Thompson Springs spread their wings to play Canada for the first time

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Chicago/ Madison Wisconsin based indie rock/ alt country  band Thompson Springs are excited to play Canada for the first time, when they stop by the Slice, Wednesday Oct. 24Thompson Springs play the Slice, Oct. 23. Photo submitted
 The trio including guitarist/ vocalist Matt Smith,  bassist Andy Goitia and drummer/ keyboardist  Jacob Bicknase just finished recording their first full length  album in  Nashville with the help of Wilco multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone who plays on  the song  “Graffiti Rose,” from their second and most recent second EP “Fond Regards,” as well as Rob Laakso who  works with Kurt Vile and the Violators.


They took their name from an abandoned town in Utah, which ended up being the setting for their video for “Have You Looked at Me” from their debut 2016 EP ““Artifacts.”
“ I found it while backpacking a few years ago and the name just stuck with me,” said guitarist/ vocalist Matt Smith, driving through  the California desert with his bandmates en route to Los Angeles.


The band, who have toured all over the U.S. and Europe, are excited to play Canada for the first time.


“I’ve been there. I have cousins who live there and I’ve been to Toronto and Vancouver, but we‘ve never played there,” Smith said.
“ So it seemed like a good time to play there,” he continued.
They are pleased with their latest EP “Fond Regards,” which was released last August.
“ There’s a lot more electric guitar and layers on this one. The first was more acoustic,” said drummer Jake Bicknase, noting he also plays keyboards on the side of his drums to help fill out the sound when they play it live.
“ We found  Williamson Magnetic Studios — this tape studio in Madison, where we recorded it. And that was a real learning curve working with tape,” Bicknase said adding the songs developed naturally throughout the process.

 They met Wilco’s Pat Sansone through  Rob Laakso, who also plays bass with Kurt Vile.


 They enjoyed working with Sansone.
“Pat is just so positive. Recording can be a  chore. People get a little cranky, but Pat was just so excited all the time,” Smith enthused.

“And he knew all of these tricks and shortcuts to make things go smoother,“ he continued, so they recruited him to help record the full length album.
“We enjoyed being in Nashville and meeting all the people. It was nice to just book a week and just record instead of just being able to record on weekends. We’d get up in the morning and record the base tracks of the songs and decide what they needed,” Smith said.


 The full length album will return to the band’s  acoustic roots.
“It’s going t be very cool. We’re playing a lot of acoustic and we added a lot to it in the studio,” Andy Goitia added.
“ You’ll be hearing a lot of psych rock, some folk , a mix of all of them,” Smith said.


Thompson Springs and Biloxi Parish play the Slice, Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8:30 p.m.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
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