By: Brady Lavin
Casey Crescenzo, the mastermind behind The Dear Hunter, is a maverick of musical styles. He used to be in post-hardcore band The Receiving End Of Sirens, and The Dear Hunter’s first few albums were indie rock with tinges of Circa Survive, but his newest musical project, The Dear Hunter’s The Color Spectrum, is all over the place on purpose.
The Color Spectrum is actually a collection of songs from nine EPs, each representing a color from, well, the color spectrum. Released on June 14th, the complete set is well over two hours long, with each EP having its own distinct flavor relating to its color.
Casey generously gave Guitar International a half hour of his time, taking a break from tour preparations and wedding preparations (!) to chat about the new release, his composition methods, and how he can never find the perfect guitar.
Casey Crescenzo
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Brady Lavin: Hi Casey, how are you doing today?
Casey Crescenzo: Great, great. Sorry I didn’t answer the first time you called, I was picking up my wedding cake.
Brady: Oh wow, when is that happening?
Casey Crescenzo: Tomorrow actually, so this will be my last pre-marital interview.
Brady: [Laughs] Alright, well I’ll jump right in so you can get back to your preparations. You use a wide variety of instrumentation on most of The Dear Hunter stuff, including a twangy slide guitar on “Canopy” and plenty of electronic sounds on a couple different tracks from The Color Spectrum. I was wondering if those ideas come from what you think will serve the song, or do you come up with cool sounds and fit them into existing song ideas?
Casey Crescenzo: No, I think for the most part, it’s definitely what will fit the song the best, and “Canopy” is a good example. The Green EP started with bare bones, with just acoustic guitar and vocals, and from there, once the song presents itself, it was understanding what to accent and improve the recording of the song.
For that specific EP, the things that came out were pedal steel guitar, fairly simple but traditional-style drumming, a rounder bass sound, just less offensive tonalities. For me, for the Green EP that kind of fit, and for something like Indigo or Black, it was more of a sound design approach to actually writing. The tonality was in mind first, and the songs naturally coming out of the more sound design approach as opposed to actually writing music, which is why those are the more heavily electronic, or I guess the only electronic Eps, in the spectrum.
Brady: How do you play these songs live? It seems like it would be difficult to coordinate all the different layers with only your usual 5-piece. I know some bands will either play with a backing track or just not play some parts…
Casey Crescenzo: I’m definitely more paralleled with the mentality of not playing things as opposed to having an iPod play them, and for the most part that does leave something to be desired to some degree if you’re expecting to hear a string quartet.
On the last tour we started playing with six musicians, including myself. I think there’s a general reassessment of the music when approaching it from a live perspective. Not only can we not accomplish exactly what’s done in the studio live, but we shouldn’t be treating it that way. We should be looking at it as an opportunity to present the music in a different light.
Almost everyone who plays in the band on tour are almost all multi-instrumentalists, and they can switch depending on what is needed of them. What might be played on a synth or on a violin on the record might be played on a guitar or bass. But there are a lot of songs, after they’ve been recorded, I understand the chances of playing them live are pretty slim unless I wanted to use a backing track, and maybe its just idealism but I don’t feel very comfortable playing it that way anymore. I tried it on a few tours a few years ago and with my last band, and it just kind of feels weird. There’s a robot band member just sitting in the back playing perfect but unable to improvise.
Brady: I know The Dear Hunter began as an entirely solo project, with you recording everything yourself and self-releasing the Dear Ms. Leading demos. Since then, you’ve assembled a band of really talented musicians that back you live, but have they had any input on writing and recording?
Casey Crescenzo: I’ve been very lucky to always be playing with really talented musicians. The lineup has changed almost with the seasons since the band began, and I definitely look for input and people to bounce ideas off of an outside perspective from the people around me when I’m creating, but for the most part, for better or worse I have a very distinct vision when I’m trying to create something.
The people around me usually help me realize that vision, whether that’s by letting me do my thing and make an entire record or being in the studio to assist me in making the record. But as far as the question of how much writing do outside people do, I would say little to none.
