North Carolina’s Thirsty Curses blend punk, prog, and alt-rock with a signature wit and energy. We dive into their latest single, “Reading & Writing,” and their ever-evolving sound in this interview.
1. Your
new single, "Reading & Writing," has been described as a mix of
prog rock and showtune elements. What inspired this wild blend of styles?
For
whatever reason, a lot of the songs I write on the piano end up having a
showtune flair to them. I’ve always had a soft spot for musicals, so
maybe that’s part of it.
We’ve got
other songs that have a showtune feel as well…. "Foot in the Door"
and “Ride These Rails” from the new record come to mind. Also back catalog stuff like “Old Bag of
Grass”, “Cold Black Ink”, for example. So there’s been a long-running
element of showtune style to some of our stuff.
On
“Reading & Writing”, I pieced together several individual song parts of
varying tempo etc. and used a turnaround bridge to help glue them
together. It went through several iterations and structure rewrites
before it came into its final form. I think that piecing approach ended
up working out well and gave the song a unique finish.
I was going
through a big Brian Wilson thing in late 2023, particularly The Beach Boys Love
You album. I’d read he did a lot of songwriting in pieces. I
don’t specifically remember thinking I’m going to pull a Brian Wilson here, but
perhaps those ideas were floating around my head at the time and helped push me
in that direction.
2. The
music video for "Reading & Writing" uses the intro montage from
Reading Rainbow. What made you choose that particular nostalgic imagery?
I was
thinking it’d be funny to promote the single as a philanthropic initiative
against illiteracy, instead of just saying “here’s another new song by Thirsty
Curses” or whatever it is we say.
So that
thought was floating around when we were trying to come up with cover art for
the single which led us to the Reading Rainbow logo. It was only after
we’d re-jiggered the Reading Rainbow logo to say Reading & Writing that it
dawned on me to try to splice the opening sequence of Reading Rainbow.
It ended up
fitting seamlessly; I didn’t have to do too much. I altered the speed of
portions of the clips and ran it in reverse toward the end to make it cover the
length of the song, but there wasn’t much to do to make it work.
….So I
guess it was really just an organic inspiration born from Thirsty Curses’
campaign to eradicate illiteracy. We hope people will join the
cause.
3. This
is the fourth single from Music is a Scam. How does "Reading
& Writing" fit into the overall theme and sound of the album?
I think it’s the song that best represents the general aesthetic of the album. It may even be the best one-song encapsulation of our overall sound. The song covers a lot of sonic ground and explores serious lyrical themes albeit with a smirking nudge and wink, as is our way. It is pretty intense, but it’s also fun,…. which I think is Thirsty Curses in a nutshell.
4.
You've worked with John Agnello, who's known for his work with bands like
Dinosaur Jr. and The Hold Steady. What was it like collaborating with him on
this record?
It was
awesome. John is great. I felt like we had a pretty solid
unspoken understanding of what we were going for from the get-go. It
was invaluable having someone so well-seasoned and intuitively in-tune with
what we were trying to do musically behind the controls. He also
helped us work out a few intra-band disagreements about certain finishing
touches on a couple songs. He’s super fun and has a lot of great
stories. It was a great time and more importantly we’re very pleased with
the end result. John also mixed “Reading & Writing” as well as our
next single “All That’s Left of Us Now”….We definitely developed a friendship
out of the experience and have even watched some baseball since working
together.
In addition
to John we also had Mitch Easter hanging around (we recorded it at his studio)
and also our friend Isaac Anderson. We’re very grateful Isaac was around
as he and John both had some great suggestions/revisions which we incorporated.
5. Your
influences range from punk to alt-country to power pop. How do you balance all
these different sounds while still maintaining a distinct Thirsty Curses
identity?
I think it
takes care of itself because even though the subgenres vary there’s a
consistent attitude and sensibility running through songs which, I think, tie
the room all together.
I guess put
differently, our identity shapes the music.
Thirsty
Curses discography definitely splinters into various subgenres, but at the end
of the day, it’s all just rock n roll.
6. The
album title Music is a Scam is intriguing. Is there a deeper message
behind it, or is it more tongue-in-cheek?
I guess
it’s a little bit of both. We think it's funny. We also definitely
think the music industry is a scam. There’s always been an element of
that, but it feels in some ways worse than it’s ever been. It seems like
every day we’re getting messaged on some platform by some stranger asking for
us to give them money to get us more exposure or whatever. There’s an
entire cottage industry that feeds off of broke independent musicians.
I’ve actually noticed a change since Thirsty Curses started in 2017. It seems like more and more, you can’t do
anything without shelling out some dough.
Hell, I had to pay you $8 for this interview. The cost vs.
revenue generated can really be a major obstacle to keep things running.
As I
mentioned earlier, we’ve historically recorded everything ourselves. Same
goes with our music videos. We’ve had a very DIY approach throughout our
existence. This last round we stepped outside of that and, even with all
the cutting corners we did to save money (for example, we recorded vocals and
remaining overdubs at home), we’re still heavily in the red. And
it’s just very hard to break even with making an album, much less ever make any
money off it.
