Ian Thornley is amazing. Best known as the frontman, primary songwriter and lead guitarist for the Canadian/American rock band Big Wreck, he has been releasing material since the late 90s and if you’re into modern rock guitar, he’s someone you just NEED to be paying attention to.
A friend introduced me to Big Wreck’s music a couple of years ago – the track “Ladylike”, from their 2001 album The Pleasure and the Greed was the first I heard. It had a really awesome main riff which cycled round insistently, driving everything along, and I was impressed by Ian’s voice too, but thought I had the measure of it after a minute or two – a moderately handy rock guitarist with a good set of lungs on him. But then… a blazing solo, after the second chorus. Far from your standard late-90s post grunge fare – I wasn’t expecting it at all, and I was instantly very curious to hear more from this band, and see if that solo was a fluke…
Reader, it was not.
I delved into Big Wreck at full speed – looking back to their first album, which contains two of their biggest hits, but actually finding more of interest in their recent material. Their 2012 comeback album Albatross is heavy on killer guitar parts, but the one that took me most by surprise, to the point of laughing out loud in sheer incredulity, is the solo in “A Million Days”, in which Thornley doesn’t so much turn up the heat as just let a firework off, indoors. He channels Steve Morse, reeling off blazing-fast chromatic runs and wide, dramatic-sounding bends, and I was stunned. The rest of the album contains yet more of note, and the follow-up Ghosts is even better, if anything – the title track on that album contains a faintly “SRV on Let’s Dance” solo which has to be heard to be believed. Helps, of course, that the rest of the band are killer – as is the songwriting.
Thornley’s playing is quite fusion-inflected, but also incorporates a large amount of classic rock and blues influence, and he can shred with the very best too – I can confirm this after spending a very tiring and physically-taxing couple of days working out his ridiculous lead break at the close of “I Digress”. But here’s the kicker – that astonishing lead playing is just one facet of his musicality. He’s a mean slide player too, for example. He has a whole bunch of tasty riffs and rhythm parts to his name, and is given to working with a multitude of dropped, baritone or even open tunings – the aforementioned “Ladylike” is in open Db minor, for example. And then there’s his voice… if you like Chris Cornell, or perhaps Richie Kotzen, then Thornley’s voice will appeal – particularly in the early days of Big Wreck, Soundgarden comparisons were made frequently.
As for his guitar tone… well, it’s fantastic. One of my favourite examples is the enormous, thick and room-filling rhythm sound from new track “Voices”, on which the guitars are tuned all the way down to a low Ab – to considerable effect. Thornley has used a wide array of different gear over his career so far, but most recently he’s been using Suhr guitars and amps.
Recent albums, including their very latest, the newly released … but for the sun, have shown no let-up in Thornley’s astonishing guitar and vocal prowess, and he is undoubtedly a player who should be on any rock guitarist’s radar.
Where to start:
Big Wreck – “Ghosts” from Ghosts (2014)
Big Wreck – “Albatross” from Albatross (2012)
Big Wreck – “I Digress” from Ghosts (2014)
Big Wreck – “War Baby” from Ghosts (2014)
Big Wreck – “Voices” from … but for the sun (2019)
