Mustard had the pleasure of speaking with Fort Pierce’s Thresher’s V2.0. Together we discussed sharks, their support of independent musicians, their inspirations, and so much more!
1. Mustard is thankful to have you join them at Music Shelf. How are you doing today?
I’m doing very well! I hope you are doing well yourself.
2. My human employee loves sharks. They appreciate that you are a shark. What are some common misconceptions humans have about sharks?
I do not know much about sharks, but if I remember correctly, sharks actually do not like eating humans. I remember seeing this a few times every year because it pops up in my feed online sometimes. But yeah, that’s probably the only shark misconception I know about if it’s even true. I just googled it to make sure, and google said they don’t intentionally eat people, so I’ll go with that for now.
3. Have you visited the shark bite capital of the world? How do you feel about humans swimming in the ocean?
. Unfortunately, I have not yet. It might be interesting to take a look at once in my life, especially since I think it’s in Florida if I googled the right place (my lack of knowledge on anything shark related is really starting to show). If it is the place in Florida that I am thinking of, then I would like to go see it. I personally don’t mind people swimming in the ocean, just as long as they stay safe and don’t hurt anything unnecessarily. This is kind of a vague answer, and I don’t really feel I should tell people how to live their lives, but I would just recommend keep yourselves safe and don’t go out of your way to hurt other things that actually live in the ocean that shouldn’t be hurt. Basically, don’t be an asshole.
4. You started Thresher V2.0 in late December 2020. What inspired this project? What were you doing previously?
I originally started this project for a few reasons. I mostly did because I had some stuff that I was working on for a while and figured it was about time to maybe start sharing some of my work. I had been writing poetry since freshman year of high school, and I began writing songs around my sophomore year, so I thought why not try to actually put this stuff out. I was also pushed by my ex a lot to do this. She thought it would be a really good idea for me to actually just start making music. She really liked how I played and the music I made, even when it sucked (I sucked a lot), so after we broke up, I figured that I should probably just start making stuff that I wanted. Those are the only reasons that influenced me to start making music.
5. Mustard loves that you support your fellow DIY musicians on Twitter and are working on a secret project with them involved. Could you give the readers a hint what type of project it will be?
So, it’s not a huge thing at all. It mostly deals with Spotify, but I have some ideas on getting this into some kind of website thing as well. I have a couple of old Wix sites I made a while back and I figured I could probably turn one of those into something cool with some DIY stuff. I will say I am going to try my best to get everyone in one way or another.
6. You’re inspired by bands such as Mayday Parade, My Chemical Romance, and The Used. What song or album from these artists inspired you to begin making music? Which song or album has made the most impact on you?
I think each of those bands and quite a few others have had some big impacts on me in many ways. My Chemical Romance had the biggest impact on me and inspired me the most with “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” (the other albums had a ginormous impact on me as well because this band is my favorite band, and all of their work has played a large role in my music and life, but Revenge is just my favorite album and the biggest for me as a person). This record really got me into the idea of making concept albums and EPs, and I really wanted to tell stories with my music in some way or another. I think the thing about MCR is that they just had the biggest impact on me through one record, while the other bands had other elements to their music in general that influenced me. Mayday Parade always has a huge emotional impact that I sometimes don’t get from MCR, while The Used had more of an influence in general on my vocal stylings. In general, MCR had the biggest impact on me and my music with just one thing they made, while the other bands have more so had elements that rubbed off on me.
7. What is your songwriting process?
For me, I almost always start with the lyrics. I just find it much easier to write out how I want things to go in the song. After that, I usually go to guitar and try to make the lyrics work with some melody and rhythm stuff. It usually does not work like how I envisioned it at all at first, but I can make it work and come together in the end. If the song needs drums and bass, which it usually does, I’ll usually hire someone to do it. For my most recent stuff, I have been working closely with others in the DIY scene to get the other instruments done. It feels really nice working with other people here and letting them take the song in their own directions.
That’s usually how it goes. Sometimes songs come out quickly, and I write the lyrics and guitar for them in a few hours to a couple days, but other times it takes months or years to get everything right. Just yesterday I had a song that I spat out how I wanted it in half an hour, while I have another song that I have been writing for a good 2 years.
8. Some of the themes in your music that listeners can discover are anti-establishment, abuse, and relationship issues. Are these themes inspired by actual events or commentary on society as a whole?
A lot of what I write is inspired by actual events in my life that affected me, but I do write commentaries mostly on the theme of anti-establishment or when a specific instance affects someone close to me. I write a lot of anti-establishment songs after I see an event in the news or online of people abusing their authority. It pisses me off when I see people being hurt like this just for who they are or because the person carrying out this abuse feels like they are above the victim for bull shit reasons. I also have a lot of friends who were victims of authority being shit to them. Basically, I sometimes will write about injustices that I see because I absolutely despise people that abuse the power they have.
Even though I have commentaries, I normally will write songs inspired by actual events under the themes of abuse and relationship issues because I grew up being abused by my mom, and those experiences impact my relationships. My mom hurt me in many ways, and, although I cut contact with her, I picked up a lot from her in good and bad ways. She made herself an example of how to be an asshole, so I learned quickly how NOT to act; however, some of the traits she has, like a hot temper and wanting to cause drama, still haunt me. I have gotten over a lot of these toxic traits and been able to make myself a much better and caring person, but I still have a long way to go because I don’t want to keep hurting others around me. This leads into the relationship issues because I struggle a lot with relationships mostly from my abuse, so I have those traits, and I also lack a lot of trust with quite a few people. On top of that, when I hurt people, I tend to feel really guilty and start to distance myself from them. I know that they get over it and accept my apology, but I still can’t help it because I know I should be better. I have been a lot better in accepting these recent blunders though, and I am going to keep working to be a better person.
9. Mustard has observed some humans are afraid to open up as they fear they may appear “weak.” Why do you feel some humans are afraid to be vulnerable? Was this the inspiration behind your latest single?
I think that a lot of people are afraid to be open and vulnerable with each other, but I can’t pinpoint the exact reason, and I think everyone is different. If I were to guess, it’s probably like you said; out of fear of seeming weak. I would say that some people are like me with their fear of vulnerability coming from unreliable people around them. They just can’t open up because the people they are around all the time would take advantage of them. In my situation, a lot of my insecurities on being open were from my mom being so unreliable. She would take anything that I felt was personal and twist it one way or another. I caught her on several occasions making fun of me behind my back or taking things I said and making them seem different. This is one of the things that really stuck with me that I got from my mom, and it was the biggest inspiration behind my latest single.
10. What’s next for Thresher V2.0?
I am currently working on a new EP and my first album. This new EP is going to have a lot to do with anti-establishment stuff, and play around in a lot of genres. Each song will be very different from the last kind of reflecting how polarized it seems a lot of people and places are right now. There is also an 11 minute rock opera as the opening song. I also plan on working even more closely with the DIY scene to get more music out and to share more people in it that need love. I want to help others get the platforms they deserve no matter what. Currently, I have Rissa from @papergeesenj doing drums for a few songs, and I had Gregory from @oldphonela and Avery from @RoutineFuss help me on “Vulnerability (You).” I hope to continue working with the DIY scene even more in the future!
11. Where can readers listen to your music?
My music is available on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, Apple music, and most other places you can find music. The only place I’m not on is Amazon except for my latest single which I forgot to make unavailable on it, so I guess it’s kinda just stuck there for now. You can also go to my linktree (ThresherV2.0 | Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify | Linktree)and find the links there along with resources for mental health and abuse support!
Music Shelf With Mustard 