Thrice: Dustin Kensrue Interview

I’m often asked what kind of music I listen to. For the past few years, my response has simply been “Thrice.” My answer envelops a variety of genres, an evolving discography, an impressive live show and consistently high quality music. With over ten years of experience and growth, Thrice has only been getting better. Their newest record, Beggars, is yet another successful demonstration of the band’s progressive talent and honest style. I caught up with vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue while on the road with Brand New to talk about everything from their new album to the band’s future plans.

SLUG: I’ve seen you guys live quite a few times and I feel like your live performances keep getting better. You keep a pretty good balance between your old stuff and your new stuff. I was actually surprised by how many songs you played on your older records last time you were in town. Do you think the live groove style influences and changes the way you play your older music on stage?
Dustin Kensrue: Yeah, definitely. I think even playing songs live for a while you start to interpret them differently, even without noticing. Over time you’ll go and you’ll hear the record version and  think, ‘Oh, I don’t even play it like that anymore.’ We’re playing  a little less old stuff on this tour—we’re trying to change the set-up just a little bit in general. We played kind of a similar set for a while. We’re playing some songs we’ve never played, either ever or rarely, and we’re playing a fair amount of Beggars stuff and an Air song that we’ve reworked for the live show that’s cool to play, and it seems like people are digging that.

SLUG: I know the last tour you guys changed your set list for a lot of the shows. I saw you in Vegas first and then here in SLC and you had a different set list. Is that how it’s going to be on this tour?
DK: I think it depends on where we are in proximity to other shows. When they’re really close we try to change it up. I think we’ll probably end up changing it somewhere between shows when we do the headlining portion of the tour.

SLUG: You’ve said in other interviews that you’ve been gradually incorporating that live feeling into your music and it’s especially apparent in your newest album. Do you think that’s going to continue being a focus?
DK: I think that the lessons that we’ve learned will continue to be employed in whatever music we make, but as far as the really raw feeling of this record, I don’t know if that’s something that’ll be in the next record or  if it’ll be more of a hybrid. This record is pretty different in that it’s just all pretty raw—there aren’t a lot of layers to it as far as overdubs or electronics, which I really like about it, but we’re not married to that line of tact.

SLUG: So what direction do you think we could see you going in future albums?
DK: I don’t know. As far as my own feelings right now, I think the next one might be a little heavier,  maybe a little more mathy in a groove-oriented way, not exclusively, but I definitely think we’ll incorporate some of that stuff. It’s not always necessarily the heaviness of stuff that we’re opposed to, it’s just the lack of groove or soul that has been in a lot of it, or it’s very cheesy―things we perceive as cheesy―but I think we’re seeing different ways to do heavy stuff, and we have different ways like the Fire record, but I think that there’s still more to check out there. And I like doing stuff live, as we are more interested in how they translate over and kind of writing with that in mind. That’s just kind of what I’m feeling right now.

SLUG: Personally, I feel like your music has evolved along with my own musical tastes, but I know some fans didn’t really like the jump from the Artist to Vheissu to the Alchemy Index. What would you say to those fans?
DK: Ummmm… Sorry? I think that most people that like music in general and not just a particular style of music or whatever, that are fans of earlier stuff and  they give a fair shake to the later stuff, I think most of them will like it,= and will find things with it that they can dig into. Whether or not a certain one will be their favorite, that’s gonna be different for everybody, but I think what a lot of fans have come to see is that―and I’ve come to see this with other bands ―just a band you like a lot and they have a change in sound , you definitely shouldn’t write it off right away. Sometimes it might take you a couple of weeks to have that shift as well, but I’ve found any band that I really respect or really like and haven’t liked the record right away, I’ve liked if I give it a chance.
I think Beggars especially, the way that it sounds, not playing into the whole arms race of sound that everything else plays into―not everything but a lot of things―focuses much more on just the feeling of it, so at first listen it might not be as sharp, but I think that as you start to learn the record and understand it, you’ll have a deeper and hopefully more lasting effect.

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Comments on this article

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Ryan

Good interview!

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