Nikki Sisti and Kate Black on the future of THICK

THICK appear in our Fall 2023 Issue with cover stars Scowl, Yves Tumor, Poppy, and Good Charlotte. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy. 

THICK’s story begins in an unlikely way: with an ad guitarist Nikki Sisti placed on Craigslist. “I wanted to start a band with all femmes,” Sisti says. “That was the plan because I kept going to all the shows, and it was always men onstage.”

Two years after THICK were born in 2014, bassist Kate Black joined. “We always knew Kate in the scene, crowdsurfing,” Sisti says. “I always say that ’cause she’s tall, and she was crowdsurfing at every show we went to.” 

Read more: 20 greatest punk-rock bassists of all time

Black shifted the trajectory of the band. “The first part of THICK was a party with no intention, just playing shows for fun to make friends, and the only goal was to meet people,” Sisti says. But Black had more specific aims in mind: releasing music and growing audiences, along with having a good time.

Black’s wishes for THICK soon became a reality. Coming up in Brooklyn’s DIY punk scene, THICK signed to Epitaph Records in 2018. Their debut album, 2020’s 5 Years Behind, captures the anxieties and pressures of modern life with buoyant energy, bright melodies, and fuzzy riffs — a mix of punk force and pop sensibilities. Last year, they released their sophomore record, Happy Now, a commitment to positivity no matter what life throws your way. One of the most striking things about THICK is their direct, confessional lyrics, with an openness that invites others in. Their vulnerability comes across in lines like, “Wish I could trust myself the way I trust everybody else” from “I Wish 2016 Never Happened.” Meanwhile, “Mansplain” showcases a different side of the band, with its cutting sarcasm and sharp wit: “Thanks for explaining/How to play guitar/If it wasn’t for your help/We wouldn’t get this far.”

Now, two albums in, and having gone from being a three-piece to a two-piece, Sisti and Black’s friendship and working relationship has only gotten stronger. The duo, who share vocal duties, are constantly in conversation. Speaking to Alternative Press on Zoom after coming back from a run of shows in the U.K., their responses to interview questions take the form of dialogue. They’ll often comment on each other’s answers, pointing out things they liked. “It’s nice to have a partner in crime,” Black says.

It’s taken time for them to build their partnership, considering they became friends through the band instead of the other way around. Communication has been key, with both of them saying that their relationship grew during the pandemic, having been given time and space together. “It literally is another relationship,” Sisti says. “The dynamic, figuring out how to support each other and meet each other’s needs by not sacrificing your own. We’ve been in it for so long now that we’ve figured it out. We’ve gotten [in] a good groove.”

That idea, of contribution and reciprocation in relationships, comes across in their work. THICK’s latest single “Doomer” captures the exhaustion that comes from giving too much of yourself. “I was at a place [where] I had nothing left to give,” Sisti says. “So I really just wanted to protest that.”

Songwriting starts with a theme, but often separately. Sisti and Black write their own ideas individually — Sisti mentions that her songs are partway completed, whereas Black often brings in full songs — but “it’s not a THICK song until it’s all together,” Black says. They’ll then show them to each other and work on them collaboratively.

“Doomer” was even more of a team effort, with Sisti writing lyrics inspired by a friend who had written a poem about a similar situation. Some of the lines from the poem even made it into the song. “But the cool thing is — it’s also what makes it a THICK song — Kate wrote the guitar lick,” Sisti says. Mannequin Pussy’s Kaleen Reading played drums on the track.

But the single also marks another change in direction for the band. “A lot of our songs on the last two albums are very mixed, and they interweave between getting angry but being OK, and resilient,” Sisti says. “We’re trying to lean into having this one tone and one voice for future writing. Let’s [put] this feeling of depletion front-row center.” (“I love that concept,” Black comments afterward.)

That approach, of homing in on one emotion and allowing it breathing room, has influenced the music as well. “Doomer” feels sparser and more dynamic than their previous work, with the space given to the vocals lending them weight to truly express the lethargy the song is describing.

“I think [with] this next future album that we’re going to work on, our intention is to have every song really have one feeling with no judgment,” Sisti says. “What would that part of you scream if it could?”

Following tour dates in August, the band are aiming to begin work on their third record in the winter and release two more singles by early 2024. Black teases that the songs are in a similar vein to “Doomer.” She explains that one single is “about not wanting to have to necessarily take care of your partner all the time and be the mommy figure, which I think a lot of us can fall into.”

She’s also written a more downtempo song. “It’s the first sad THICK song that’s actually just sad and isn’t this big, epic, resilient thing. [It] has a little bit of a darker tone,” Black says.

When asked what they want listeners to take away from their music, Sisti looks to her bandmate before answering. Black responds, “It’s shifting a little” at the same time Sisti says, “It’s changing.”

“Same brain!” Black exclaims. She explains that THICK’s music has gone from responding to the external world to now looking inward. But ultimately, it’s about “giving yourself and your emotions a lot more grace and a lot more space to exist,” Black says.

“Oh, I love that,” Sisti adds, eager to compliment and voice her agreement with her bandmate.

“Whatever you do,” she continues. “Whatever you feel, whatever you experience, whatever you want, boundaries you want to put up, people you piss off, again, give yourself some grace.”