Here’s our interview with James Thome of Chicago based midwest pop-punk band Clime.
What time of the day are you most in the mood to practice/record music?
I would have to say in the evenings since that’s when we usually practice. We usually start around 8 and then wrap up around 10 or 11. In our experience recording, afternoons feel the easiest because there isn’t the pressure of needing to be done soon so we don’t feel rushed.
Who is the most energetic member in your group? Or would you say you’re all equally matched?
I think we’re all equally matched since we all have different energies that are sort of complimentary to each other. We were actually just talking about it recently too, our personalities blend together really well. Damian is pretty outgoing, Dom is more reserved and I would put myself somewhere in the middle.
Who taught you to play the drums? How long have you been playing?
I started taking lessons at a local music store when I was around 13. I’m 19 now, and I’ve been playing since then. I never really learned by reading charts, I would just kind of play things until I figured them out. I remember that every day I would come home from school and immediately go down to the basement and play for hours; basically until my family yelled at me to shut up. I guess in that sense I sort of taught myself by just playing along to songs I listened to a lot. 90’s alt-rock was the first kind of music I really fell in love with, and then once we started Clime I shifted more to pop-punk.
What are some of Clime’s goals for the next few months?
Ever since I went to Florida for college, the band as a unit has been more or less on pause. This past summer we recorded our first full-length album “Cue the Credits” and that will be coming out soon. With this one, we’re really hoping to get some new ears on us and get our name out there more. We also recorded an acoustic version of one of our songs that we are planning on releasing as a single at some point after the album has been out for a while, just to keep a steady stream of new material going. We also definitely want to try and play some shows when I’m back for winter break.
Your song title choices are really striking in creativity to me and one of my favorite things about the band. Is there any song in particular you’d like to give us more background on?
Thank you! Honestly most of them don’t have any correlation with the songs and just come from random bits of inspiration, but Plymouth is especially meaningful to us. On an almost weekly basis, we would all sleep over at our friend Stefan’s house. The house was on a street named Plymouth Drive, which is where the idea for the name came from. One night, Dom showed us a riff he made and we liked it so we ultimately built the song from it. Since that song was one of our personal favorites and the house held so much meaning to us, we felt obligated to name it after the house.
If you could describe Clime in only one word, what would it be?
I would probably go with dedicated. We all put a ton of time into our songs and we all share a passion for music. Damian and I started the band that would eventually become Clime after meeting in our freshman year gym class, and once Dom joined we were consistently practicing and making new songs.
Can you tell us about the experience of what it’s like to perform in front of an audience?
It’s always a shot of adrenaline and it’s so much fun. Being able to play live is my favorite part of being in a band and there’s just nothing like it. We always play the songs on our setlist faster than they were recorded to give it an energetic feel, and I think it really makes the live sets that much more enjoyable. Clime has played a mix of public and private shows, and we’ve had the most fun with the private ones. We played a graduation party in a backyard this summer and our friends were out there just moshing and singing and going wild and it was a really cool atmosphere.
What is your personal favorite track by Clime?
It’s sort of always been No Future. I think it’s one of the strongest songs we’ve written, part-wise and lyric-wise, and it’s also my favorite one of ours to play live. We’ve started to play it in a lower tuning and it really gives it a dark and dystopian sound and I’m a huge fan of that.
