Interviews

A Thorny Threesome: Three Key Takeaways Before BODIES Drops

Georgia Haskins

Apr 3, 2025

8 min read

The lead-up to BODIES has been one of the most anticipated album cycles of the year. Calculated precision, intertwining with valuable lessons from past releases, has seen Thornhill dive head first into a creative process that infiltrates the senses, but remains true to their expression and self-confidence.

We sat down with singer Jacob Charlton and guitarist Ethan McCann to help us pinpoint the key moments of the album, the experiences that have shaped them to now, and of course, the very nature of Thornhill as they present today.

Thread and Thorny: The Synonymous Nature of Thornhill and Aesthetics

As we all know, and as I type this up in a band shirt, merchandise has quickly flourished as the backbone of many bands. They are not just signal pieces of tastes or flag bearers of community, but often tell a story of the music being created and the feelings that surround it.

Within their last era, the Hollywood-esque, glamourous, and thriller-like album of Heroine saw the once flannel-clad men take on a much sleeker look. Within their stage performances and directorial features, Thornhill draped themselves in silk and lace, a dainty and picturesque expression of the saga unfolding through the lyrics. The form of presentation itself became more than a representation of the evening or show, but soon developed into a pivotal fragment of the band’s identity; Thornhill Thread Collection.

Merchandise soon became a lifestyle, with drops garnering wide attention and many of the items becoming much-to-be-desired pieces at local and international shows alike. Outwardly, the aesthetic changes to Thornhill proved to be one of their biggest developments yet, quickly surging from 0 to 100.

‍ETHAN: "I think it started when we started [this change] when writing Heroine, after The Dark Pool. I think we found that there was more to just writing a good song”.

At times, however, the thrill of conveying a story as an all-encompassing, world-consuming narrative can overshadow the very elements that brought in a fan base. So too, when the focus itself rewires and distinctions become blurred, it becomes easy to get overzealous in one’s own self-expectations.

‍ETHAN: "I think we definitely went too far on Heroine. We paid too much attention to the outfits and the vibes and the videos and trying to convey this massively, underlying story. We just reined it back in a little bit for BODIES and found this sweet spot between where we could still portray this extra image and paint you a mood, but still enjoy the music and focus on the songs as well."

With the new era imminent, many were curious if the portrayal of the past album was an isolated fragment of storytelling, or a readjusted version of the band that would continue to flex its polished and delicate muscles. But as BODIES content began to drop, the Melbourne powerhouses had once again shed their skin- now covered in blue hues, sweaty mesh, and sterile-looking chains. The tide had once again turned.

‍JACOB: "I think we like to think about albums as being a snapshot of your life at the time. I think that, as musicians or band members, we live our lives during this two-and-a-half-year stint. I think your album, the way that you dress, the way that you created the art and the merch and the sound is all dictated to where you are at that given moment when you wrote it. And then by the time it's out, you've normally changed again."

‍ETHAN: "We started when we were young, and we're just going to be figuring it out and keep growing as much as we can until we're old and can't do it anymore."

‍JACOB: "Until we're playing golf full-time."

Retrospection: From ‘Reptile’ to ‘Revolver’

There is no hiding from the fact that Thornhill is one of the bands most subject to the discourse that rears its ugly head from shifting sound, style, and tone. And the concept of this fight is quite an interesting one. When looking at a band catalogue, from start to finish, the juxtaposition has the potential to be stark, harsh, and foreign. Yet, the very discourse arising at such a pivotal time in the bands' career is majorly redundant, especially when evaluating the change from the most recent record to now.

‍BODIES holds many well-constructed bridges that perfectly welcome and invite the much loved elements on Heroine over, allowing these feats to feel acknowledged and endured. There is perhaps no better example of this than ‘Only Ever You’- a track that is somewhat like the guardian angel of Heroine, situating itself perfectly within BODIES and radiating its loved nostalgia on the record. Whilst some of the unpolished elements of Butterfly may be fleeting, there is also much pillaged from The Dark Pool: atmospheric and loud instrumentals, and a raw direness to Jacob’s screams.

The noise from the outside can be loud, and has almost perpetuated a narrative that the band’s past is quickly becoming separated from their own personal representations of music and the band. Yet, BODIES has called for an introspective and reflective tone from the band;

‍ETHAN: "I think as much as we talk shit on ourselves in the past, it's like each album and each release, you're just trying to get to that point of perfection at that point in your life. No record is going to be perfect, but each two-year stint is just as close as you come. They're all just stepping stones."