Casey Crescenzo
Brady: How did that work with Manchester Orchestra helping you out for the Red EP?
Casey Crescenzo: Oh, it was awesome. I love collaborating, and I think it’s just that in the past with this band, with the three Act records that have been completed, it’s a plot and a narrative that I’ve had in my head for a while. I like the music to fit the story as well, so with those records specifically I have to be more stubborn. With this collection I’ve def had more freedom to seek outside opinion.
Working with Andy Hull and Manchester Orchestra was very collaborative and incredibly easy, because I explained what I was going for, and their interpretation was right on par with what mine was. I was able to bring these skeletons of songs to the table, and my brother and I flew out to Atlanta and we all put our thumbprint on the song, and even that is incredibly liberating, too. In the past I haven’t really been surrounded by anyone other than my brother, who shares the same vision that I do. For the Red EP that’s a good example of being in the company of people who have the same vision, so I can free myself up a little bit more to not necessarily steer the ship by myself.
Brady: I really like your lyrics. They seem deeper and metaphorical, but not pretentious or anything.
Casey Crescenzo: Thank you very much [Laughs]
Brady: What are some of the literary influences on your lyrics?
Casey Crescenzo: You know, I feel like I’ve been more influenced by conversation with people, and maybe that’s why the lyrics are fairly easy to understand, because I’m not really that smart of a person. I’m not that well-read, but I feel that I’m fairly in touch with myself and able to express myself, and I’m more inspired with conversations with people and by hearing other people speak, speaking with other people, taking those ideas or emotions and conveying them through lyrics or music. I think that it’s just attempting to be as honest and transparent as I can be because I know a lot of lyricists get off on the idea of stumping their audience. While that does excite me for some music like the [psychedelic rock/pop] band Cardiacs, I think it’s Tim Smith, his lyrics are impossible to understand, but it’s really fitting.
Brady: Same thing with the Mars Volta.
Casey Crescenzo: Right, right. Its fitting. If it were transparent, it would almost make the music worse. But I think that then there are some lyricists who kind of sit there with a thesaurus or their favorite book by their favorite author and just pull things that they think will sound smart. So I just try as hard as I can be to be honest, but I’m not very well read. My favorite authors are Douglas Adams and Chuck Palaniuk. Definitely Douglas Adams.
Brady: How did you combine the cornucopia of styles from the Color EPs into one cohesive album? I know you had to cut out a lot of material for Act II; it must be hard to leave music that you love on the cutting room floor…
Casey Crescenzo: It definitely is. Iironically with this project, while some people would say that 4 per EP or a 36 song collection is obviously overkill, I think that there was a lot of music that I wrote for this and that I felt confident in, but at some point I had to just cut out. That was a big thing in Act II for sure; there was a good extra hour of music at least that was cut. And I don’t want to necessarily say it’s trimming the fat, but I think it really kind of is. It’s trying to present the ideas in the most cohesive way possible and reexamining what’s been made after its been made and trying to think of how to trim the fat out. And that is funny when you think about 36 songs being presented, but there was a lot of fat that was trimmed out of not only the collection but the songs themselves.
It gets tough for sure. With things that you make, you love them, but you have to be aware to some degree of the goal that you have in mind and not necessarily get too, I don’t know what the word is exactly… I guess masturbatory. Keep whatever goal you have in mind instead of just going off on too many tangents that serve no other purpose other than just for the sake of going off on tangents.
Brady: Would there be any chance to see any of the material that was cut out in the future?
Casey Crescenzo: I think at some point for sure, I think when I feel like I’ve released enough music that I’m really proud of or like the core of music that I’ve released. When it gets to that point I can go back and revisit some of the B-sides, finish them and get them mixed and mastered. I definitely would love to do some sort of B-sides collection at some point.
Brady: How is it to be in a band that can play such a variety of types of music and still be accepted by your fans? It seems like it would feel pretty liberating.
