After a two-year hiatus from touring, Omaha-based Cursive have returned this year with both a new album and a new tour. Cursive said goodbye to cellist Gretta Cohn for the August release of Happy Hollow, their first release since 2003’s critically acclaimed Ugly Organ. Happy Hollow displays the band’s evolution from self-analytical, cello-based indie rock to a more horn-laden, communal sound. Cursive has kept its core 4-piece of lead vocalist and guitarist Tim Kasher, guitarist Ted Stevens, bassist Matt Maginn and drummer Clint Schnase. The Voice got in touch with guitarist and back-up vocalist Ted Stevens for a phone interview in anticipation of Cursive’s show at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd.We talked about horns, Thanksgiving, growing up and snakes.
A lot of musicians have been adding big band parts or orchestration to their music recently – Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene and the Eels each toured with an orchestra last year. How do you feel that this addition alters the live performance?
It seems like most small groups tend to add horns. Even if you watch The Tonight Show or Vegas acts, they have the baritone and trombone. These instruments bring influences from soul, big bands, even funk, into the music. We use these traditional sounds to reinvent our old music. It’s this paradox of the traditional, beautiful, organized sounds of these instruments with the loose, free-form style that is used to reinvent what we’re doing. It’s not a novel idea, but what we do with it is the novelty.
Cursive has done a few concept albums at this point. How does the writing process work? Do you (prefer?) being with the overriding theme or with the individual songs?
Most of the parts were written for this album before any of the vocals. What would happen is Tim would come with ideas about lyrics and what he was willing to compromise about and then I’d answer with what I was writing about and what I was willing to compromise about. We just talked a lot really. We were honest, helpful, proactive, gave constructive criticism – not just “this sucks”. We worked to weed out the songs that suck, but sometimes it’s hard to tell. We just had to pull the trigger and decide which songs to kill. It’s just a matter of finding the right point when it starts clicking, we stop editing, and it just starts happening.
There is a definite focus on religion and Midwestern life on this album. What inspired this focus?
With this album we started with an agreed upon content. Given the kind of greater American void and this emptiness, we wanted to do something to address that. We’re not writing it to make the world a better place, I don’t have any allusions of grandeur. But it is an attempt to pull American back out of its rut and start talking about things. It’s about pointing a finger at the community that is stifling this conversation, about pointing a finger at the community, the government, the clergy and everyone else who is contributing to these problems.
It’s difficult though, because with getting older, family is more and more important than it ever has been before and I don’t want my family to think that we’re singing about them. They’re all religious and from mid-western towns and they’re a little sensitive about the subject matter.
You spend so much time away from home and on the road when you’re touring, away from your family and friends. For instance, this year you won’t be home for Thanksgiving. Does the band have any rituals for celebrating holidays when you’re on the road?
We’ve been talking about that a lot actually. It’s really important to two of us and not important to two of us. But one idea is going down to New Orleans: taking a tour of the city, just taking it all in. It would be a very solemn thing and we wouldn’t feel much like celebrating. I’m not sure if we’ll actually do that, it might be too heavy for Thanksgiving, but I do think it is an important thing to do.
Do you have any touring rituals? Any games you play or pranks that you pull, just things you do to pass the time?
There have always been a lot of poker games after hours, even though I’ve been playing a lot less. What’s new this tour though are the snakes. Do you know those snakes in a can, that pop out everywhere? Well we’ve been sabotaging each others equipment with these snakes. It’s actually mildly terrifying for the first couple of moments before you start laughing.
Has there been any particular moment when you realized that you felt successful in your work and as a musician?
It’s about the small victories. Even if it’s only one out of every thirty shows that feels really perfect, when the crowd is really responsive, it’s enough. It’s just the accumulation of those small victories.
Editor’s Note (c. 2015): The author of this piece has retroactively requested anonymity. Please contact Editor@GeorgetownVoice.com with any questions.
