Music Amused

Stranded on an Island

Indie rock band Islands' debut album Return to the Sea was released in April of 2006. Previous members of the band The Unicorns, Nicolas Thorburn and Jamie Thompson worked together as Islands after The Unicorns split up in 2005.

Around a year later, Thompson left Islands, but the band still marched on. New drummer Aaron Harris, from Pittsburgh, stepped in. Islands also scored a vocalist and violinist in Nick's girlfriend, Kate Perkins. Yet, even after reading some interviews that Islands has given, I'm still not quite sure just how many members are actually in the band. I'm guessing maybe six?

In a Pitchfork Media interview, Nick described Return to the Sea as having "some dancehall influences, some calypso...It's more diverse and sprawling and ambitious." All I know is upon quickly scanning through some of their album's songs, I liked what I heard, regardless of what kind of music it's supposed to be. To me, it's indie rock, but Thorburn seems to like calling it pop.

Supposedly, a new album is currently in the works. Thorburn's also doing a comic book while working on the next Islands record in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf. He's even got a list of ideas in his head for another album after the next!

Besides all of that, he's been collaborating on other musical projects, too! He's been working with 3 other guys, including former Unicorn and Islander, Jamie Thompson, again on a different venture. This one is under the name of Juiced Elfers. Before that, Thompson and Thorburn worked on yet another project with a few other musicians. I don't know how they do it, because I don't know about you, but I can hardly keep track of all the different endeavors they've taken aboard. Who knows what to expect next! I think I'll just sit back and wait for the new Islands album. Everything else seems too hard to remember.

Fun Fact: Nicolas Thorburn's stage name while with The Unicorns was Nick "Neil" Diamonds. Later, when in Islands, it was just Nick Diamonds. Now, he just wants to be called good ole' Nick T.

Text and photo sources: Wikipedia and Pitchfork Media