The Thrill is here

This should not come as a surprise, since the five-piece outfit from Dublin would be hard pressed to find one of their many rave reviews that does not mention the influence the Golden State has had on the band’s music. It has gotten to the point where it might be a little tiring, so imagine the surprise when Deasey beat the Irish Echo to the punch.
“I know everyone said it had a real California sound,” he said about the band’s debut during a phone interview while on a press tour of Canada. “But we really weren’t even aware of it at the time.”
The musical adventures along the sun-kissed and sandy shores of “So Much for the City,” which was released in the U.S. last November, has been the stuff of dreams, with reviews to match. There will be no rest for the weary, though, as the band is currently putting the finishing touches on their sophomore effort.
Recently holed away in a Los Angeles studio for six weeks, much of the recording has been completed. The new album “should be released before the New Year,” according to Deasey.
The band will be taking a few days off from mixing the new material to tour the East Coast, including shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken on May 23 and New York’s Irving Plaza on May 25, and will enjoy a mere two-week break before setting off on this summer’s Lollapalooza tour. There, The Thrills will be sharing the stage with such venerable acts as Morrissey, Sonic Youth, and the Pixies.
“It’s kind of like a European festival with mostly American bands,” Deasey said.
The summer music festival is a sort of European rite of passage, and while the idea is still gaining footing in the U.S., it should expose The Thrills to even wider audiences.
What can the audience expect from the hardworking Thrills?
“We’ll play four to five new songs,” Deasey said. “Four you can get away with, five might be pushing an audience a little. But I remember when I was growing up, I always liked to see a band play some new material as well.”
With their debut not even a year old, and no end in sight for touring, it is amazing to think they were right back at it in the studio.
“In a way, we’d like to be able to put out three albums in three years, like in the old days. These days people work at such a bloated pace,” Deasey said. “Though we’d probably kill each other by the third record” he added, laughing.
Soft-spoken and thoughtful, Deasey is introspective about the band’s whirlwind year and their recent return to the studio.
“We haven’t stopped moving since the first album came out. It was nice to be able to live in L.A for six weeks and take it easy.”
With the acclaim that met “So Much For The City,” it might be a formula The Thrills would have stuck with. Deasey would only say, “We made a very different record this time. You obviously do not want to be typecast. . . . There are some ambiguous moments on this record, and at times it’s quite fragile.”
Are The Thrills afraid of the sophomore jinx? “When you are doing something creative, the last thing you should be worried about it sales, because you can become distracted,” Deasy said. “Once it’s in the shops and on the shelves, you can worry about going out and promoting it. But we’ve never been embarrassed about wanting to do well.”
Considering that The Thrills are four-times platinum in Ireland alone, they are able to put that theory to the test. While sales in the U.S. have not been as strong, they have yet to meet a critic they didn’t like.
Along with appearances on every major late-night talk show and videos that got decent rotation on MTV, the New York Times’ Neil Strauss named their debut the No. 2 album of 2003.
The notoriously fickle music industry has been kind to The Thrills so far, so Deasey is, understandably, hopeful for their upcoming outings, but without being too overconfident.
“Last time we signed a record deal with nothing out, and the pressure and anticipation to prove ourselves was immense,” Deasey said. “Unless you’re an idiot, you know things can go either way in the music industry.”