Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Echoes of Emotion: TIM KASHER Discusses CURSIVE's 'Devourer' And Musical Evolution

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Echoes of Emotion: TIM KASHER Discusses CURSIVE's 'Devourer' And Musical Evolution · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm Tim Casher and I'm the singer and songwriters
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Cursive band from Omanabraska in the United States. I've been
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: doing it for about thirty years. This is our tenth album.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It's called Devourer, and we're pretty soaked on it. We've
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: been working on it for quite a few quite a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: quite a while now. My last album came out in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I guess so great.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: And can you tell us a little bit more about
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in comparison to your lost album?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think this is I've seen some chatter
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: about this online as well, is that I think that
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I am a big fan of the last two albums
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: we did the last I should say the last two albums.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I say it that way because they're kind of a companion.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We put out Viciola in twenty eighteen and then we
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: kind of did a surprise release of an album called
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Get Fixed. So they're kind of siblings, sibling albums. They're pretty,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: they're they're more angsty, and yeah, just I guess they're
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: just like, they're angrier and also just kind of like
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: less melodic in ways that I prefer in music in
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But upon doing working on this
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Devour album, we did take a moment to kind of
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I think, well, because of the pandemic, I think we
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: had a lot of time on our hands to kind
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: of assess, you know, our catalog and whatnot. And it
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: helped remind me that when we started this project back
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in the nineties, the division of it was really intended
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to be more eclectic and of a to have like
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a to have that, you know, a broader range of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: ideas musically. And I think Vitriola and Gift Fixed are
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: cool because they kind of went in a specific direction
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and they kind of stayed in there and a lot
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of and a lot of that had to do with just,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you know, the where we were. Where we were in
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the United States at that time was with Trump and office,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and it was just frustrating and there was just daily
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: bad news being dumped, you know, in our inboxes. Yeah,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: but anyway, I just I wanted in short, I think
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to Devour to be a more efflectic record, Yeah,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and I feel like we achieved that.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. The music video for blood Bath features Shannon
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Purser of Stranger Things and Aurora paranof of West World.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Did you have them in mind when you thought of
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the music video concept.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I so I give you a little short info on
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the videos that we did. We did five videos for
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the album, and uh it was kind of a part
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: of a project of getting genre directors on board, uh
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to and and we didn't give them any parameter. Juice said,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: this is the budget. Uh, we would love to see
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: what you have to do. These are the song You
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: can choose what song you want to do.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: So Chelsea starred us as a great horror director. Uh
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: that was her. That was the song she shows. Uh
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: so we really left it up to her. So she's
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the one who came up with a female flight club
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: kind of like blending I prom in fight club together.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And so she brought Shannon and Aurora on board.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, interesting. So you didn't have a lot to
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: do with it yourself.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: No, for me, I mean earlier, I just I they
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: were shooting down the street, so I stepped in. I
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: popped in and played played the referee. But otherwise nought
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: because we didn't have a we didn't have a large
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: budget for these directors. So part of the what I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was hoping the allure would be was, uh, you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: like a like we don't have a lot of money,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: but we'd love to just see it be your vision.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: We don't like we want to stay out of it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Stay out of your way and just see what you
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: come up with.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, far out. It's awesome. By the way. Thanks, You've
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: always had a horror aspect to your songs and videos.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: What artists, movies, or books inspire that darkness or happiness
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: for you?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, I just I mean probably a broad range, but
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I but one that I can easily pop in my
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: head is Cormick McCarthy.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Just his.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: The very the extremely dour, you know, realistic tech that
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: he has that he has that he takes towards like humanity.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I just really relate to that. I think it's that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: he's always been pretty clever in the way that he's
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: portrayed humanity. Uh So, that's definitely certain. That would certainly
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: be one of them. I'd be remiss to not mention
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Stephen King. And the only reason why I shouldn't. Why
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I'd say that is because I think that everyone is
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: influenced by Stephen King. I don't think we were like,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you know, like in this general like these generations of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: people that we are. Stephen King is is very much
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: like an Edgar Allan Poe And I don't know, you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll recognize that more than one hundred years when
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: we won't be around.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, it's pretty relevant now to say that.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I don't know if I I don't
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: know if I have a specific Yeah, you know, book
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: in mind.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But you know, I've wrung your Instagram. You recently shared
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: a fatial length thriller you've directed Cold Who's Watching? Is
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: directing new for you?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah? It is. I did shoot. I did do my
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: first feature that came out in twenty seventeen. But it
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: was something that was done absolutely like in our apartment,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and it was a pretty low budget, but it was
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a it was a it was a good it was
