THING-ONE: Nuclear Fusion

By Rich Quinlan
Photos by Pierfrancesco and Brian Coppede

I was first introduced to the genius of Thing-One several years ago when their innocuous looking disc arrived in my mail for review. I was astounded by what I heard; a wild combination of hip-hop, soul, rock, and jazz played by live musicians and honest, introspective lyrics. From there, I have had the pleasure of hearing Thing-One evolve into a brilliant combination of eclectic groves and jazz, but still overflowing with a panache that few bands possess. Leader Joey Palestina was kind enough to humor me by answering some inane questions via email. His band is amazing and definitely worth seeing, although you may need a change of pants!

Q: Please start with basic biographical info about Thing-One in terms of origin, inspirations, and early incarnation of the band, both uplifting and funny in retrospect.

Thing-One was created by Spencer Miles and Joey Palestina in the basement of Miles house in Glen Ridge, NJ. 2003/04 was when we started to musically dip and dab into ideas and try certain styles out. I was listening to hip hop on overload, Nas, Wu Tang Clan, Biggy, GangStarr, Common, Naughty By Nature. My other friends in Glen Ridge would have little circles where we would blast a Wu tang song, and we would all take turns freestyling, and this is when I started to rap and write on a consistent basis. As college came to a close for both of us, and hip hop was pulsing our ears, Spen was composing bits and pieces of various hip hop driven songs. I would come over, and rap a little, raid his parents fridge and leave, and one day he called me and said "We should start a band dude". So we did. At the time, the albums that were inspiring us were Illmatic by Nas, Liquid Swords by GZA, Ready to Die by Biggy Smalls and the strongest of all Breath From Another by an artist named Esthero. The Esthero album had an immense impact on our hearts, it was produced by a cat named Doc Mckinney and it blended elements of trip hop, rock, drum and bass and jazz with vocals that were perfect for the tracks. I suggest everyone find a copy of it and listen to it.

At first, and for about two years we were a hip hop band, with a female vocalist and myself as the rapper, keys, bass, guitar and drums. This is where we built our base as band. We've completely changed since then and I'd like to think our sound is constantly maturing into something different, all the time.

Q: Your lyrics are usually quite personal-do you believe that artists can ever reveal too much about themselves lyrically? And how do you find that line?

I think it depends on the genre of music you're working with. Rap lyrics are always very personal and sometimes been of an overload for people. Our lyrics when we were doing hip hop we're very personal for both of us because of where we were in our lives; the fear of post collegiate life, finding a job, getting kicked out of our parents house, getting dumped by numerous girls, experimenting with drugs, death, adolescence, all the typical doors that open and close at such a conscience age, and a somewhat fearful age for everyone. It came across strongly on the first and second album and we wouldn't take it back for the world. At the same time I think most hip hop falls into a really watered down repetitive style with artists that pigeon hole themselves lyrically, which is why we changed after our second album "GhettosklylineSuburbanFarmland", which I think is a great blend of where we were stylistically and where we were headed. I hope that if we do become more well known, that that album gets dug up and really discovered because I think it's fantastic.

Q: Did you struggle early on to find like-minded musicians who could grasp your vision and make it a reality?

No. The only thing we ever struggled with in regards to the numerous musicians that were in and out of the band was trying to put together a group of people that were as dedicated as Spen and I; a real optimistic core, with passion and drive, which is vital for any bands success.

Q: How has non-traditional music outlets (social networking sites, blogs, etc.) impacted your band's notoriety and fan base?
We changed from hip hop to electro dance rock around the time when blogs really started to take off and luckily a lot of the local music blogs had open ears to our new style much more than our old style, which was good timing on our part. It's amazing what it's done for bands, Myspace, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Facebook, all of these networking sites and bloggers hold bands momentum in their hand which is a good and bad quality. You're constantly exposed, and like our drummer Tim always says, blogs love finding a band and discovering a band because they feel like it's their band, that they found and no one else. We all used to bombard The Village Voice or The Times for a review, now you can get a review on a blog that gets 15,000 views a day and you become much more passive about the older zines and publications because you know the popularity of the blogs. They're good for bands. Without a doubt and have been great for us.

