We are going to become a household name…exciting new US band Thus Love on latest album and falling in love with UK

RECENT UK live shows including Reading and Leeds festival have made Thus Love one of the most exciting new bands.

Now a four-piece – Echo Mars (vocals/guitar), Lu Racine (drums), Ally Juleen (bass) and Shane Black (guitar/keyboard) –  Thus Love have been bigged up by Brett Anderson and Mat Osman from Suede and next year will be supporting The Vaccines.

Here, Echo tells Jacqui Swift about their second album All Pleasure, remaining authentic, and their love for the UK.

Does All Pleasure represent a new sound for Thus Love?

Our first album Memorial was introspective, written many years ago, whereas All Pleasure is more of an outward reflection.

I wanted the guitars to sound overly lush on Memorial but on All Pleasure there’s more space.

You’re a four-piece now, how democratic are you?

Oh fully. We’ve just started to write material together.

I’ll bring forth an idea and we work on it together.

Sometimes all the parts are there and then people adapt what they think. Then we just play it live.

We are re-establishing what it means to be Thus Love.

We’re getting resettled into our lives after big transitionary years.

Lu and I faced a lot of hardships after the tour cycle of Memorial.

Tell us about Birthday Song?

I wrote that on an acoustic guitar for my partner at the time, like a best friend anthem and in my head, Anais Mitchell was singing it with The Smashing Pumpkins.

I had that song in my head for two and a half years, then I showed it to Shane and he became very obsessed with the hook.

He said it could be one of our best songs. And so it became the first single.

The video was fun to make with our friends, Benny Shumlin and Augie Voss.

It’s about enjoying life and not worrying about it too much.

Face To Face feels like an emotional centrepiece on the album. Tell us about it?

It’s funny, because it’s actually one of the songs that we don’t play live yet but we’re working on it.

We’re planning a sultry, synth rhythm version. I can’t wait to get it out there.

And Lost in Translation?

That song was written on our tour with Dry Cleaning.

We were on the way to Scotland driving through a rainstorm in the van, and I could barely see what I was scrawling.

Now it has a lot of emotional content to do with things going on in our Brattleboro (small town in Vermont where they live) community.

The pleasure that we speak about on the record is to do with gratitude.

With gratitude there’s calm and a stillness which is very healing to the nervous system.

You recently played UK shows. How was it?

Reading and Leeds had a similar vibe to South By Southwest – a lot of people cherishing every moment.

I saw a lot of drunk young people consuming art.

I grew up in the woods and didn’t have the opportunity to go to see amazing bands.

Every gig that we play is generally the biggest shows that I’ve been to.

How do you find UK fans?

The UK is very important to us, I have fallen in love with it and it’s so supportive.

Drahla from Leeds was the first UK band that we played with and we are now friends.

Vermont’s my home but when you live a transient life as a touring musician, you can make home anywhere like a hotel room or a van.

We are lucky as we now get to tour in a van where we can almost stand up in.

Who is your audience?

I see young people and parents with their millennial kids which is cool.

I think we are a band for people seeking authenticity and vulnerability. We’re saying pretty simple sh*t with a cool guitar sound.

The reach is spreading which shows that people are seeking music that is honest.

Many people are afraid to be themselves. I want to be me and find being on stage is one of the safest spaces for me.

You mentioned being vulnerable – does music help?

The best I can do is provide an honest reflection of my life, and hopefully that is a true reflection for other people experiencing similar things.

I want to utilise this platform and speak for me, the band and the Brattleboro community I represent.

Wonderful things are happening to me because of Thus Love but also I have hardships in my life.

I can’t appreciate the hype, when there’s so many homeless people in Brattleboro because of housing ordinances or there’s thousands of people being murdered in Gaza. I want to help.

But when people recognise us for our music, it’s amazing.

I recently started a job at a fermentation company that makes sauerkraut and kimchi and my coworker told me her teenager is into music and is a fan.

That makes me happy.

What’s the dream with Thus Love?

Thus Love is going to become a household name and is going to start a fund to support houselessness in Brattleboro, and also provide resources for Trans care.

We’re also going to keep making records for as long as possible, if we feel it brings authenticity into our lives. We have an album release show on November 1 – which is also my mum’s birthday.

THUS LOVE - All Pleasure (Out Nov 1) - 4.5/5