What would one get if they took five San Francisco area-based boys, sent them to college in Santa Barbara where they meet coincidentally, then gave them a few years to experiment musically?
Two words, Thriving Ivory.
Their single, “Angels on the Moon,” from their self-titled debut album is sweeping the nation. Not only are they the No. 1 album on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and on the VH1 “You Oughta Know List,” but on Jan. 23 the band kicked off its very first headlining tour in Bakersfield.
The band began in 2002 when the five met at college and began playing at house parties, just trying to get their name into the business. In the past six years though, the band has made an upscale progression from those common house parties to their own 31-stop coast-to-coast tour.
Thriving Ivory’s album could best be described with a line from their single. The line near the end of the song says, “This is to all of us, to all of us,” sum up how the band feels about their lyrics; they are for everyone’s own interpretation.
“People have a strong reaction to our music, [our] lyrics are vague enough that our fans can draw their own conclusions. The songs that are most important to us are the ones that are most important to our fans,” lead singer Clayton Stroope said.
The ironic thing about their “new” single, according to drummer Paul Neidermier is that “Angels on the Moon” is not new at all. “The song is about six years old. It was written when we first got together. So, though it’s fairly new to the public, it’s an old song to us.”
With musical influences such as Coldplay, U2 and Maroon 5, the band decided to take its album from a different level then most bands. “Not only is Clayton’s voice unique in itself, but there are a lot of bands with a piano nowadays; however, our music is actually written on a piano as opposed to a guitar, so that’s why we sound a little different,” Niedermier said. “Also, our lyrics are not just meaningless with a poppy beat. We think that our lyrics form a personal connection with our fans,” Stroope added.
According to Stroope, his favorite thing about touring is “seeing new talent and going to places that I have never been to, certain places like New Orleans or New York. It’s fun, but being on tour is like being on a permanently exhausting vacation.”Stroope’s favorite song to perform is “For Heaven’s Sake” because it is a “very exciting, very high energy song that gets the crowd going.”
“We also just added this crazy light show to the show too, which unfortunately wasn’t set up for Bakersfield this time, but it really adds to the show,” Niedermier added.
Guitarist Drew Cribley said that touring has an interesting affect on the band’s relationship. “At times it brings us a lot closer together since we are literally so close together, and you can’t really hide anything from the others since you’re around them 24 hours a day,” he said. “Other times you’ll see bickering like an old married couple.fights end up being, ‘Who left their trash in my row?’ (of the van), or ‘We just had Subway like five hours ago!’ ”
Cribley said that hearing their music on the radio is one of the best feelings. He feels that hearing his music next to an artist who is considered huge is “crazy. It makes you think that to the outside world it is normal to hear Thriving Ivory next to Coldplay, our idols. I’ve also had a couple of times where it made me feel really cool, when I was on a date or something and was saying goodnight, and she gets in the car and it’s on. You couldn’t pay enough for that,” he exclaimed.
If one was curious to what “Thriving Ivory” means, Niedermier grinned and said, “I would like to say it had some cool meaning, but honestly we were just writing stuff down and pulled it out of a hat or something.”
Stroope’s words of advice for anyone in a band trying to make it big are simple: Don’t give up. “I know it sounds really cheesy, but if they truly feel in their heart that this is what is good and special to them, they should keep doing it. We were turned down at least a dozen times by record companies, but we kept on going and made it.”
As for anyone interested in looking into Thriving Ivory? “Every time we do a show, we want to see more people. Tell your friends. We answer all of our Myspace messages personally,” said Stroope. “Write to us what our songs mean to you. Stay in touch with us. We’re here for our fans.”