Casey Crescenzo: Its incredibly liberating. I am insanely grateful that I didn’t naturally end up in an outfit of musicians that felt that they had to cater to a genre. It has always been my understanding of music that there’s no necessary boundary put in place, and the only real boundaries that get put in place by musicians and artists are self-imposed for the most part.
I’m incredibly liberated, and I’ve never really known any other way, ’cause growing up, my parents are both musicians and songwriters and creative people, and they never did it the other way. I’m insanely lucky that I grew up the way that I did, and I was given the opportunity to express myself in any way I felt.
Brady: What is it about concepts that inspire you so much musically?
Casey Crescenzo: I think it is the idea of approaching a body of work before you’re in the middle of it and just being better in touch with your own inspiration. It might be somewhat of a crutch because I feel like it made it a lot easier for me to write, but I think that approaching any body of work or any project with an understanding, at least at first, of where you will draw your inspiration from has given me more clarity in creating.
On the other side at this point, I feel like I’ve done that so much now that the best thing I can do next is write a body of work with no preconceived concept of any kind. That would be the best concept next, no concept at all.
Brady: I know you probably get asked this quite a bit, but what’s the status of Act IV?
Casey Crescenzo: I’ve been thinking a lot, especially because there’s been a lot of questions about it lately, about how I should about completing it. I think at this point what feels most natural is to just write and record it on my own in, not necessarily in my spare time because I don’t really have any spare time, but to consciously set aside time and write and record the entire other three acts, not in any rush, but to just do that and release it on my own however I see fit.
I want to make it understood that this release won’t be treated like a label release. I’m not gonna tour off of each one for 18 months. We’ll either put out IV, V and VI at once or over the course of 2 years, and either just put them out online and make them available myself or press them up myself, but I feel like that is the most natural when I think about how to do it.
I also think about if I’m gonna treat each one the same as I’ve treated Acts I, II, and III as far as promoting it, that’s another six to eight years of my life, and I would much rather create the music and make it available and do something a little bit different than tour off of each one. Like do some other medium or either a book or short story or something like that and make that available over the next few years rather than do it traditionally. I do feel like the next thing that I would like to actually release on a lable or tour off of after this is a fairly concise record that is not like anything else I’ve done and not just jump back into Act IV and re-brand the band as a concept band.
Casey Crescenzo
Brady: Would it still be under the name the Dear Hunter?
Casey Crescenzo: I think so. It’s weird, I think at this point I’ve done so many different styles of music under the name the Dear Hunter that doing anything under the name Casey Crescenzo would seem like it was for vanity. I feel like any style of music is excused under that name at this point, which I’m grateful for, but I think it would be under the Dear Hunter.
Brady: With an album that has a concept of not having a concept, how would make it a journey like Acts I, II and III have been, ’cause when you listen to those albums it’s not just like “Oh, it’s a good rock album.” It’s a story, and it takes you from one place to another.
Casey Crescenzo: I guess maybe a better way to say it would be that the concept wouldn’t be fictional. It would be a more directly personal album. I would give it just as much care, if not more, ’cause I want to always feel like I’m maturing and evolving as a songwriter and producer but I feel like I would try and make the journey.
Sonically the journey would still be there, the idea of pulling someone in with a record as a complete work. I think that it would just be that lyrically it wouldn’t necessarily require the same exact amount of … you wouldn’t be searching for a narrative within the record itself. It would be much more transparently about me and my direct feelings and emotions, and even though those have been represented in the past records, they are somewhat shrouded in the story itself. I don’t think I would ever be happy with a record that I made that didn’t attempt to pull the listener in and give them some sort of escape from the regular day and pull you in, a record that you feel like you have to listen to from start to finish.
The last thing that I want to seem like I’m saying is that I want to go make a ten song record with three-and-a-half minute songs. I think it’s just wanting to continue making music that’s not necessarily tethered to that specific story, while simultaneously finishing that story. I guess the next step in my personal evolution as a songwriter would be to make a record that doesn’t necessarily take you understanding the last three records that I’ve made to know what’s going on, if that makes sense.
