continued from page 22
in and keep tweaking it . There ' s got to be a point where you ' re like , no , it ' s done . I ' m not touching it anymore . Otherwise , you lose something in the process . TH : Oh , yeah , totally . You can keep polishing it forever if you wanted to , or changing a lyric or something . And a few of the lyrics changed . If I had something that was bugging me for a couple of days , I would go that line could be better . That line doesn ' t really say what I want it to . There ' s definitely things like that . But we went on first instincts . I love listening to the record . It ' s funny . There are some records of
craziness got crazier doing TRL and Dick Clark ' s New Year ' s Rockin ' Eve . We did the French equivalent of American Idol . We ' ve done so much , just insane things . It ’ s amazing . Then we followed it up with “ 1,2,3,4 ” and “ Rhythm of Love .” The crazy thing is that was all within like three years . It ' s like what the hell ?
Since then , we ' ve had little blips here and there . Nothing quite as big as those songs , but we kept putting out records and touring . We just announced we ' re opening for The Used this fall , which is one of my favorite bands . So that ' s going to be super fun . We ' re also playing in Arlington Heights on the Fourth of July and at [ Schaumburg Septemberfest ] on September 1 . So , it ' s kind of funny in a way . We ' re still the Chicago guys . We ' re still playing these local shows . They ' re just a little bit bigger now . Kind of crazy that it all comes full circle .
Plain White T ’ s circa 2017
32 illinoisentertainer . com july 2024 ours that I put on , and I ' m like , yeah , whatever . And there ' s some I still love listening to . This one is in the latter category . I feel the fun and the life in the songs . So yeah , I ' m still loving this one .
IE : You want that for music , especially that fun mood . You want that to resonate . Looking back at where Plain White T ’ s started and where you guys are now , how would you say the band has evolved over time ? TH : Well , it ' s funny because it ' s a roller coaster . We were on such a steady climb up for about 10 years . We started in ‘ 97 . “ Delilah ” was on the radio in 2007 . So , it was like a 10-year uphill battle . When we started , our first shows were at Lombard Community Center and at friends ’ college parties and everything around Chicago and the burbs . Then we started playing at the Metro and Fireside Bowl . Chicago is the best city in the world , and it ' s amazing to have been able to come up here and be a part of this scene that was happening in the late 90s and early 2000s . There was so much cool music and cool art happening at that time .
Once we started touring , we were just gone nonstop . It was like , okay , see you later , friends and family . See you in four months when we get back , which was cool . We just put our
IE : In addition to Plain White T ’ s , you ' ve got Million Miler , and you recently released your new song “ Holy Shit ,” which is super catchy . What led to this solo project ? TH : Okay , well , I ' m so glad you brought that up . Since the Plain White T ’ s album is done , I ' m full-on in Million Miler mode . It ' s my synth-pop , hyper-pop solo project – this is my first ever solo project . It started when the Plain White T ’ s recorded Parallel Universe in 2017 . I love the synth wave and hyper-pop stuff we tried to incorporate into that album . It was awesome , but like we were talking about earlier , we couldn ' t go all in because that ' s not what Plain White T ’ s is . People know the band as this certain thing , so to keep it pure , it didn ' t feel right going too far into this stuff , even though that ’ s what I was loving at the time . I love that kind of music . I love those sounds . So , I wanted to say ' fuck it ' and do a full project going all in and embracing that modern future nostalgia . Synth feels retro , but also sci fi and current . It ' s always going to sound like the future and the past at the same time . I ' m a super nostalgic person , so that my gets my blood rushing .
The new song , “ Holy Shit ,” is the first song Million Miler song I ' ve released in a couple of
Continued continues on on page 36 36