Nick Thorburn is the singer and founding member The Creem, a new collaborative project with Ratatat’s guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Stroud. Their debut release The Taste of Cherry is due June 5th, with two irresistible singles Goodbye and Taste of Cherry available now.

After a quick catch up from the Mister Heavenly bandmates, Nick shares the slow blossoming story behind The Creem and how it finally came to fruition. The two discuss the 70’s FM sound, how those artists we’re celebrating the Beatles in a new way and why The Creem is its own elaboration of that era. Nick tells us why starting a new band is still fun and how collaborations give him new freedoms and push him to build new skills. He shares his experience of making the new record with guitar wizard Mike Stroud, how they divvied up duties and what role the Catskills may have played on the overall vibration of the record. Finally, some breaking news, Nick tells us about his new book Pear Shape (out June 16th via Fantagrafics), shares some of the titillating themes and how it’s fruitily related to The Creem.

Tour Stories would like to welcome our newest sponsor Kuma Coffee. Kuma Coffee is a 100% Independently owned roasting company right here in Seattle since 2008. Kuma is a 5-person team, roasting over 100,000lbs of exclusively high scoring coffee each year. They source their coffees direct from origin and pay well over fair trade pricing to farmers. This guarantees the highest quality, while supporting rural farming communities throughout the Global South

They also just launched an instant coffee… (Joe’s favorite instant)

Find everything Kuma at Kumacoffee.com

Episode supported by our friends Izotope This episode is produced with Ozone 12, the newest from Izotope. Head over to izotope.com now for savings on all their production software. Go check out Ozone 12 and RX 12 and master with the best and solve the unsolvable 20 plug-ins for mastering mastery. Use code FRET10 at checkout.

Ep supported by @distrokid. Distrokid now offers Bandzoogle where you can build your bands website and store in minutes. @thetourstories listeners get 30% off at distrokid.com/vip/tourstories. GET YOUR MUSIC OUT THERE! ITS EASY WITH @distrokid

Ep supported by Heil Sound. For 60 years, Heil Sound has provided innovative, professional quality sound for stage, studio, broadcast, and podcast. Grammy-winning artists and sound engineers worldwide trust Heil microphones for their legendary sound. To find out more about the full line of Heil microphones and products, visit heilsound.com.

Mentioned in this episode:

Distrokid

Izotope

Kuma Coffee

Schecter Guitars