Interview — Thrasys

Skratch Magazine

Thrasys is an indie rock band that happens to be Christian. Mars Woodbury (vocals/piano), PJ Williams (guitar/vocals) decide to start a band after PJ heard Mars’ beautiful singing voice. With the addition of Jordan Erwin (drums/vocals) Thrasys hopes to make music and change lives. Check out what this band out of the show me state of Missouri had to say about their music their song writing and the challenges they face as a “Christian” rock band. MI

Skratch: Describe your sound:

Mars: We're that feeling you get when you feel like giving up but then realize someone truly cares.
PJ: Its really all over the place at times, I still have no idea how to classify our music or how we can squeeze into a genre.
Jordan: I think we started out kind of punk-ish with upbeat songs etc. But lately have been developing out own sound, with a lot more depth to the music. Our music is becoming more artistic and more meaningful.

Skratch: How did you become interested in music?
Mars: I've always loved music. PJ talked me into playing it though. He knew I secretly wanted to even though I never would've admitted it before.
PJ: The day I escaped from my mothers wretched womb.
Jordan: I became interested in Making music when I realized that "Hey, I can throw together something that will hopefully affect someone else in a positive manner."

Skratch: What is your song writing process like?
Mars: PJ fumbles with his guitar. I go "I like that, play it again!" then immediately afterwards "Keep playing it!" I pull out an array of lyrics PJ has fabricated over the years and start singing the melody I've composed in my head. Then we take it to Jordan who constructs the drums and poof! We have a song. Lately it's gotten a bit more intricate than that and we've all started writing songs together, but our old fashion way almost never fails.
PJ: Usually either Jordan or I will write something on our own time as a start. Then we all come to practice and all of us just do our parts to piece it together.
Jordan: We all chip in with different guitar parts or ideas, key ideas, and "even though P.J. and Mars can't play drums" they still chime in with ideas for the percussive aspect as well. It's really a team effort. But the fact that we all are on the same page with beliefs and points of view, makes it a heck of a lot easier to come up with something good.

Skratch: What artists or musicians inspire you?

Mars: Regina Spektor, The Spill Canvas, Bright Eyes, Dashboard Confessional, Brand New, The Hard Lessons. Christina Aguilera.. Come on, she's got a killer voice!

PJ: My biggest inspiration in music is Trevor McNevan from Thousand Foot Krutch, the guy does so much with music its ridiculous!

Jordan: Tool and A Perfect Circle inspire me personally.

Skratch: Where do you take musical inspiration from? Your environment? People? Explain.
Mars: PJ and Jordan inspire me a lot, but I also live through past experiences. I've gone through a lot in the past few years. sometimes I get stuck there. I just want people who went through or are going through the same things I did to know that they're not alone, that there are people out there who care about them and things will get better. I always try to incorporate that into our music.
PJ: I live and breathe music, everywhere I go and in every situation I have a song in my head. When I was about 13 though the songs were stuff I had never heard before. It was then that I realized that they were ones I was making up in my head. Since then I have just been taking in everything, from what I have been through to what others around me are going through, the joy in life to pain, from everyday nonsense to turning points and forks in the road...
Jordan: For me, I take musical inspiration from scenarios that I create in my mind. I try and think of an environment and include some sort of weird religious battle in it, and put it into song.

Skratch: What is your musical background?

Mars: Used to sing along with Disney movies when I was little. After that I fumbled with a keyboard then took up flute in my school's band and ended up with first chair. PJ caught me singing to myself on the way to our senior homecoming and he'd been after me to sing ever since. I finally gave in one night when we sang "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches to each other in my computer room one night. From then on I knew that we had something.

PJ: I started playing guitar at 15, but back then I was mostly interested in singing so I formed a band Edge of Flames. After we realized we weren’t any good and all parted ways I formed Thrasys.

Jordan: Musical background? Do you mean like what do I play? In that case, everything except horns! I can't do horns; they are way to hard for me.

Skratch: Tell us about how you got started as a band.

Mars: PJ and I had our own thing going on for a while. It started off as us doing mostly acoustic covers and slowly we worked our way into the harder stuff. We desperately needed a drummer and met Jordan on Myspace. We physically met Jordan the day of a show and hit it off quite nicely. He learns and creates things 50 times faster than the normal human being. No one could tell that we had just met.

PJ: During the time my band Edge of Flames was doing a lot I still felt like there was more that I wanted to do with music, so I started writing solo acoustic stuff. After I wrote enough songs I realized I needed a name for my new project, so I researched and came up with Thrasys (the Greek word for bold.) Then one night I heard Mars voice, holy cow it was amazing! I loved it so much I asked her to start singing with me. We did our own thing for a while and realized we needed a drummer. Jordan came to the rescue and its been sweet ever since.

Jordan: I came in through Myspace. I was finishing up failing my first semester at Eastern Michigan University when I saw a post on Thrasys Myspace that they were looking for a drummer. So I got a hold of PJ and got lucky that I'm in a band with Amazing people.

Skratch: What is the most rewarding part of playing in a band?
Mars: Having someone tell you that one of your songs saved their life.
PJ: After a show is done and you are going between the stage and the vehicle you are loading the gear into and someone stops you and pulls you aside to say that in some way your music, or something you said on stage touched their lives. Sometimes it ends right there, and sometimes it goes into a huge conversation about what this person has been through that by the end it seems we have both helped each other to be better people... but either way I think its just knowing that you (with Gods help) were able to help someone be better than before they came there.
Jordan: Getting pissed off about carrying my drumset everywhere.

Skratch: What challenges have you faced as musicians?

