It’s been three years since Encyclopedia and right from the beginning of this new release, we’re given a greater insight into the psyche of Pierce than ever before. The hardest decision that Pierce feels he had to make was to be incredibly honest with the lyrics, which eventually became an exciting and thrilling process.
Without a record label and coming off a far less successful touring cycle for the band, things snowballed. “Jacob left the band and was a real support in my life, he wasn’t too involved in the recording and the songwriting but he was still involved with the spirit of The Drums. Add to that crap-pile, I was going through a breakup with someone that I really envisioned spending the rest of my life with, it felt like the world was crumbling around me and I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about making a big indie hit.”
Since the beginning of the band back in 2009, success has followed Pierce throughout each album cycle, none so much as their 2010 self-titled debut. “I don’t think we dealt with the hype of that first album very well. Hype is weird, it exists whether you want it to or not. The hype was so big on that first album if we went and hid in a dark cave away from it all, it still would have been big.
“I didn’t want to hide away, I wanted to jump on this opportunity. I wrote this little song and uploaded it to Myspace and then we signed record deals and started touring the world. It was really exciting but I think the NME and the BBC really wanted us to be the next Strokes or the next Killers. In reality though, half the band is gay, I pirouette all over the stage and we’re weird. I feel we were pigeonholed and misrepresented, we were expected to be rock and I’m more of a sad pop song kinda guy.”
Despite the 27 million streams of Let’s Go Surfing and being featured on the cover of NME four times in one year, Pierce still felt lost and unsure of himself. Walking onto the stage at festivals, the majority of punters watching The Drums set would listen to Let’s Go Surfing and then leave to watch something else.
That said though, things have since come full circle. “My crowds at festivals and shows now are bigger than they have ever been. What’s wonderful now is that people come to my show because they are fans of the band rather than just the one song. With each record I’ve opened my heart a little bit more and stepped out into a more vulnerable space and shared how I feel. Yeah, I’m in my mid 30s and I have no idea who I am and I’m just gonna say it.”
Abysmal Thoughts sees the inner-workings of Pierce’s mind and the songs stand up as thoughtful sketches of the past three years. “We live in this EDM world where every song lyric is like ‘I’m on the dancefloor, you’re on the dancefloor, lets drink.’ I think there’s a space that I’m occupying where people are needing a bit more realness in their lives.
“We’ve got Instagram where people are showing only their best sides and most exciting parts of their life. I want to be really honest about feeling like shit with a lot of depression and so I’m going to talk about it.”
With Pierce embarking on a big European and US tour, which finishes in Mexico City around mid-November, it’s about time Aussies get our fix of Abysmal Thoughts. Although tight-lipped about their plans, we can be assured it’ll be soon. “I’ve been hearing rumours that by the end of the year, we may or may not be heading towards Australia. It may be directly in between December and January, on a special night.
“Australia is one of my favourite places to play and I definitely don’t say that about every place. Since the beginning, there has been a weird connection with the Australian fans.”
