Cursive tackles ‘folk metal’ on sixth album

The band’s front man has finally settled into his 13-year role.

By Joey Vergara
April 1, 2008

Courtesy of Saddle Creek Records

(Click graphic to enlarge)

In the laundry list of genre labels thrown at Cursive, “folk” and “metal” are two that don’t crop up very often.

But for the second time in the band’s career, those are the unusual sounds Tim Kasher and co. are trying to create while writing the band’s sixth full-length record.

“We joked a lot on Happy Hollow about how we were trying to do a new brand of folk metal, but it didn’t turn out,” Kasher said. “It was brought up at practice the other day that maybe this is getting closer to folk metal. Like, I say that, and it’s not going to sound anything like folk metal.”

The results might not be the crossover the band hopes to create, but they will be something just as unexpected — “more traditional songwriting” and “more low-key songs” on what Kasher calls the band’s “most diverse collection of songs thus far.”

His predictions for the album make sense considering all the changes Cursive has recently undergone.

With longtime drummer Clint Schnase leaving the band (“Clint was a real trooper to stay in the band for as long as he did,” Kasher said.) and former Engine Down drummer Cornbread Compton taking his place, not to mention the addition of multi-instrumentalist Nate Lepine to the lineup, Kasher moving to L.A., and bassist Matt Maginn moving to Columbia, Cursive faced a major readjustment period when it came time to begin writing again.

After making three records that, in one way or another, became heavily thematic as a result of being based around a single idea, Kasher hopes this new album will be a step away from that type of songwriting.

“The example I gave in practice — where we’re at right now is like, if you’re looking for the battered relationship record, then see Cursive’s Domestica,” Kasher said. “If you’re looking for a self-reflexive/self-deprecating record, then go to Ugly Organ. If you’re looking for Cursive’s religious bent, then go to Happy Hollow. In every way that’s what we wanted to do with each record, but in the spirit of not pigeonholing ourselves into being that ‘concept-band,’ (we’re approaching this one differently).”

But he remains realistic.

“This is just me saying that at the beginning of a record again we’re trying to do something not so thematic,” Kasher said. “Inevitably it will in some way, but hopefully it won’t be so intense.”

Kasher, a fan of Tennessee Williams and Mike Nichols, also expects his writing to change as a result of the increased time he has been able to devote to screenwriting.

“I got incredibly sidetracked by music through my teenage years and into my twenties,” he said. “So when I hit 30 I kind of demanded that if I don’t start working on screenplays or some longer fictional work other than lyric-writing, then I would never do it and I would feel unfulfilled as a human being.”

It’s this change Kasher said makes Cursive feel more natural than it has in a long time.

“Music feels healthier to me now because I don’t have to feel so frustrated about trying to cram full stories or full ideas into this tiny meter and these verses,” Kasher said.

Now 34, Kasher is more settled into what he wants from his music and the careers he juggles so easily.

The Cursive front man has transitioned into a new, calmer phase of life in L.A. than the one he entertained when he formed Cursive 13 years ago.

“It’s just really idyllic relative to Omaha,” Kasher said. “We have two dogs out here that just kind of run around, and I work on my back patio. I’m totally misconstrued as this barbaric drunk person. I’m not, much to some people’s chagrin.”

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Cursive tackles ‘folk metal’ on sixth album

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