PropertyOfZack had the chance to do a brief interview with Dustin Kensrue of Thrice when the Where’s The Band Tour came into town on its last day. Dustin and I discussed Beggars, when the band hopes to hit the studio, and more. Read up on it below!

I guess it always seems to end as soon as it starts, but tonight is the last night of the Where’s The Band tour. You guys played west coast dates earlier this year, but how has this east coast run been?
It’s been really good, man. It’s been real fun. It’s our third time doing it, so we all know each other pretty well and it’s a good mix of personalities and opinions.
POZ: Is it nice just to mix it up and play solo songs every once in a while?
Dustin: Yeah, it’s definitely a totally different animal. It’s fun.
 
It’s been a very tough and tragic year for Thrice in regards to family matters, to say the least. With the year closing now, how is the band’s mindset?
It’s still going pretty rough, but as far as the record, we’re writing and it’s progressing pretty well and we’re looking to record in the spring.
 
The record was released over a year now, and regardless of the early leak it has been received exceptionally well. Are you satisfied with how everything has gone in terms of it being received among your audience?
The leak definitely screwed things up pretty bad, but as far as the record’s concerned, we’re really proud of the record. That’s all we can really have very much control over, how it ends up being. Everything else gets lost in the mix.
 
Beggars is very much an album made for the live setting. Have fans reacted especially well to it during the sets?
Yeah, people were digging it. More for us, it’s suited for the live show. It translates really easily and fluidly.
 
The band has been working on its 2011 release for the past few months now. How has the writing process been so far?
It is at a point of rough structures for about nine or ten songs right now. They need to be developed further and have lyrics written and stuff like that. It’s going pretty good so far.
 
So like you said, you’ll be hitting the studio in the spring?
Yeah, probably in late spring.
 
As bands should, Thrice is always progressing in terms of sound. Will this record feature a similar progression like Alchemy to Beggars or will it be a mixture of a lot of the prior?
Maybe for Ed it would be different [Laughs], but for me, straight progress really isn’t the goal. I just want to make good music and music that I’m excited to do at that time. I think it’s going to have maybe a smoother transition than we’ve had between records for a while. There’s not as much of a jarring contrast. That’s how it’s shaping up.
 
You certainly put a lot of effort into your lyrics to the point where emotionally, what you try to convey is easily felt. Will much of the lyrical content be inspired from the unfortunate events that took place this year for the band?
I could not tell you. I never really know what’s going to be there until we’re at the very end.
 
If you guys want to hit the studio by the spring, is a late 2011 release looking good?
Yeah, it’ll be out sometime next year. Probably in the fall. Hopefully early fall/late summer.
 
Could you guys play any dates before then?
We might be, but we don’t have anything set yet.
 
Was it nice to finally press Please Come Home, The Good Night on vinyl?
Yeah, it was really cool. We’re almost out of them. It was nice as a kind of collectors thing for people to have for people who dig the record. I like the bonus tracks.
 
Thrice is obviously your main focus, but are there plans to release any other solo material?
I’m kind of always working on it a little bit in the background, but I’m definitely more focused on being in the writing process for Thrice right now, so I have ceased to try to make any kind of predictions for a solo release. God willing, at some point, there will be another one.
 
In regards to the next Thrice record, will the band keep it closer to the chest?
There was nothing that we could have done differently. It was hacked into the server on the Vagrant site. Somebody very willfully and deliberately screwed over a lot of people. That was a bummer and we always are as safe as we can be, but there are so many points at which something can go wrong that you don’t really know.
 
Thank you so much for your time.