Cursive’s Tim Kasher says that putting his side project, the softer rocking Good Life, “on hold” had a marked impact on his main band’s new album, “Mama, I’m Swollen.”
“Being a songwriter for both bands, I felt the freedom to not have to feel so confined to limitations of, ‘Which songs are Cursive? Which songs are Good Life?’ ” Kasher tells Billboard.com. “It was kind of freeing not to have those restrictions. We certainly recognize that combining (the two bands’) sounds, it still felt like a Cursive record.”
Kasher says that losing drummer Clint Schnase in 2007 also had an affect on “Mama…,” Cursive’s fourth studio set and first since 2006’s “Happy Hollow.”
“I feel like that changed it quite a bit,” Kasher notes. “We worked with Cornbread Compton; he had a lot of input, and as a result I think the songs have more groove to them, we didn’t chop them up quite as much. That wasn’t easy for me to do; we have a tendency to chop everything up, musically. But that was kind of refreshing, too. We’re trying to put out different records, so I ended up appreciating the feeling for a song like ‘Mama, I’m Swollen,’ letting that song breath and open up a little bit more than we might have otherwise.”
Kasher says he anticipates a long touring cycle for “Mama…,” with “little breaks” as the group plays in North America and Europe. He’d also like to turn around another Cursive record in short order.
“We’re kind of talking about that now since we’re all together for this year,” Kasher says. “We’d like to try to use our time wisely. I’ve been writing another batch of songs; I have yet to determine what I’m doing to do with them. I’m kind of being indecisive, I guess, but I think we’ll get something out sooner than we did this time.”
And it may well have a title that a certain Cursive fan in Kasher’s life likes better than this one.
“My mom really hates this title,” Kasher says of “Mama…” “It never really crossed my mind that it would be something she’d take offense to. (Mama) is just so universal; it means so much more than your own mom, especially in rock ‘n’ roll. She ended up liking the record, so I think that helps a little.”