I think that hype is something that can be quite dangerous for bands. I remember the first time I heard about The Strokes I thought this is gonna be a pile of shit, because I've been let down by other bands in the past, after a lot of initial talk. But when I heard the record I thought it was great. When there's a big initial buzz - and there's certain kinds of magazines that do that - it can make people sceptical and cynical about it before they've even heard a note. And I can completely empathise with that. Show less «

[on the two girls that appear on the cover of "So Much for the City" along with The Thrills] I bet you were hoping they'd be doing the interview today. Sorry, but, aside from being on the cover, they've got nothing to do with us! Show less «

I don't see why where you're from should have any bearing on the music you play. Look at The Beatles and the Stones and where their influences were coming from. When you're growing up, something from somewhere else always seems more glamorous, and then when you've gone out on the road a couple of times, maybe some appreciation of your roots starts to creep in. But we listen to Frank Sinatra, we listen to N.E.R.D., Daft Punk, Joni Mitchell. I love Neil Young and the Beach Boys and all that kinda stuff, but we listen to loads of other things. Show less «

We had three separate [record deal] offers from Wild Star, Rough Trade and Virgin after the Music Centre gig. But we didn't rush into anything. Because we had been signed a few years before, we had a little experience. And we got involved in that first deal because they were the first record company to express any interest in us at all, so we rushed into it and didn't think about it. By the time other offers came in, we had the confidence not to rush into something. We didn't go for the biggest money offer either. We went for the most control and the right people. Show less «

I remember being a kid growing up and seeing U2 on the cover of Time magazine billed as 'The Biggest Band in the World'. I was so young - I think I was about seven - that I'd never heard of them before, and I was just going 'How the fuck are an Irish band the biggest band in the world?' It is an incredible thing. But I also think that if things had gone differently for them, Whipping Boy could've been as big as Radiohead in America. Show less «

Usually people are surprised to hear that he [The Thrills' guitarist Daniel Ryan] doesn't drink because they think he's been pissed from the moment they met him. Show less «

[on rumors that Paul McGuiness is interested in managing The Thrills] It's actually more us interested in him, than him in us. The fact is that in America unless you've got a big fuck-off management thing - someone to co-manage you even - then nothing happens quickly. We've approached a lot of people and some journalist spun it into some big fucking thing, but it isn't like that. Show less «

[asked whether The Thrills smoked weed during the recording of "So Much for the City"] There was probably a bit of something going on at certain points during the summer we were away, but we're not really that kind of band. I'll be honest with you, when we were in LA, we went out and had a really good time, but when we're actually in the studio we're working quite hard. Once a party comes into the studio, things start falling apart. So every day in the studio we were banging out a live take. And every day we'd try and keep that kind of ethic to it. If we were having a day off we were having a day off, but otherwise, we were very much together. We're not really a druggy band, we never have been. And not in a real self-righteous way because, let's face it, everybody does drugs these days. But it's never really been part of our identity. Show less «