“So many ‘latest’ and ‘greatest’ pedals are coming out that I had to get off the train… most of them were trying to do things that had already been done”: Ian Thornley knows what tones he’s looking for – but he’s still searching for the perfect song

Ian Thornley of Big Wreck.

Though he’s been at it for 30 years, too few have feasted on the multi-layered playing inherent within Ian Thornley’s virtuosic guitar buffet.

Perhaps it’s because he’s a native of Canada, a country that’s produced a ton of outstanding music, but outside of Rush, never seems to get its due. Or perhaps it’s because he and his band, Big Wreck, refuse to stagnate – instead using their albums like a blank canvas for a technicolor-splashed paintbrush.