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: a good narrative. You know, I'm proud of it. It's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: just I think, get a chance to show up to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: many people. It's a very very quiet, tense drama that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: it just had a hard time and it had no
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: known actor in it, and so it's just hard time
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: kind of getting it sold. But so this is the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: second one I've done, but I've been I've been screenwriting
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: for close to twenty years now. But you know, that's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: neither here nor there for not selling anything. You know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: it's just that I've been pretty busy with it. But
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: it's kind of more of just a really long, a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: really long education for me, I suppose.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and a hobby I suppose as well. On
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the side, Yeah yeah yeah. Do you as a band
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: have a collective hand in the songs you write?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's open. I mean, the songwriting is open
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to any band member. But we've been doing it for
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: just quite a while, and I just generally take over
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the duties. And I think that's just kind of the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: way I think I tend to just I don't think
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of I don't consider or myself as bossy or anything
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: like that. But I just take on a leadership role
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: because we kind of need we just need literally a
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: lot of groups. You just need something somebody to kind
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of like run things, and so I generally do that,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and I generally bring songs into But you know, Ted
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Stevens is a great songwriter, and he's written for us
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: in the past, but just for the last couple of
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: last few albums, he just hasn't been But I don't
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: think that has don't think there's any commentary or anything there.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I think of anything. The probably the commentary is that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: he has he's been raising his daughter, so I think
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: he's just been preoccupied.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Ze. Yeah. Yeah, do you have a favorite song off
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the album? I really like botch Job, just adding that
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: in there.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Bob's cool, uh it at the moment, you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I think, like a week ago, I was saying, I'm
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: feeling like, what the fuck? Was kind of my favorite?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And that's it now? And that's a song that kind
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of leans a little bit more into Vichu Oil and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Get Fixed. It's just a little bit uh less melodic
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and uh, I just you know, it's just kind of
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: heavy and raunchy and I like that. But this this week,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I think Rookie is the song that's kind of been Yeah,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I've been rehearsing for a tourists. I've been playing that one.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I'd say I probably choose that.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: And is that the same as like playing it live?
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Is that your favorite one to play live at the
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: moment too?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: You know, Yes, it remains to be seen because we
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: haven't played it live yet, but we will be. We'll
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: be playing I mean as soon as next week. So yeah, yeah,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: but yeah, we're doing we have a that we did double.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: We're two drummers on the album, so we accentially have
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: two drum two drummers playing on that song, and we're
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: attempting to recreate that live. So I'm excited about that.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that sounds awesome. There's such incredible energy from
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the crowd at your shows, and fans often say that
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: every performance feels unique. Do you intentionally strive to give
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: you all in every show?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, absolutely, it's nice to hear that people say that,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I guess so, so, uh yeah, yeah, I think it.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I think we've had for decades. I'd say that we've
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: kind of had that attitude that you know at Bill
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Arkansas and as is as important as New York City.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: It's just it's just it's just people. It's just a
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: different group of people living in a different place, but
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: they're all all all of their brains function the same way, right, Yeah, definitely.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, so no, I think that's pretty important.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And sometimes when you're on a long tour you can
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: start to forget that, and uh, it's good to sit
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: yourself down and remind yourself that even though this might
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: feel a little bit rote or a little bit dull,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to you because you've been doing it for the last
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe six weeks straight. Uh that the people
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: who are there that night, that they haven't been doing
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: this for the last six weeks straight. They've actually been
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: some of some of them maybe have been waiting for
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: this and took creating it for the last six weeks.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So it behooves you to try to, you know, do
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the best we can.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: That's a really good way to put it, I think.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: And that's so is your authenticity, Like you are bringing
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: your all to every show. That's beautiful.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I noticed you wrote around sixty nine compositions for the
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: album starting in twenty twenty. What was that process like,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: was it somewhat maic or do the song? Do you
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: take your time with every composition?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: It's really it's a really casual and enjoyable EXPERI well,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and it's music anyway. So it's like I love music.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: We all love music. We love it's you know, you
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: play music. It's really is just playing. But for me,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a it's always enjoyable, but it's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: pretty careful, carefree the way.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: I do it.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I put on I'll put on something a movie in
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the background, preferably something that's like horror or action or
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: just something that's kind of visually visually stimulating. I don't
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of point to watching just like
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a drama because I'm not really paying attention. I'm only
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: kind of Yeah, my eyes were just kind of chasing
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: whatever spaceship's going by or whatever while I'm working on
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and so it's it's just like a really relaxing experience
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: for me. And so and I'll work on a song
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: from anywhere from an hour to you know, maybe four