Q: Your band borrows from hip-hop and jazz, to name two genres: Do you consider yourself part of these genres or something wholly outside them? What has the reaction been from more "traditional" hip-hop artists to your work?

Well I'll preface this with saying we are not a hip hop band anymore and haven't been for quite some time. Spencer has really catapulted us into a new genre and style over the last two years, but even now the hip hop element is still evident in our work and is a wonderful challenge to sometimes keep it lingering classily as we progress. The one thing I made a promise to keep from our hip hop roots was the realism in our lyrics, the wonderful thing about hip hop is the personal connection that the artist immediately exudes through his work, if done tastefully; with our new style (electro pop rock) we've managed to still write on that personal almost MC feel with a lot of the songs which I think winds up being more effective because rock appeals to a wider audience and is what we grew up on, rock and jazz.

Q: Jazz was initially viewed as dangerous, rebellious music that would frighten parents and disturb the youth of America. In a world of such pre-packaged hype and gloss, is there ever a chance the music will again capture that element of danger and freedom?

Hmmm. Danger and freedom. I'm going to out on a limb here and say everything and anything that is groundbreaking or controversial about music has already been done; the best is behind us. We can only hope to try and be just as effective in whatever we do, from pop, to bluegrass to jazz to techno. The internet has really brought music back on its feet in regards to just constantly exposing it, all the time, whether it's good music or bad. I don't think kids these days for the most part have the attention span, or mental capacity to even feel a sense of danger or freedom about the music they listen to; as long as it's on their IPOD, they can shut themselves off to the world and fall into that wonderful unsociable hole they love to live in. That sounds condescending, but, I hope there's some kid out there doing that to Thing-One.

Q: Have labels struggled to grasp what the band is doing?

I actually feel bad for labels. I think they've struggled to grasp what they are capable of doing. The internet does so much now, they have been forced to really revamp their approach to bands, whether it's a pop band or a more experimental band like Thing-One because there's a lot we can do on our own now, from building a base to booking shows. I think it's a time of chaos and transition and it's somewhat nice to see them scrounging and trying to reinvent themselves almost like the artists they represent. We have had a hard time in the past, but hopefully that will change.

Q: What has been your most memorable experience thus far in the band?

Starting the band with my best friend Spen Miles and Timmy Alworth is most memorable for me. Years ago dreaming about playing Mercury Lounge, dropping our first kit off there, now we're playing CMJ there; dreaming about playing Bowery Ballroom, and then we played there last year, years ago talking about going on the road with the boys, having fun, building a base and getting some press, now it's all happening. The journey itself has been the most memorable and will continue to be; the bad times and the good because you need both in order to stay fresh.

Q: Discuss the song-writing process if you could: Is it a democracy with various inputs and opinions, or a more controlled structure?

Spen and I write everything together, Timmy will come in and be a pretty big factor in the beat, he loves to change things live and in my opinion is the strongest musician in our band, we throw a lot of electronic beats and parts at him and he tops it with something even more amazing. Overall Timmy, Spen and I all decide on what sounds good or what needs work.

Q: Discuss the immediate future plans for Thing-One.

We would love to start tour with a bigger band, get more press, play Brooklyn(Hipster Heaven) on a consistent basis because there's a lot of action in that area and keep building a base in Jersey and Manhatten. Timmy would also like us to be the house band for John McCains election, but he swears he's not conservative, he's just a fiscally concerned drummer guy who doesn't want taxes raised. We hope to see Tim leave the band in the near future and get a job on the campaign trail perhaps as an advisor for the McCain people on what rest stops have the best combo of fast food while on the road. He's going to kill me for this, but he knows I'm joking. An additional plan we have is to make sure our new guitarist Adam Arcano doesn't lose his pedal board anymore. Watch out for this kid, he's been known to given women orgasms while playing live, he gave Spen one at our last show.