“I really try to pay attention to the song and let that inform what the lyrics are actually about, and that’s a huge part of the way I write now.” ‘Horizons/East’ “It isn’t about content necessarily, but it has dynamics and emotion and a flow,” says Kensrue. Over time, the songs end up having a story it has to tell.

Then we’ll jam on whatever we put together and take another step as we evolve it, so it’s usually a longer process.” “I think because we all write, it’s rare that one song just pops out from one of us since we’re usually blending multiple people’s ideas. Writing within the band, the collaborative effort leaves each song open to reinterpretation as the lyrics come in. “We gather material over time, and then as it reaches a critical mass, we start sharing all that with each other and starting to play out each other’s ideas, combining them, and building them up.” “There’s always bits and pieces that are kind of floating around that are older and get picked up,” Lead singer Dustin Kensrue tells American Songwriter.

Mostly written following the band’s 2018 release Palms, Horizons/East also took some new form as it unraveled around the trying year. Working through individual pieces remotely, the band kept studio time down to small bursts, jamming out ideas, then taking them home to flesh out. Reflecting on the relationship between nature and humanity and all the fragments in between, Thrice assembled their 11th album, Horizons/East (Epitaph) throughout the lockdown in 2020.

Thrice scavengers