Interview: Dustin Kensrue of Thrice

Thrice are currently on the road supporting their recently released eighth studio album Major/Minor. The SoCal rock group have also been performing special acoustic sets after their shows in order to raise money for the Invisible Children foundation. Frontman Dustin Kensrue was nice enough to jump on the phone with us for a few minutes to discuss the recording of their latest effort, how exactly they are helping out with Invisible Children and the possibility of a new solo album to come out next year. Check all of that out and stream the M/M stand out track "Blur", below.

Thrice - Blur

You guys have been making music together for quite a while now, anything in particular you do to keep things fresh writing wise?

I guess just different things along the way. Like with, Alchemy Index was kind of a giant shift of how we approached writing songs, in terms of frame work and mind of what we're pushing towards. So in turn with Beggars it naturally led into something completely opposite where we were excited to just be in a room together and figure something out.

I guess some of it is being free to be reactionary to what you have just done in a sense. So Major/Minor was a little bit of a reaction to the way Beggars was produced. We wanted it [Major/Minor] to sound a little pulled back. 

All of the instruments on the record have a pretty unique and distinct sound. Any particular inspiration (as far as albums) for the way you recorded the tracks?

I don't think anything super particularly. I think we just kind of wanted it to be a little more dirty and big and nastier than Beggars was.

We stopped getting all crazy about trying eighty different amps to get a guitar tone. We got our set up. A Vox and a Morgan, which got stolen and that was the sound. I think we all used like one guitar each for the whole thing.  

The Major/Minor album artwork is pretty simple yet interesting, any sort of meaning behind it? 

This guy Jordan Butcher did it and it kind of took some thinking and talking about and making ourselves. 

A lot of the inside artwork is sort of pieced together from pictures we took with a slow shutter camera setting. The slow shutter stuff.. I briefly talk about that in the song "Blur". Using that as an analogy for the situations we've been dealing with and the difficultly of processing some of that. So we were all sharing photos and we were talking about how they symbolize confusion in these heavy circumstances.

So some of that is built into there. Some of it, I think Jordan was just stoked to mess around with.

I see you guys are playing some special acoustic sets for Invisible Children. How did that come about? And for our readers who don't know about the organization, could you tell us a little bit about it? 

We've been playing afterwards, probably like every other show at this point. It's getting hard because this storm is following us. It actually just started raining as we speak. So we been playing a few acoustic songs outdoors and we've been passing jars around to collect money. The money is going to fund Invisible Children, which is a non-profit that works in Africa trying to end the longest running war in Africa. 

It's gone on for 25 years. Children are being abducted into this army. They [Invisible Children] try various ways to try and free these kids from war.

They are raising money to build radio towers to broadcast signals to the children across the Congo to let them know they are loved and welcome home because they have been brainwashed and think they can't return home because they have been forced to commit these atrocities. It's a really good way to get them home and home safely.  

After you wrap up this tour, what's next?

We don't have anything set in stone. I know we'll be back out in the spring at some point to do a bigger national tour. Aside from that we don't have anything that's actually set.

You guys consistently put out records every couple of years or so.. do you look to keep that going.. or will there be different projects or solo records up next?

I always say I going to put a solo record out next year, but I always don't know, so I hope I'm not wrong, cause I'd like to put another one out next year.