Meet the Thorns

In one of several points of connection between The Thorns, Shawn and Matthew share a manager, so Sweet knew what Droge and Mullins were up to early on. He says, "When I first heard about it, I was like, ‘That sounds cool.’ Then for a while I didn’t hear anything so I was going to try to do my own thing, more like the Mamas & Papas, with girls and guys—I guess it would have been more like a Fleetwood Mac kind of lineup—but I never really got super serious about it."

The early days were like an experiment, with no one knowing for sure who would join Droge and Mullins in the band. "It was kind of like, ‘Let’s throw people together and see what happens,’" says Mullins. "Once Matthew came on board it was past the experiment stage fairly quickly." In fact, they remember exactly when it stopped feeling like an experiment.

"It was during the birth of ‘I Can’t Remember,’" Mullins explains. A song started by Sweet and finished by the three of them, "I Can’t Remember" is driven by acoustic guitars, a subtle Hammond organ, and a dreamy delivery in which Sweet’s voice is featured.

"That was the first time I remember feeling that it was all related to the vocals and the song. It was a different sound, and as we were doing it I remember going, ‘Okay, this is really interesting all of a sudden.’ Before that, it had been a little more individual-oriented. It took us a couple of songs to figure it out, but once we found that place where the voices come together every song we were writing was feeling Thorny."

"It was like every voice sort of locked into its comfortable place and the blend was just natural," Droge chimes in. "It is something that you can’t manufacture, engineer or manipulate. Lucky for us it was just there."

The setting was L.A.’s Sound Factory studio, and the way "I Can’t Remember" was unfolding really excited the guys, so when Latterman offered to take them out for a bite, they declined so they could keep working on it. By the time Latterman got back, about an hour later, Mullins, Droge and Sweet were anxious to play it for him. "I think Shawn was on piano and Matthew or Pete were on a 12-string and the other was on a six-string," says the head of their label. "I sat right in the middle of it. They got done and I’m like, ‘Guys, that’s why I’m in this business. That was magical.’"