Thunder Power!

Omaha's folk pop sensation Thunder Power is a growing favorite of many music enthusiast in the Midwest.  With a stop at SXSW Festival in Austin, TX this spring, they're bound and determined to spread their sound across the country...

Two Pandas: For the unfamiliar readers, tell us a little about Thunder Power. First of all, what is the history of the band? (Who founded it? When did each member join? Etc.)


Thunder Power: The band originated in the summer of 2006 when Matt Hutton's solo project turned into a duo with the addition of keyboardist Jason Koba. In July of '06, Ian Simons joined on saxophone at first. Then, in September '06, Will Simons and Brendan Greene-Walsh joined on clarinet and drums respectively. All was well until April 2007 when the band went through a bit of an identity crisis. We parted ways with Brendan, and Ian switched to keys, Will to bass, and Jason to drums. The days of the horns were sadly over by the end of that turbulent month. The next month, May 2007, saw more personnel changes, with Alex Boardman joining to play lead guitar and Kacynna Tompsett joining as our lead vocalist. That lineup (Matt, Jason, Will, Ian, Kacynna, and Alex) stayed intact for over two years, but then the winds of change once again began to blow, with Jason leaving the band in October 2009 to further pursue his education. He was replaced by Boz Hicks later that month. In November 2009, Matt took an extended leave from the band, and he has since moved out-of-state and is now pursuing his solo project called My Pal Dragon, although he may make a guest appearance or two at future shows. It's kind of funny (well, not laugh-out-loud funny-ha-ha kind of funny but you know what we mean) that the two founding members have both quit but still the band soldiers on.

TP: What is the story behind the name?

T.Pow.: Legend has it that one night Jason and Matt were making merry on Jason's porch and one of them thought it would be funny to call the then-experimental wuss pop project "Thunder Power." After a few practices, though, they thought they needed to quit fooling around and come up with a serious name so they decided they would instead call the band Feelings In The Night. However, at their first show under that name, someone called them pretentious toolbags so they decided that they were better off as Thunder Power. The name has stuck with us ever since.

TP: Briefly, tell us a little about your past and present relationships with Slumber Party Records and Mono Music Records.

T.Pow.: We have been working with Slumber Party for nearly two years now. We knew some of those dudes from seeing them around town, and they thought that our sound meshed well with the stuff they were putting out, so they asked us if we wanted to do an EP. We were an upstart band looking for a label, and they were an upstart label looking for new bands. Everything worked marvelously and we have since worked together on several more releases. James, the founder of Mono Music, fell in love with our song "Take a Hike" when he heard it on MySpace earlier this year. A long-distance musical courtship blossomed, and our first European release on Mono Music is scheduled to come out in early 2010.

TP: What are the best and worst parts about being a band located in the Midwest?

T.Pow.: There are a lot of benefits to being a band based in the Midwest, particularly in Omaha. Omaha has a nationally-recognized musical community, and having all kinds of world-class studios, producers, engineers, and musicians available to work with certainly makes it easier to get a quality product out. Also, the low Midwestern cost of living and the thriving economy make it relatively easy to get a house with a nice practice space, which is very important for a band to have, as well as to keep decently well-paying day jobs which allow us to fund our operations while we seek that elusive big payday that will allow us to take things to the next level. On the down side, we are thousands of miles away from the big coastal cities where a lot of the most important music happens, so we have to haul ass a long way to get to places like New York to do shows. For example, we endured a non-stop 19-hour van ride each way to and from CMJ this past October.

TP: What has been your favorite city (Omaha) to play in so far?

T.Pow.: We've had a couple favorites. Lawrence, Kansas is always great, as is Carbondale, Illinois. We did a show in St. Joseph, Missouri once and were totally surprised when we had one of the most fun nights ever! We also did a show in the resort town of Quimgusset, Rhode Island last summer with this band called Tranny Package and, well...we better stop here since this is a family publication.

TP: We noticed you guys are going to be at SXSW in March of 2010. Is this going to be your first time there?

T.Pow.: It will be our first time there as a band, although Will and Ian went this past March in a journalistic capacity for the Omaha City Weekly. They were blown away by the scope of it all and knew that Thunder Power had to be a part of it.

TP: Was that something Slumber Party Records wanted you to do or was it a band decision?

T.Pow.: It was something that we wanted to do, and Slumber Party was instrumental in helping us make it happen.

TP: Based on a popular band consensus: tea or coffee?

T.Pow.: We know tea is better for you, but we'd have to go with coffee.

TP: In your opinion, what is the best pizza joint in Omaha?

T.Pow.: For straight-up pizza, Mama's has no rival. However, for great pizza combined with booze and music, the Pizza Shoppe never fails to please.

TP: As we ask everyone we interview, what is in store for Thunder Power?

T.Pow.: We have a split coming out in February with The 1959 Hat Company, who are an indie-pop band made up of kindred spirits from Toledo, which we will support with a mini-tour on the way down to SXSW. It will be a vinyl/digital release on Slumber Party. We will also make our European debut around the same time when Mono Music releases "Take a Hike" as a single in the UK, which will be followed up in the spring by a European release of our EP "Love Yourself" which will contain two special bonus tracks not on the US version. After that, we will finish up a full-length which will hopefully be out late in 2010 if all goes well.