- Features
“So many ‘latest’ and ‘greatest’ pedals are coming out that I had to get off the train… most of them were trying to do things that had already been done”: Ian Thornley knows what tones he’s looking for – but he’s still searching for the perfect song
(Image credit: Steve Jennings/Getty Images)
Throughout 30 years, too few have feasted on the multi-layered playing inherent within Ian Thornley’s virtuosic guitar buffet.
Perhaps it’s because he’s a native of Canada, a country that’s produced a ton of outstanding music, but outside of Rush, never seems to get its due. Or perhaps it’s because he and his band, Big Wreck, refuse to stagnate – instead using their albums like a blank canvas for a technicolor-splashed paintbrush.
Regardless, when Thornley takes the stage, it’s must-see stuff. And when Big Wreck drops new music, it’s best to sit back and listen. Stunning as it is, not even Thornley fully understands how he brings it all together.
“I don’t know if I really have an approach per se,” he says. “It’s more that I follow what I’m hearing and see it through to determine if it works. Often, when I hear those sounds, I will have some kind of inkling of how to get there, usually through a certain amp, pedal, or guitar.”
It seems that despite the loss of long-time rhythm guitarist Brian Doherty, who passed away from lung cancer in 2019, and the new addition of Sekou Lumumba on drums, Thornley has been wading through a lot of those ‘inklings’ en route to 18 new songs, released in across a trilogy of EPs now grouped as the album 7.
Thornley remains effervescent about writing new music: “I still love that feeling when the hair stands up on the back of your neck and you get chills,” he says. “The fact that music can do that keeps me returning for more.”
“No matter where you are, what language you speak, or what you believe, music is powerful. I still feel lucky to be doing this; I still am 100 percent motivated to pick up my guitar each day.”
What led Big Wreck to release a series of EPs rather than a full album? Did that affect your approach?
“I don’t think it affected how we approached the songs or how I looked at the guitars. It was more an idea we’d been kicking around. I thought it would be interesting to do several EPs, which we recorded simultaneously, rather than having it be a full album.
“There are a few reasons, like the fact that I feel Big Wreck is more of an album-cut type of band rather than singles-driven. I’d get bummed out because our best songs would be at the end of the album and never get listened to.