Once in the O.C., always in the O.C. That’s how it goes for singer-guitarist Dustin Kensrue, currently kicking back at home in Irvine, California. In fact, three-fourths of post-hardcore heroes Thrice call Orange County home. Guitarist Teppei Teranishi is the only member to escape north to Palo Alto. But thanks to technology, recording and writing music remotely isn’t an issue these days.
“Because we’re not living in the same spot we had to figure out a way to share ideas more effectively,” says Kensrue. “We’re still jamming a lot of these ideas and building them together but we were using this business program, Asana. It just helps keep all our conversations about songs all organized because it was a mess with emails.”
Whatever Thrice’s intentions might be, they’re working. The band’s latest album, 2016’s To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere, sees the four-piece go from a heavy, screamy band to a well-rounded rock machine. “I think To Be Everywhere sounds like it does because we were coming back fresh and not just reacting to what we had just made,” Kensrue says, referring to the five-year gap between this record and 2011’s Major/Minor. “We tend to react off of what we’ve just done. We didn’t have that this time because we hadn’t done anything recently, so it comes across a bit more balanced.”
The move away from a narrow aggro sound to something broader has been underway at least since 2009’s Beggars. The difference with To Be Everywhere is the number of moods woven into the whole: it can be poignant (“The Long Defeat”), ecstatic (“Wake Up”), grungy (“Blood on the Sand”) or evoke a lullabye, like the six-plus-minute album closer (“Salt and Shadow”). “Black Honey,” a withering critique of U.S. foreign policy, is an earworm in a slew of catchy tracks. “It can apply to any narcissistic way of living, whether personal or political. I like how it works on micro and macro levels,” Kensrue says. On the other hand “Whistleblower” and “Death From Above” about Edward Snowden and military drones, respectively, are searing in their specificity.
The To Be Everywhere sessions also yielded the single “Sea Change.” The band released it back in April for Record Store Day, which, appropriately enough, coincided with Earth Day. Proceeds from the sale of the track benefit Climate Central, an organization that educates the media on environmental issues. Thrice is currently in the early stages of writing the next album. “We have a bunch of ideas that we’re working on, but they’re totally not developed at all. We’re in deepest part of the woods.” Though they had a long run with Vagrant Records, it’s uncertain as of press time who will put out the new album.
With a discography laced with literary references, it’s no surprise Kensrue is a serious reader. An updated edition of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the Unites States, Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow, and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zoë are a few he’s knocked out lately. Also not surprising for a crafter of memorable lyrics, he cites screenwriter bible Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories That Resonate by Brian McDonald. “That’s supposed to be required reading for people at Pixar,” he says. “I just feel like I have to nourish my brain and my soul before I can produce.”
The current run is a co-headlining tour with Circa Survive. “We’ve known them for a long time. Super-great dudes,” he says of the Philadelphia-area prog rockers. “We’re always looking to tour with bands that are good people and good musicians. You usually only get one or the other.”
Thrice
Nov 2, 7pm, $30+
City National Civic, San Jose
sanjosetheaters.org