But you can
buy our album either on vinyl or digital download via our
website or Bandcamp if you want to help keep us afloat!!!!
7. Songs
like "Bombs Away" bring a punk edge, while tracks like "This
Time" lean toward balladry. Was it important to showcase such a wide
emotional range on this album?
I suppose
so. I’ve never thought to limit myself in subject matter or subgenre when
it comes to songwriting. Art reflects the human experience and human
beings are incredibly complicated. And because songwriting is a
therapeutic for me, part of my writing approach involves dealing with life as
it comes. It’s kind of like existential wack-a-mole…the musical.
Sometimes that produces different vignettes of emotion and sound.
Sometimes it’s a pissed off punk tune, sometimes a heart-wrenching
ballad. We’ve also got some joke songs out there like “Punk Rock Ruined
My Life” and “Today’s Kids (Are Not Rockers”).
But I think that genuineness in our songs is part of what glues our sound together across different genres.
8. Thirsty Curses has been steadily releasing albums, singles, and music
videos while consistently touring. What keeps the band so prolific and driven?
It comes in
bursts and waves, with the occasional storms in between….It has definitely not
been all smooth sailing.
I felt a fire burning in me to realize some creative goals when I moved to
Raleigh circa 2015-16. I’d moved around a lot prior to that and had a
backlog of songs I hadn’t been able to adequately flesh out. And there
were also some songwriting bursts along the way. We had an album a year
pace from 2017-2019 and had some pretty good momentum going when Covid
hit. That derailed things for a bit, but we got things up and running
again by early 2021, which was a very productive year. Then we had
some more turnover in early 2022 following the release of our last album, To
The Ends of the Earth, when our drummer Evan moved to Asheville. We
were rolling again steady again for 2023-24 and hopefully we'll be playing some
more live come spring and summer this year.
But I
probably pushed too hard at times to be honest. We’ve had a lot of
turnover through the years, particularly in the drummer department (over the
course of five albums, we’ve had four drummers). Bass player Clayton
Herring and I have been the two mainstays of the operation. Original lead
guitarist Kelley Otwell has also been a consistent contributor. He left the band during Covid but has
contributed to a few songs the last couple of years (“Bombs Away”, “Tattoo
Graveyard”, “I Never Learn”).
But yeah
when that turnover happens it can be a frustrating and draining experience to
put it back together.
But in
short, we just try to push ahead best we can, while we can. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.
9.
You’ve been compared to artists like The Replacements, Against Me!, and Modest
Mouse. How do you feel about those comparisons, and do you have any personal
favorites among them?
The
Replacements is the comp I like the most. Jeff Yerger wrote something about Thirsty
Curses that we’re like The Replacements if they had more piano. I think
the overall aesthetic of The Replacements is fairly close to what we do.
Our specific sounds are different but I think the attitudes reflected in both
bands’ music are similar. Deer Tick is another one that I think is a good
comp….Jeff Rosenstock/Bomb the Music Industry as well.
I
definitely went through big Against Me! and Modest Mouse phases back in the
day, so those make sense too.
10.
What’s been the most rewarding or surprising fan reaction to your music so far?
Just really every time someone reaches out to tell us that they got something from our music. Stuff like that is just the best. Personally, those interactions give me the fuel to keep going with this stuff.
Being in an independent rock band is far from all wine and roses, but those small interactions with fans are what make it worth doing. Sometimes it feels like we're screaming into the abyss….I'm not sure fans realize how much those interactions mean to us. But it's everything.
11. With
Music is a Scam set to release on February 27, 2025, do you have any plans for
a tour or special shows to support the album?
We’re doing
a DIY house show release in Raleigh on March 8th. If anybody
reading this wants to come, drop us a message. It’s not private, but it’s
not necessarily public.
We’re also
doing a public release at Neptune’s in Raleigh on April 5th.
We’ve discussed booking a tour in late 2025. It’s still possible. We’ll see.
12. For people who are just discovering Thirsty Curses, what’s the one song
from your discography that best represents what the band is all about?
As I
mentioned earlier, “Reading & Writing” is a pretty good representation of
Thirsty Curses. The other singles from Music is a Scam, taken together,
are a good representation of our range too, “Bombs Away”, “Foot in the Door”,
“Breakfast Schmeckfast”…And on February 6th we’re releasing another
called “All That’s Left of Us Now”.
We also put
out a single last year called “I Never Learn” which is pretty representative of
another strain of our sound, the more guitar-based singer songwriter
thing. "Slice of Paradise" too. Another good one is
“Dimlit Cathedral”, which I co-wrote with our old guitarist Kelley Otwell and
is off of our album All Shook Up. It’s upbeat, catchy, serious, and
sarcastic….pretty intense, but also pretty fun
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