Now We Can See

Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster are a punk rock power couple — they've been the core of the Thermals since the band began in 2002, but have been playing together since the mid '90s, in projects including Haelah, Urban Legends and Hutch & Kathy. The two of them recorded the fourth Thermals album, Now We Can See, as a duo, with Foster tackling bass and drums and Harris playing scalding guitar and declaiming spare, carefully crafted lyrics about human history, death and de-evolution. We sat down with them at a coffee shop around the corner from their Southeast Portland rehearsal space to talk about the new album, their secret love of Guys and Dolls, and their nefarious plan to kidnap a famous Portland guitarist.

On the title of Now We Can See:

Harris: There's a lot of "we" in Thermals songs. It's so there's not so much "I" — not just "listen to me sing about my life and what I think." We're all in this together, for lack of a better phrase, and we make everyone complicit in what we're singing about.

On "When I Died":

Foster: This one started out as "We Dissolve." It went through a lot of different versions and had different words, and it ended up as this more rock version, with a lead guitar part that's kind of influenced by the Hold Steady.

Harris: I don't think so! I think there's other stuff on the record that's influenced by the Hold Steady, I don't think this one is at all… A lot of the album's lyrics are written from the point of view of the time of death, or after life. This one's about a character who wants to de-evolve into a fish again, but can't breathe underwater and dies.

On "I Let It Go":

Harris: There's a lot of water on this record. I was trying to write a really classic song, the kind of lyrics that Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan would sing. It's a water story and a road story. There's this song called "Sit Down, You're Rockin 'the Boat," from Guys and Dolls, that I love. That's a really good water story. I think about that song a lot.

On "Now We Can See":

Harris: Kathy and I had talked a lot about "oh-ay-ohs," when we were writing this record — it's a great way to get a crowd singing along when they don't know the song. A lot of times when we're writing a song we'll think about playing it live, and the kind of reaction we want from the audience. "Now We Can See" is trying to talk about all of human history at once, and not always in a good light — a lot of the record is about being ashamed of humans. It's about how we've progressed in some ways so far, but people are so savage at the same time, and how the human race has learned so much but just ignores that knowledge.

On "At the Bottom of the Sea":

Harris: Kathy and I always think of that as being a really anti-social place, or a lonely place — it's just you, alone, at the bottom of the sea. We were thinking about the record as a whole, as something that you listen to from start to finish. Most of the songs are just powering ahead, but this is a kind of breather song. I think it has a real Velvet Underground vibe, especially that classic C-G-F riff at the end, pounding that riff over and over again.

On "I Called Out Your Name":

Harris: It's kind of a love song, and it's arranged like a folk song — the chorus is one line that comes at the end of each verse, and the three verses are each just one long phrase. The lyrics are about who you'd want next to you when you die. I picture someone lying outside in the cold, dying of a drug overdose or some bodily injury, and who you'd want next to you when you're about to die.

On "When I Was Afraid":

Harris: All "when" and "was" and "were." This is a fictional record, this is not "write what you know." I haven't died; I haven't been close to death. This song is about a character, someone who's lived their whole life in fear. It's about someone afraid to live because they're so afraid of death.

Foster: I like how the beat turns around and the end gets loud and heavy. I recorded a bunch of noise on the four-track: bass and guitar and some of the MAX train [Portland light rail] bell, and we put that on the third verse.

On "Liquid In, Liquid Out":

Foster: It was originally going to be much shorter, just an intro to "I Let It Go." But John Congleton, the producer, liked it a lot and said "this song needs to be longer!"

Harris: It's about someone who's just had a really bourgeois, lazy life. Which is how I feel sometimes. Kathy and I had a saying that "life is just a series of beverages." And that's a real bourgeois thing to think! You know how when you're in a restaurant and you're getting up to go, you take one more sip of your beverage? It's just an obsession with liquid.

On "How We Fade":

Foster: I like this one because it's the style of music Hutch and I have always played together, since we started playing together when I was 22. It's really heavy and fun to play.

Harris: I had this psychedelic experience last year where I felt like the world ended — everything just folded up. But it got me thinking about death: you're very disoriented and the world folds in on you. A lot of this record is just about fear, and what scares me, and what we think is scary beyond just dying. It's also about dementia — I'd hate to lose my mind before I died. I'd rather be alive one second and then dead. That song's kind of about that.

On "You Dissolve":

Harris: It's about being in love with someone and one day they're here and then they're gone — not like they've died, they just disappeared. It's about death, but it's about relationships too. It's really just a love song.

Foster: Musically, we were thinking we really wanted it to sound like The New Year or Bedhead. A simple beat for a simple song.

On playing the new songs live:

Foster: It's hard to play "When I Died" as a trio. We need another guitar player.

Harris: Johnny Marr! I can see it — one day he'll be walking to Modest Mouse practice, and we'll be like "Hey, Johnny, want a ride?" "…Hey, we just passed Isaac's house!" "Oh, it's okay…"