The lines all bend and bow when it comes to Cursive's influences.
Coming to life in 1990’s Nebraska, Cursive followed a wave of post-hardcore bands like Fugazi and Minutemen, bringing their unique POV and instrumentation to fans across the globe. Cursive just dropped their latest record Devourer, and we caught up with frontman and brains behind it all, Tim Kasher.
10 records in, releasing an album is still no easy task, Kasher noting the trepidation still continues for Cursive. “I’ve been really anxious to get [Devourer] out. It’s a nice relief that people are responding to it well. That’s not what you always get, you know?”
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Think of the last time you worked on something and then sent it out there into the world. How often did you want to take it back and change this or alter that?
Creatives are far too aware of this enigma, creating stuff that stays out there forever, letting things out into the world is a difficult feat. But over time, as Kasher notes, things do get easier, especially once the live stage is involved.
“I’ve been doing it for long enough now that I’ve learned how to shape what I need to shape. I’ve come to accept it; nothing really ever burns me up.
“There’s something that’s pretty common, when you’re learning these songs, and you don’t have a chance to play them out a lot live.
“So I won’t say what songs they are, but I think I can think of a couple songs in my head right now, from Devourer and the tempos are not correct, we’re gonna play them live, and we’re gonna play them differently,” Kasher adds with a laugh.
Often a song is born out of an emotional release of the artist — a life event or bottled up feeling is released. But when fans get the song, that’s where the real journey of a song starts. Fans connect to lyrics and motifs in different ways.
“I love playing songs for the first time in front of an audience. It’s one of the best experiences, as far as songwriting goes.
“If they’re into it, you can feel on top of the world for a moment. It’s interesting. We now have six people on stage too, a cellist, a horn player, keyboard, guitars, drum and bass. I think we’re pretty proud of how well we are able to re-introduce the music after recording it.
“If there’s newer bands out there, it’s great to be able to workshop your music live before you record it.”
Don’t let Devourer’s 13-song journey fool you – this record came to life from a 40-song list, Kasher notes, a process that has been the case for many of Cursive’s records.
“I’ve just been writing more and more for albums as the years go by. I think that I have been taking it more and more seriously, and being a little bit more anal about it too. About trying to find out exactly what is the best music to be on any given record.
“Some 40 songs that didn’t make it, but there’s something about all of them that I like. it’s not that I dislike them, music’s just strange like that.”
“And the reason why I write so much is because I’ve learned over all these years that something you write on a Tuesday, that you just think is phenomenal, and you’re so excited about it, you can be burned out with it by Friday. You just don’t know in the moment”.
For a full timer in any creative field, it’s always interesting to understand what influences them. While we look to bands like them as inspiration, they find it in the most interesting of places.
The fabric behind a Cursive record can be found with inspiration from many areas, Kasher a big consumer of all different mediums of entertainment.
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“I did just read a book that had a big impact on me. It’s actually by a friend of ours, Orenda Fink, who is an artist for that band Azure Ray. She just put out a memoir called The Witch’s Daughter, and that was phenomenal.”
Kasher dives further into the world of inspiration, and the idea that we don’t know when something’s influencing us, it just eventually makes its way into our lives.
“I’m also a big believer in everything is influencing us all the time. We don’t really understand how it is.
“Over the years, I’ve often been asked if the environment I’m in influences this record or that record? And I almost never know. Like, I don’t know what the influence is, but I absolutely know that it does. I mean, it has to, it, doesn’t it?”
Devourer from Cursive is out now via Run For Cover And Civilians. Check out more info on Cursive here.
