Causecast

Southern California based band Thrice has been around since 1998, along the way gaining a large, dedicated fan base for their punkish-hardcore rock sound. Over the years, Thrice’s sound has continued to evolve to a level of complete universality, while managing to stay true to their roots. Thrice has been involved with various nonprofits throughout the years and has helped bring many causes into the forefront of their fans’ attention.

Causecast’s Brandon Deroche caught up with Thrice this summer at Warped Tour to discuss the causes they care about and the state of the music industry.

Causecast: You guys are particularly active. Would you say that music can be used as a vehicle to create social change?

Dustin: I definitely think that music can be used to change people. I think any change is going to start kind of from inside an individual, you know? Whether that’s being propelled by outside forces or what not, I think it starts with each person. For me, music’s very powerful and effective in my life. I think it transcends something you might read or something you might hear about, it affects you in a different way. It kind of has a quicker connection with you or a deeper connection at certain times.

CC: Have there been any bands that have embodied that for you? Present or past?

Dustin: I don’t know that it’s always so direct. I think a lot of times it’s influencing people in more subtle or more foundational ways. And that’s paving the way for other social changes. Kind of getting the ground ready for someone else to plant a seed. For me, a lot of like punk rock bands growing up, like Screeching Weasel or whatever, really kind of instilled in me this challenge to authority, not in it and of itself, but just like to make things justify themselves and to want to know the reasons behind things. So, I think that lead into a lot of other things that I ended up believing or not believing or wanting to get involved in or not.

CC: What causes you are particularly passionate about?

Dustin: Through the years we’ve worked with different charities for each record we’ve done. The last people we worked with recently was Blood Water Mission, which does stuff in Africa. Really simple, just trying to get people clean water and AIDS relief. And those things are kind of hand in hand solutions because the parasites in the water is really bad for people with weakened immune systems. We work with Invisible Children whenever we can, To Write Love on Her Arms…826Valencia, really cool organization that Dave Eggers started. Shirts for a Cure…

CC: The music industry seems to be a cause itself today, what do you find to be the biggest struggle to survive and progress as a band in 2009?

Dustin: I think generally it’s hard that people don’t buy music anymore as much. Aside from the economy tanking, it’s like the music industry has been tanking much longer before that. So, it gets harder to make a living by playing music. I think that hurts everybody, you know, as bands are unable to support themselves, they’re going to stop making music, then people can’t get anymore music. There’s always ways to do it, but it definitely makes it harder.

Eddie: I think that there’s a lot of bands that are trying to be giant rather than trying to use music as a form of expression or a way to speak to people. I think maybe that’s because they want to make a lot of money, but I don’t think music is really the means that you should do that by. If you are, maybe I guess that’s a whole different challenge. It’s hard for kids, I think, growing up with a lot of what they see, to decide which route they want to take. I definitely think, from my perspective, the most fulfilling one is going for the art. We’ve been a band for almost eleven years now and I don’t think that would be possible if we were trying to make people happy other than ourselves…or not challenging ourselves. I really think that people should take that route if they’re making music as an art form. So…do it.

Thrice’s latest album “Beggars” was released in August. For more information on the band, please visit thrice.net.

Read more Causecast musician interviews at www.causecast.org/music.