While combining the elements of classical music to the loud sound of an indie rock band might seem odd to you and me, for Cursive it was just another step in their constant expansion process. With an eight-year history of falls that would have most likely wiped out any other band, Cursive offers their fourth full-length release The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek) as evidence that they are on top of their game. Formed in Omaha in 1995 by frontman/guitarist Tim Kasher, bassist Matt Maginn, guitarist Steve Pedersen, and drummer Clint Schnase, Cursive released a couple of seven-inchers and two full-lengths before calling it quits in '98 when Pedersen left the band for law school. Kasher - whom Bright Eyes' Connor Oberst credits as the reason he picked up an instrument and started writing songs - then decided to move to Portland, but moved back to Omaha just a year later. The band reformed, adding former Lullaby for the Working Class frontman Ted Stevens to the mix. The decision to regroup resulted in Cursive's most well received album to date, 2000's Domestica. Considered a concept album, Domestica not only showcased Kasher's amazing songwriting ability, it also gave Schnase and Maginn the respect they deserved as being one of the most solid rhythm sections in indie rock. The Ugly Organ follows where the 2001 EP Burst and Bloom left off, when cellist Gretta Cohn joined the band. Lyrically, the songs vary more than on Domestica, telling tales of the stresses of band life, the hardships of relationships, and surviving the pitfalls of life. Recoil talked to Kasher, often referred to as the Grandfather of Omaha Music, a few hours before the band's show in Pensacola, Fla.

Recoil: The title of the new album is The Ugly Organ. Is the title a reference to the collapsed lung you suffered last year while on tour with Eastern Youth?
Tim Kasher: It's really just a funny little coincidence. We had the title months before it happened. The title is more of a larger symbol of whatever organ it is that you're working from with like the songwriting process or any process that you're trying to work through and deal with.

R: The songs for the new album don't seem to follow a theme like Domestica did. How did you go about writing the songs?
TK: Ted and I intentionally planned on not having it be so thematically driven as Domestica. We thought that Domestica is Domestica, and we wanted to do a different album, so what came out were songs that shared a common theme for the most part, but also branched out a lot more than the songs did on Domestica.

R: Does the lifestyle of being in a band tire you out sometimes? It seems that songs on the album like "Art Is Hard" and "Herald! Frankenstein" kind of talk about the pressures of being in a band.
TK: I suppose it might be easy for some people to find some cozy niche with what they do. But I find it kind of difficult to waver on something so long. I guess it's always just half the battle of self-analyzing what it is you're doing, and considering the steps you took. I guess that's what's so tiring about it. Otherwise, we all feel pretty lucky for what we are doing.

R: Do you guys ever find it difficult at times to incorporate the cello in your songs since adding Cohn to the band?
TK: Not at all. When we starting going into the songs for Domestica, we realized that a lot of the melodies are driven off vocals only. We never do a lot of guitar lead-ins. We do a lot of guitar textual work with the rhythm section. So it really seemed like there was a lot of room for a melodic instrument to work itself into the rhythm.

R: It's been almost ten years since your first release on Saddle Creek with your earlier band Slowdown Virginia. Do you still get the same kind of feelings you had when releasing new material or has the business aspect mellowed things out?
TK: There's still an anticipation for waiting for it to get into people's hands. I think that's kind of exciting. Mostly what I'm anxious about is getting in practice and writing the songs. Having an idea and hearing it finished is always real great. It's still fun to be able to put an album together. But recording used to be so much more exciting. It used to be that you'd record something and leave the studio and throw it into your car stereo immediately and listen to it and be like you just couldn't believe you did it. I still enjoy the process, but that excitement of hearing the finished product is not as strong as it used to be.

R: When I talked to Ted Stevens, he mentioned how you guys listened to some of that Slowdown Virginia album and how some of the tricks are similar to what you are doing today.
TK: Yeah, Ted often says that, and I hear that too. I guess it's becoming comfortable with where you're at now and then going back to the good ideas that we dropped a long time ago and reworking them.

R: You once said that how well you get along with your band members is more important than how well they play.
TK: It's just really nice to surround yourself with tolerable people because it keeps it more squared and balanced. I guess when you're running a business you can do that to an extent. I'm kind of in that camp too, because any musician or songwriter can choose who they want to play with.

R: You have said that the style of Cursive's music is something that you really didn't grow up listening to. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
TK: I listened to a lot of British pop like The Cure, English Beat and The Jam. And then, like every young American, REM and U2. It was all pretty tame. So it still kind of surprises me that we are so aggressive. But as I got older, I started appreciating a lot more, making friends with people who grew up with hardcore. I guess you learn to appreciate all of it.

R: Do you have a preference for which band, Cursive or The Good Life, that you like to play with?
TK: I really like them both in different ways. With Cursive, it's such an strong expression. It's a very vibrant experience to play through a set like that. It takes a lot out of you, but in a good way. And The Good Life is real nice because it's calmer and it feels better, and it kind of feels like a good time more. It's more casual, and there's something really pleasant about that.

R: How much influence did bands in the Omaha music scene like Simon Joyner and Mercy Rule have on your music?
TK: I appreciate you asking actually, because it's really important to all of us. A band like Mercy Rule really opened my eyes to being on stage, just really helping us out. All those bands really showed us that you can take yourself seriously, that you can write your songs, and that you can stand behind them and believe in yourselves. Simon Joyner and Alex McManus showed us how a good song could be written, how good your lyrics should be. They really helped raise the bar for everybody.

R: So you think these bands are a big influence on Saddle Creek's development?
TK: I think that we thought of ourselves as an extension of the local Omaha scene. We were young and we watched Simon Joyner play, Mercy Rule, Mousetrap, Frontier Trust, Slide Show…Caulfield Records. All that stuff shaped us in everything we strove to do and everything we never really imagined we could do. We will always look up to those bands.

R: Ted Stevens said you guys were talking about taking bands from the Omaha area on tour from time to time. Are you still thinking about doing that?
TK: Yeah, we like to do it with Omaha area bands, but we're interested in just about any band. We like to hear bands from different areas. It's kind of nice that we can give bands those opportunities. We have Neva Dinova on tour with us right now. They're actually on Crank!, but it's the first chance that they've had to go on tour. We're going to have Race for Titles with us when we check out the West Coast, and that's going to be their first tour. They're some friends of ours that just released an album on Redemption Records. Past that, we have some other bands in mind.

R: Can you describe the feeling playing in the CMJ Showcase earlier this year? I heard that there was a special vibe with all of the Saddle Creek bands being there.
TK: It's always really special for all of us to do shows like that. Prior to that, the biggest show we had played was The Faint's Danse Macabre release party in Omaha with Bright Eyes. It was really well attended and was really exciting for everyone. It kind of felt like something important was happening. The CMJ show had that feeling of it being real nice to be doing something at this level and doing it together (with the same people) for all these years.

R: You've said many times that Cursive and The Good Life are of equal priority to you. But as Cursive seems to get more and more popular, do you find it harder to dedicate time to The Good life? Have you ever considered just dedicating your time to one or the other?
TK: I still don't feel like I have to yet. It's a learning process, not with just me being in two bands, but with Saddle Creek being a label. So much is growing. We're trying to figure out, as every obstacle shows itself, we're just learning how to get around them. So as far as I'm concerned right now, I plan on doing all this promotion for Cursive, and then getting back to writing and recording with The Good Life and releasing the next record around early 2004. So, I don't have any concern.

March 2003