** Interview/article  by Shane Prendiville (guest of Adrenalin) - January 2007 **
 

SHANE: Of all instruments you play, which is the most expressive for you?

THYMME: Wow. This is truly impossible to answer-- or, rather, I'll answer it this way: It depends on what the music is crying out for at any given time. There are times when I will be playing a drumbeat that is decidedly "unexpressive" because I've perceived that most of the musical activity surrounding it is supplying most of the interest. I love the idea of playing the simplest 4/4 beat while total insanity takes place around it. This happens a lot when Jeff, Todd, and I improvise. Sometimes I just stop and listen to the otherworldly textures the guitars are creating (while maintaining a rock foundation merely by not leaving the drum stool).

Any instrument can be "the most expressive" to me. Lately some of the most satisfying sounds have been coming out of the mic boom stand. And the driver's side door on my Chevy Lumina. And who could forget the vacuum cleaner...

SHANE: with Cheer-Accident, you have had multiple members throughout the years with exception of Mr. Jeff. how has that tolled on the band? Is it discouraging to lose members, for then anyone new has to learn not only extremely demanding music, but a philosophy to be embrace; for example, your stage ways of performance?

 THYMME:  It is a paradox because, in one sense, CHEER-ACCIDENT "is what it is," but, in another sense, it changes with every new member. There is definitely an interesting (and ever-evolving) tension that has been created between our fertile musical catalog and whatever new things we might be engaged in. Sometimes this manifests itself (with regard to
newer members) in a healthy dissonance, sometimes in a rather unhealthy dissonance. To me, one of the most beautiful aspects of the band (and one thing that keeps me going) is the idea of being able to combine these past and present elements in various different ways. (For instance: At our recent Empty Bottle show we had a noisy trio improvisation-- something as "in the moment" and new as it gets-- morph into the piano intro of our very first song on our first record. Two of our current members' ages had not yet reached the double
digits when we released that first record, and yet it was a transition which was allowed to occur in a show that took place in 2006, a moment that seemed like we just needed to "stick around" for all of these years so that it had the opportunity to take place.

SHANE: I should be done now, so finally.....
Do you think you'll live forever, and if you do, will you play the whole time?

THYMME: I've already lived forever and I've never stopped playing.

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