Brady: Since you have that mentality of having an album that takes you someplace, does that come from being a fan of bands that have done that over the years, like Yes or Mars Volta or Coheed and Cambria, or does that just come from you?
Casey Crescenzo: I think it really comes from the first time I put on Are You Exderienced? By Jimi Hendrix. My dad came home with two records when I was nine, like a year after I started really getting into guitar, and I didn’t know what either of them were. He showed me a Joe Satriani record and the Hendrix and said “Based on the cover, I want you to pick one, and I want you to listen to it.”
I took the Jimi Hendrix one because the cover was so much more colorful, that was all I had to go off of, and as soon as I put it on, it really clicked to me that an album could be an album. Even if I couldn’t articulate that point at the time, that feeling stuck with me until I started creating and writing and realized what it was I was attempting to do. Listening to that record again, and all of his music and late Beatles music and Beach Boys music, I think that’s what attracts me in a more conceptual direction even though maybe what I make is more in the vein of Yes or King Crimson, but I think what really inspired me to make albums albums was growing up on Jimi Hendrix, Weather Report and Return to Forever and music like that. It really changed and shaped the way I looked at an album and the way I looked at a song. I’m not as talented as the musicians in Weather Report, and that’s why there arent’ any five-minute virtuoso bass solos or anything like that.
Brady: [Laughs] It’s hard to compete with Return to Forever and Weather Report on musicianship, holy crap.
Casey Crescenzo: Yeah, yeah. Joe Zawinul on keys and obviously Jaco Pistorius on bass. But hearing that sort of musicianship, it still just moved me just as much, if not more than the lyrics did, and knowing that that was a property of musicianship but also of songwriting. Just wanting to achieve that sort of sound for people, something that pulled them in and kept them there until the record was over. I definitely loved groups like Yes and King Crimson, but what really moved me were Hendrix and those other bands, and they still do now.
Brady: Since we’re a guitar magazine, our readers like to know what kind of gear artists use. What guitars, amps and effects do you use to get the wide variety of sounds and textures on your albums?
Casey Crescenzo: Well, lets see. Live I’ve been using a Vox AC15 head, the hand-wired head, and Fender 1×12 cab.
I’ve never been able to find a guitar that I’m totally happy with, so I use whatever I find here and there. I’ve gone through Fenders and Gibsons and Epiphones and even the First Act custom shop guitars, and I have yet ot find a guitar that feels right and I know what would feel right, and every time I hold a guitar before I play it, I’m hoping that’s what’s going to happen, like “This one feels right.”
In recording, I tried to use as much as I could. When I was making the orange record, I definitely went out right away and bought a Vox wah, the 535Q, I think. I’m not sure, but it’s the one that has the knob on the side. [Ed. note: the 535Q is a Dunlop wah] I bought one of those, I bought a ’70s Olympic White maple fretboard Stratocaster and a used Soldano and a Marshall JCM900. Back at the studio at my house, doing the more shoegazey kind of music, I was using a Fender Twin and the Vox’s and stuff like that.
I kinda just tried to use everything that I could possibly use ’cause I really love the natural textures and the girth a recording can achieve by just taking advantage of the natural differences and idiosyncrasies of any amp or any gear and combining them. I’ve just never found a guitar or an amp that is just the one for me to use, and that’s probably ’cause I don’t have any money too [Laughs]. I’m sure if I looked beyond the $800 range, I would be like, “Oh, this is a really nice guitar,” but I’m still at the Guitar Center bottom shelf level. Someday I’m sure I’ll find something.
Brady: Yeah, find some luthier that you really like and collaborate to make exactly what you want.
Casey Crescenzo: Yeah, actually there’s this company out of Boston, the guitarist who used to be in this band Therefore I Am has this company called Venture Guitars, and I was working with them for a little while on creating a custom guitar that was basically a hybrid of a Jaguar and an ES335. I was really excited about it, but things just got too busy. I was unable to make it, but I made up a cool concept drawing and it was gonna be pretty sweet. I think that at some point, if I can I’ll get somebody to make it up and then I will have found my guitar.
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