For a moment, BODIES will be the perfect representation of Thornhill; musically, professionally, and personally. Beyond the critics and acclaim, there is only a noise that can be governed by the band themselves- the way in which they choose to convey their story through sound, style, and scenery. It was here that Jacob made a bold claim, but one that rings true with an air of authenticity and self-assurance.

JACOB: "You're always the first listener and I think that will always come through to the right audience."

The Limbs of BODIES

‍BODIES finds itself as one of Thornhill’s most daring and experimental works yet. Through a reflection of their own personal tastes, many of which waver from the realm of heavy music, to re-evaluating the processes undertaken, there is a flair that is so uniquely provoking when associated with their name.

Yet, some things never change.

Throughout the entirety of their career, Thornhill has produced an unbreakable line of closing tracks. Grandiose, sentimental, and housing a cumulative outlook upon the story told as a whole, BODIES follows suit of its predecessors in the form of ‘For Now’. But is the selection of the finale procedural, or is it a moment of all-consuming knowledge of one's own creative endeavor?

‍ETHAN: "I think we know. It's always been something nice and melodic. I think between the four of us, we just know what feels right, what idea feels right to close it. And then I think once we know it's going to close, it determines how we write the rest of the song. But ‘For Now’ was actually... That was a fucking crazy story. We actually finished writing that in the studio as we were mixing the album, pretty much. We had a rough demo that didn't even have drums, really, and made it. It had to be sent up to Sydney to start tracking. We had a rough idea of how we wanted the drums to sound, but not really. We just got made up to take six or seven different takes of the same drum beat, and we literally just put the song together in the studio afterwards."

On the topic of Thornhill’s sure-fire structure style, there is an inextricable connection between them and the presence of an interlude. The Dark Pool saw the listener toying with the feelings of the tracks lingering beyond through carefully constructed inceptions of grief, disappearance, and longing in ‘All The Light We Don’t See’. ‘Something Terrible Came With The Rain’ propelled Heroine into a haunting, chilling and mystifying atmosphere - as if we were now the subject in our own thriller. Now, BODIES offers up ‘fall into the wind’. Inquisitive, curious, and almost with a consciousness, this moment is a perfect bridge within the middle of the album. Whilst delicately showing off the band’s instrumentation and also carrying the story forward, I was curious as to the band’s main reasoning for these often sentimental moments.

‍JACOB: "I think it's just good to hear a mix of everything. I think, at least for our palate, we couldn't just do 11 heavy songs. I think when you know you're going into a heavy song, I think the most exciting thing for us is to be surprised that you're there and to enjoy the journey that got you there. And I think this song works on BODIES because the album is fairly heavy. There needed to be some melody and some story as to why you are in these moments. And I think those just came about naturally. I think it's just something, again, that we don't really think about."

Obviously, between the head and toes of this tracklist was a whole lot of body. With rugged, in-your-face names and months of speculation among fans, it was hard to ignore the chatter of what song was going to exceed expectations and quickly rocket among the highest leagues of the band’s musical repertoire.

‍‘Revolver’ was a hard name to miss, like a million bullets soaring at you all at once.

And even before its real drop, Sydney asked for this song twice when the offer of an encore was dangled at the album release show. Furious yet groovy, the song is a belter of epic proportions - but it's an energy that pumps throughout every track. So much so, even the Thornhill boys are having a hard time picking their favourites.

‍JACOB: "I would love to see ‘DIESEL’ [take off]. I'd love to see that reaction. I am also keen for ‘Revolver’. ‘Under the Knife’ as well because it's such a chorusy, vibey, exciting song. Sabian from Alpha Wolf, I think he was writing the Alpha Wolf reaction to this album, and in a good way he said, 'that was like what you show the non-Thornhill fans to show them Thornhill”. It encapsulates everything that we can do. And we've been practicing a lot of that album, so I think it's sounding really good. So I think we're keen to showcase that as well."

‍ETHAN: "I would agree. I'd say that ‘DIESEL’ and ‘Revolver’ are definitely up there. ‘DIESEL’, just because it was so much fun to write, and I think it does a really good job of encapsulating the record. ‘Revolver’, we knew that people would like it, that it would be taken well, but I think we just wanted to keep it up our sleeve. We never wanted it to be a single because we hate when bands drop all the good songs, then it gets to release there and you feel short-changed. You don't have anything to show for it."

BODIES is set to rock our worlds. Another mark in Thornhill’s consistently and profoundly evolving journey, the new era sees the Melbourne men flourish into their most polished yet authentic self yet, with all the grit and grunt to show for it within the eleven-track body of work.

Interview by Georgia Haskins @ghaskins2002

You can stream BODIES on April 4th via UNFD - pre-order/save here