Mars: People don't like us because we're Christian. I don't get it either.
PJ: Faith and confidence, its a hard road to go down (contrary to popular belief) and we all have to believe that God is there for us and he gave us these gifts for a reason and that he has equipped us with all we need to do what he has called us to do.
Jordan: Trying to get on shows is a challenge, but the biggest challenge is probably gas money.

Skratch: What would you say is your best song to date? Why?

Mars: A Song To End Your Suffering. It's the most 'real' one we have. I wrote part of the lyrics during a time when I was really hurting, but I couldn't finish it. I gave my part of it to PJ between classes one day and he filled in my blanks. It was the first song we actually wrote together.
PJ: A Song To End Your Suffering, I think it shows off a lot more of our talent and is also a lot deeper and more heartfelt than some of our other lighter songs.

Jordan: Hmmm, dear god, don't ask me that one. Probably the one with that sweet bridge at the end?

Skratch: Do you remember the first album you ever brought? What was it?

Mars: The first album I ever bought for myself with my own money was Swiss Army Romance by Dashboard Confessional. It got me through a really tough time.
PJ: The first album I bought on my own was Kutless- Sea of Faces; I still love that CD
Jordan: The First album I bought was Human Clay by Creed. God I love that CD.

Skratch : Where do you see your band in five years?

Mars: Hopefully on tour and changing lives.
PJ: Hopefully touring around the nation, doing what we love and helping people in their relationships with others and with Christ.
Jordan: Hopefully by the grace of God, touring around the nation, if not the world.

Skratch: Would you say your goals as a band are long term, or short term? What do you ultimately hope to achieve? Explain.

Mars: We want to save lives. In any and every way we can.

PJ: Definitely Long Term, we hope to be doing this until my hip gives out trying to breakdance on the stage and Jordan’s arthritis is so bad he cant pick up a drumstick... Mars will probably age really well though (she’s not as crazy as we are) and will go on to do a very successful solo project that your grandchildren will love!
Jordan: Our goals are definitely Long Long Long term. We're hoping to be one of those bands that your children's children listen to and still draw some sort of inspiration from.

Skratch: How has your band evolved since when you first formed?

Mars: It's gone from PJ and I in my computer room just fiddling around with stuff, mainly pondering if we were worthy enough to attempt certain covers to Jordan, PJ and I putting together our own songs for our CD and booking shows.
PJ: Thrasys went from a solo acoustic project with not much direction, to an awesome rock band with what we all hope is a bright future. We really love what we are doing and I think we are just gonna keep working hard and hopefully getting better along the way.
Jordan: Like I said earlier, we were kind of punk-ish. but now we definitely have more depth, art, and meaning into our songs

Skratch: How often do you practice? What is your rehearsal time like?

Mars: Right now we practice about once a week. Dollar General steals Jordan from us the majority of the time. On one of his precious days off, we practice and record practically all day.
PJ: Since Jordan lives about 45 minutes away from Mars and I, we try to practice about once a week (or more if we can) and they go for 6 to 8 hours long at times.
Jordan: We practice once or twice a week. (due to the fact that we live almost an hour away from each other). We usually play over all our songs, then work on new ones. Then we eat, and try to get Mars to have a little more stage presence and continue practicing.

Skratch: What would you say is your band's motto? Explain.

Mars: Everything happens for a reason. Things always seem to happen to us to try to screw everything up, but in the end it always works out better because of said event. We always try to remember that God is watching out for all of us and to just trust Him.
PJ: God's a smart dude, he will lead us where we are supposed to go as long as we have faith in him.
Jordan: Hmm. I don't know if we have one, probably just have faith in Christ, because he is always beside us.

Skratch: What shows/album releases/plans do you currently have set up? Tell us about them.

Mars: Currently recording a CD and planning on playing at St. Johns Mint Festival and at Townline Campground, but with many more to come.
PJ: We are just finishing up recording for our first full length CD to be released...
Jordan: Well, August Fifteenth in St. Johns Michigan is their annual Mint Fest. We plan on releasing our first CD there. It should have about eight songs on it and maybe a bonus track too.

Skratch: Where have your preformed? Tell us about the experience.

Mars: The HIVE (with Please Promise, Monsters and Mannequins, Cast & Crew), The Record Lounge, Pilgrim United Methodist Church, St. Louis New Beginnings Church, St. Johns Battle of the Bands (1st place), Owosso Battle of the Bands. Every time I was scared. Really, really scared. But in the end I always feel blessed. We were supposed to tour with the Extreme Tour this summer and play at DIRT FEST but due to circumstances both of those fell through.

PJ: We have played at the HIVE, the Record Lounge, eXtreme Worship, Perrydaze, a few battle of the bands shows here and there. Wherever we can, we just love to play.

Jordan: We've performed at a variety of places. Won a few battle of the bands. But, the Best part about Performing is Watching the crowd really get into our music and enjoy it. Whether its playing in front of four people or four hundred.

Skratch: What sets your stage show a part from all the other bands making the rounds at venues?

Mars: PJ goes NUTS. It's awesome.
PJ: The fun we all have! We are like a big goofy happy family and we just have a ton of fun on stage... plus no one (not even us) EVER knows what the heck we are gonna do.
Jordan: I would say the fact that we have so much fun and really truly enjoy doing what we do. Plus we have a Tiny Asian Singer! And she has an amazing voice. Who wouldn't wanna see that?

Skratch: Anything else you think we should know about the band?

Mars: Maybe....
PJ: We are just a couple of kids making our way in the real world, trying to break into the music scene with the songs that God has laid on our hearts to sing. All we want is to serve him and help others with our songs and what we have been through.
Jordan: We all Love the music we play. We have put our trust and faith solely in Christ and he has shown us so many blessings. We are glad to play in his honor.

For more on Thrasys go to www.myspace.com/thrasys.

» BACK TO TOP

Interview Archives