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: hours or something in an afternoon and just trying to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: kind of work it out. Yeah, No, I don't know,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a I love it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an enjoyable process for you and relaxed, I suppose, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: What's something you like to listen to that might be
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: a surprise given the music you make?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, probably all kinds of stuff would be a surfer
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: or maybe not. I don't know what people consider surprising,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: but but I like a very broad I look a
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: very broad range of music, and I think that most
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: musicians kind of should. And I questioned it a little
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: bit when musicians are really harsh on certain styles that said,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I do too. I I don't, like, I don't really
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: love bluegrass, and and that the thing is bluegrass is
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: technically superior. It's and it's a really incredible you know,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: like a playmanship, you know, but I just it just
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't work for me. But I like, I mean, some
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: of my favorite music is historically has just been really
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: more low key, and I tend to I tend to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: prefer female fronted bands and just a h a female
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: voice or like a female approach. But I don't. But
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's something that should necessarily be surprising
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to people, uh, you know, because I think that should
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: be pretty normal that like, yea half of the world
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is women. Will they write good music?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You know, awesome and just quickly. I absolutely loved when
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Cursive and Thursday played a mix of songs from their
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: respective catalogs a few years ago. And you've toured a
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: bunch with them together. Are you guys pretty close or
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: are you sick of each other.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: So close? I really I've really grown to love those
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: guys so much. And I've known them for over we've
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: known him for over twenty years, and but over this
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: last three or four years, I really reconnected some of them.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I So they've also started just taking me out just solo,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: just like when they're doing maybe smaller shows or gone
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to one off shows and Cursive can't make it. They've
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: just been inviting me to come out, and so I've
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: just been so I just hop on their bus and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I kind of just feel like one of the band members.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And so it's great. Yeah, they're kind of my favorite
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: band right now. Yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, Lovely.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: The Ugly Organ was an important album for many people
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and helped people through some dark times. What do you
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: make of that?
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: All Right, it's great. I mean that's ah, it's phenomenal
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: for us. It's a huge surprise, and I think it's
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and it's not something that I've ever really gotten used to. Uh,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't expect anything from that record when
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: it when we wrote it, we were actually pretty down
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: on the dumpsat at the time because we've felt that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: people weren't really gonna get into it, which it just
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: felt like we went too far out on a limb. Uh,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: But so it was less and learned for us. It's
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: just that the further out on a limb we went,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: people actually were more interested and I wish that I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: could offer that as good advice for anyone, and it
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: is good advice for anyone. But the thing is is
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: that probably it doesn't generally bear fruit. But we were
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: just kind of lucky, you know. We went out on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a limb and did something that that we didn't that
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: felt more uniquely us than that part of a scene.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: And it's scary and it was scary, but then it
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: turned out it worked out, so I'm glad, yeah it did.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: And just last question, is your cat nearby?
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah? He just he's causing a ruckus? Like how Actually
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that's I keep looking out there, I'll grab them hold on,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Oh thank you, I can't.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, it looks like a kitty. Is it
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: a baby?
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, just three months old. Mooney, mooney, mooney, Yeah yeah,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: but he's just like a firecracker. And yeah, I'm just
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just all scratched up. My legs in my arms
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: are just all scratched up from from being attacked constantly.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: But all right, Well, thank you so much for speaking
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: with us today, and congratulations on the album. It's killer.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: Once in my life I like to take the gloves
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: on I'm a fight.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: My nagar man a shot up.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: I can't stand the headshaken finger wi.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: I not to shut my heady and me.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Once in my life, once in.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: A while the bottle heads me too hard, just.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: Like a child, I turn my conscience some part.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: I should o my chi beddy cripd deer. Still I
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: dream and choking them in my.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: Bow once in a while. Fog Man, it's gonna be
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: ablog that.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Fog Man, it's gonna be a blog that.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: Fog that, it's gonna be a blood back water your.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Bottles walk in. Don't like yourself.
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: Found where your world is fine for once in your life.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Fogda, what's swimming in? I'm blu that.
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Fog that, what's blum that I'm swimming in? I'm like
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: that My life's ann sense rapple, So shut doors, team
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: and something fandom out your size for once in your life.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: I don't want to be a crash prick of trying
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: to get up a ship, trying.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: To take the selfish sadest.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: But it's a beast and it's not habit in.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: A brass ball let a China cabin.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: And I'm a creature of bad habits with a.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: To lose and that cat's head.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: I'm spoken to grapple.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not to get my business back playing man you
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: risk that. Hes a fut about telling I take a
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: st died T tell I tell you so that I'm
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: child up like that, so that I'm tirely lit up
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: like that,