DUSTIN KEN RUE CARRY THE FIRE
Dustin: The way I do things is I just record little bits of ideas here and there and the ones that start sticking, I build on. Most of the ideas have accumulated over the past few years. But I usually only finish things when I have a deadline. Really the only thing that was completed from before was `Of Crows and Crowns' which I've been playing for a couple of years. But even that I rearranged for the record. Do you have a studio at home? Dustin: Yeah I recorded it all at home. I had done a Christmas record on my own, which was recorded in the back of a bus and in hotel rooms, but it was a lot less evolved. So this was a learning experience. But I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
One thing that strikes me when I listen to 'Carry the Fire' is that it deals with some darker themes and material than your previous albums. Most of the songs have a hopeful refrain, but the emotion is pretty intense at times. Did you find that was a theme that kept surfacing as you were writing? Dustin: Yeah, I was definitely dealing with some heavier stuff on a lot of it. I don't
know if I can pinpoint exactly why those are the themes I wanted to write about. But I was definitely exploring the idea of the darkness within and darkness without, how we deal with that and process it. Do we even acknowledge it. And a lot of times I don't even notice these themes until after the record is complete. But in this case, I feel like I had a pretty good clue of that early on for whatever reason. Did the whole Mars Hill fiasco have anything to do with that? Dustin: I think, emotionally, I'm more processing that stuff now, than I was when I was writing and recording this. I'm a pretty analytical person. Not that I don't have emotions, but I think I process them differently than some people. I'm a little slower at processing stuff. So I don't think that had a big hand in this record. The record is very versatile. Is the writing process when you're writing your own stuff different than when you're writing for Thrice or other projects you've been involved in? Dustin: Yeah it's different than with Thrice. In Thrice, historically, it's very much a team thing. Different people bring different elements. So with Thrice, there's a lot of building. But with this solo stuff, it's very much foundational. Is there anything in the pipeline for Thrice at the moment? Dustin: This year we're just focusing on playing a few festivals. There's not many plans beyond that. Dustin Kensrue Online www.dustinkensrue.com and www.facebook.comidustinkensrue www.twitter.comidustinkensrue 40 VandalaMagazine.Com - July 2015