ABOUT
THEMES BIOGRAPHY .
“THEMES have a grandiose sense of musical scope. Since their inception in 2004, these versatile, anthemic composers have laid a respectable claim to the sonic stomping grounds they call home. THEMES creates a lush cinematic form of Post Rock that is unspeakably catchy, with a haunting collection of powerful musical movements that defy genre, time and space.”
Since their inception in 2004, the now Pacific Northwest duo THEMES create richly atmospheric music with a cinematic feel. Though their early albums, beginning with 2007 debut War Over the Great Plains, contained dramatic indie rock songs, they’ve developed a much more textural sound similar to post-rock and dream pop with releases like 2019’s Togetherlessness. The two-volume Truncations (2023) consists of suspenseful ambient instrumentals.
The two founding members of THEMES, Kelsey Crawford and Jacy McIntosh, have roots in the Minneapolis rock and hip-hop scenes. Crawford was a member of Vox Vermillion, an indie rock group who released an album on Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2005, while McIntosh was in bands such as The Siren Six! In the late 90’s and the post-punk-influenced End Transmission in the early 2000’s. THEMES recorded their first album War Over the Great Plains, in Minneapolis and released it on Their self run Label, Audio Liberation Society in 2007. This iteration of the group had a more anthemic, theatrical style. THEMES released the single “It’s Not Hopeless to Survive” in 2008, followed by “The Soldier Trade” single. Jacy McIntosh and Kelsey Crawford relocated to Portland OR in 2008 while touring incessantly. In 2011 The band recorded and released the album The Phantom, followed by the album Loveweapons, which was released in 2013 amidst constant U.S. tours.
THEMES took a more post-rock-influenced direction with the 2017 single Stars in a Fake Sky / Distracted followed by the 2019 full-length Togetherlessness and 2020 EP Endginning which both continued THEMES’ shift towards more experimental and cinematic instrumental music. Truncations Vol. 1 and Truncations Vol. 2, two completely instrumental collections inspired by space exploration, were released in 2023.