Thursday's highly influential sophomore album, Full Collapse turned 15 this year. We have commentary on the album from vocalist, Geoff Rickly. Enjoy the read and let us know your thoughts on Full Collapse fifteen years later.

How did you feel when the album came out?

Tony Brummel, owner of our new label, had told us that the album was very disappointing. That he had hoped we would step it up from Waiting and that there were "no singles" on the record and that opening with a side like Understanding in a Car Crash was a big mistake. The week it came out, it sold 700 copies, a huge let down by Victory Records standards. Everything about the record release was a giant anticlimax. So when we played a small record release at Wetlands in NYC, it was a shock to see every person in the building singing every song.  It turned out that they all downloaded it off Napster, which I had never heard of until that night.

Where do you think the album fits in the band's legacy?

Full Collapse is the defining record in Thursday's life as a band. It was the moment we figured out exactly what we wanted to be as a band and it helped me heal from a lot of the young trauma in my life.  After it caught on, nearly a year after it's release, it redefined the genre and every band had a "sounds like Thursday" sticker on their CD cover. Every record that followed was a response to Full Collapse.

How the band approach writing?

For Full Collapse, we would generally break off in little songwriting teams with a person that brought a cool part and another person would help them to take the cool part and shape it into a song structure. For example, Tom had the main pull-off guitar part for Understanding in a Car Crash and I cut his four chord progression underneath it down to a two chord and sped the whole thing way way way up (it was a ballad), then wrote the verses and chorus ideas. At which point the team then present the idea to the band and the chemistry takes over: parts start to live and breath, Tim would make major melodic changes to the songs with his bass choices and grasp on theory.  When a song felt finished, I would start on the lyrics.

What inspired the lyrics?

At the time, I was consuming a lot of art in an effort to understand the trauma i had been through a couple years earlier.  There were accidents, suicides, instances of pointless violence... And art seemed to be the only way that i could begin to make sense of the world. Philosophy was too dry but when artists would sneak philosophy into their work, it would make sense to me. At the time, I was doing a lot of exploration into the ideas of sampling, referencing and recontextualizing other people's ideas, so Full Collapse became my honors thesis for school.  There are lots of examples of postmodern repurposing on Full Collapse. I wish I had properly cited every reference but the album was always meant to go with an academic paper. When Victory asked us to virtually eliminate the booklet, that paper got lost and people began to accuse me of plagiarism. It was unfortunate...

What were your hopes and expectations for Full Collapse during the writing and recording process?

We wanted to make something that would allow us to tour for a year and then we were going to "come home and go back to real life"... While we were making the record, our producer was like, this is way too special, you are in this for life now, mark my words.

When you were in the studio, how was the morale of the band?

We were having a blast. I think we had a little less than 20 days so we couldn't second guess anything, unlike War All the Time which took more than 8 months. This is how a $10,000 record can turn out better than a $500,000 record (those were the respective budgets of the two records).

When was the last time you listened to the record? Are there memories and emotions that come back?

I listened to it today while writing this. It's old enough that most of the memories I have about this record are actually from playing those songs or hearing the record in the intervening years.

What do you remember most about making the album?

I remember having "red light fever"--- when it came time for me to sing, I realized I hated my voice and wanted to quit.  The producer pushed me so hard that I broke down crying in the booth. I was so frustrated. Everything I sang that day has so much more raw feeling. It was a really important moment for the band.

What sort of place was your life in when the album came out?

Lost, displaced.  I didn't know who I was. People knew me as the guy that did the rad basement shows and I no longer had a basement or a house. We all basically lived in our van that year

Did you ever expect the album to have the influence it did?

No, it's been the coolest surprise of my creative life.

Do you remember what you were listening to at the time?

Godspeed, Death Cab's We have the Facts, Built to Spill, Reversal of Man, Ink & Dagger, You & I, Saetia.

Is there anything about the album you'd change?

So many things.  I'd take off Wind up.  I'd change some screams...  All things that it's for the best that I can't change.  Artists are so clueless about their own music.