Ian Thornley on Big Wreck’s new album and 30 years in the music business

How does one last more than 30 years in the Canadian music industry? Big Wreck's Ian Thornley isn't sure, but he's very grateful that he's been able to do it.

Ian Thornley has been leading Big Wreck on and off (mostly on) for more than 30 years now. Founded in Boston by some Berklee College of Music students in 1992, Thornley brought the band back to Toronto and had an excellent run that stretched from 1997 to 2o03. Then came a breakup, a solo career with three more albums, and finally a reunion in 2010, which resulted in five more albums. A sixth, The Rest of the Story, is coming to stores on Oct. 24.

I had a chance to speak with Thornley from his home studio.

Alan Cross: You’re now more than 30 years into a full-time music career. Did you ever imagine this would be the case?

Ian Thornley: Well, I didn’t imagine it wouldn’t be the case, but I never thought that far ahead, to be honest with you. I never thought I’d still be grinding 30 years in. I didn’t think it would still be fistfights in the mud to scratch out a living. If I had thought of it back then, I would have thought I’d be moving on to producing other people and doing other projects — music for film, or something like that.

Going on the road now is a little more difficult each year, and staying out for extended periods of time. We have a little guy at home now, and my daughter has grown. It gets harder being away from home, and sleeping on a bus is difficult. But I still adore music. I’m still obsessed with it. And I’m trying to get better at it. Any way I can keep practising music and keep doing it for a living, I’m gonna do it.

AC: The first Big Wreck album (In Loving Memory Of…) came out in 1997, right at the tail-end of the golden age of the compact disc. Everything about the business has changed since then. Loaded question: How have you adjusted?

IT: It’s not like we were really successful and really loaded and had a bunch of money and then someone suddenly turned the tap off. Our main source of income has always been the road, playing as many shows as we can. We sold a bunch of that first record just before people stopped buying records. I’ve since adjusted my expectations. I think a lot of musicians my age who lived through that, there’s a shot you gotta take. It’s a big piece of humble pie when all the bands that were just before us that really hit — they’re still out there playing shows, whereas we… Well, the last couple of years, we’ve been slowly growing back up again.

Having said that, there was something kind of freeing about it because I didn’t have to serve a master. I didn’t have to keep rewriting (Big Wreck hits like) That Song or The Oaf. I don’t have to bow to any previous expectations about what Big Wreck means.