blaming the audience for that and figuring out the ways we could get inside. Basically, we learned a ton of covers. Classic songs, like [The Rolling Stones], Motown — we played that stuff for a long time at parties before Thumpasaurus was even a band. That was really formative in a subconscious way. I couldn’t tell you what we learned or give you notes on it, but just playing all these songs… You know, just play the outro of “Hey Jude” for five straight minutes. You know, stuff that’s cheesy, we played a lot, and learned how to get a party going. If possible, try to do that. Play as many gigs for as many drunk people in as many low pressure, sh*tty-sounding living rooms with broken speakers as possible. At least, that’s what worked for us.  

If you can survive in a living room full of people who are wasted and have no real reason to want to listen to you — if you can figure out how to get inside their heads, then it’s like taking off the brakes.

The Book of Thump and Where Does The Love Go are available on Spotify. See Carrie’s photos from their show at Great Scott here.