0
A NOTE ON FORMATTING: I've compiled this information from many sources, and I've more or less fit everything in using the formatting initially set up by TeleuteDPu. The first section lists all dates, and isolates the spoilers from each date individually. If you see two separate spoiler blocks under the same date, it means the information came from two different sources who were both at the same show. This information is generally posted exactly as I received it.
The second section separates spoilers by topic. Each of the 6 Acts in order, followed by general Acts-related info, Non-Acts TDH info, and finally just some random tidbits. This section has been somewhat edited. Since there was a lot of repeat info from multiple Story Time sessions, I've cleaned it up as much as I could so you're not reading the same thing 10 times. The bulk of the info in these sections pertains to Acts IV and V, and I've attempted to order all the info under these sections to follow the track lists of the album.
Extra thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Enjoy!
-ZDT
SPOILERS ORGANIZED BY TOUR DATE
9/9/16 - Portland, Oregon - Doug Fir Lounge
9/10/16 - Seattle, Washington - Neumos
9/13/16 - Salt Lake City, Utah - The Complex
9/14/16 - Denver, Colorado - Summit Music Hall
Spoiler
The Moon / Awake is about the boy going to an opium den and having an out of body experience and being able to basically see himself and talk to himself.
Battesimo del Fuoco is about Act V.
His son's mother is definitely the fiancee of his half brother that he marries so he can run for office.
During Act V he and Ms. Leading are back together.
Battesimo del Fuoco is about Act V.
His son's mother is definitely the fiancee of his half brother that he marries so he can run for office.
During Act V he and Ms. Leading are back together.
9/16/16 - Minneapolis, Minnesota - Fine Line Music Hall
Spoiler
-Someone asked what "The Moon/Awake" was about (non conceptually). Casey replied that it was mostly sort of a message to his younger self. He feels that both physically and mentally, we become completely different people over time, so the person he used to be no longer exists. The song is a message to his older self, almost trying to make sure he is doing right by what that person would want.
-I asked him his thoughts on the reddit theory about how the story was cyclical, and keeps happening, with the new son becoming "The Boy" etc. He said this theory was VERY on the right track, but they took it in the wrong direction. The hints about the cyclical nature (Ouroboros) were there for a reason, but that particular theory took it the wrong way. He did not elaborate.
-He clarified how it all goes down in Act V: Mr Usher arrives to sort of bring in the end of the story (he says Usher represents himself, and how he is the one who brings about the end of these characters.) Mr Usher talks with the Boy in "The Haves Have Naught", trying to convince him the people aren't worth saving etc. This whole time, the Boy and Ms. Leading have been back together, but he is leading a double life with her in secret. The son in "Light" belongs to him and the Fiance. Then, in The Flame (Is Gone), Mr Usher is talking to The Pimp/Priest, trying to convince him to kill Ms. Leading but make it look like an accident, so that the Boy will be broken and empty, making him an easy person to manipulate. Mr Usher knows this won’t work but simply wants to bring an end to it all. ("And you won't return"). The boy finds Ms Leading dead in the church, so he burns it down with her inside like a funeral pyre. The pimp/priest calls the townsfolk to find the boy. Somehow the Boy gets to TPP and kills him (Casey did not elaborate on the specifics of how.) The boy then kills himself.
-People asked about Act VI. Casey did not want to say in case he wasn't able to do it, but said he would only tell people once it was done for sure.
-He is working on an album already, and said that he feels like he can't really take a break from making music, because he feels like he can't call himself an artist unless he is constantly creating art. He mentioned he would love to do an acoustic record someday, as well as an album in the same style as Indigo. He even joked about doing a pop album.
-I asked him his thoughts on the reddit theory about how the story was cyclical, and keeps happening, with the new son becoming "The Boy" etc. He said this theory was VERY on the right track, but they took it in the wrong direction. The hints about the cyclical nature (Ouroboros) were there for a reason, but that particular theory took it the wrong way. He did not elaborate.
-He clarified how it all goes down in Act V: Mr Usher arrives to sort of bring in the end of the story (he says Usher represents himself, and how he is the one who brings about the end of these characters.) Mr Usher talks with the Boy in "The Haves Have Naught", trying to convince him the people aren't worth saving etc. This whole time, the Boy and Ms. Leading have been back together, but he is leading a double life with her in secret. The son in "Light" belongs to him and the Fiance. Then, in The Flame (Is Gone), Mr Usher is talking to The Pimp/Priest, trying to convince him to kill Ms. Leading but make it look like an accident, so that the Boy will be broken and empty, making him an easy person to manipulate. Mr Usher knows this won’t work but simply wants to bring an end to it all. ("And you won't return"). The boy finds Ms Leading dead in the church, so he burns it down with her inside like a funeral pyre. The pimp/priest calls the townsfolk to find the boy. Somehow the Boy gets to TPP and kills him (Casey did not elaborate on the specifics of how.) The boy then kills himself.
-People asked about Act VI. Casey did not want to say in case he wasn't able to do it, but said he would only tell people once it was done for sure.
-He is working on an album already, and said that he feels like he can't really take a break from making music, because he feels like he can't call himself an artist unless he is constantly creating art. He mentioned he would love to do an acoustic record someday, as well as an album in the same style as Indigo. He even joked about doing a pop album.
Spoiler
-The Moon/Awake is set in an opium den. He talks to a hallucination of his younger self in Awake.
-Hunter marries The Fiancee to maintain his appearance, but he is in love with Ms. Leading and they are together in the beginning of Act V, possibly IV too.
-Act II is set in the mid 1910s, and Hunter is in his late teens. Act III he's in his 20s, and he's 30-35 in Act V. The story takes place in a sort of "alternate history", which is basically Casey's way of justifying any actual historical errors.
-Mr. Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading in The Flame (Is Gone), which is Hunter's chief motivation in burning down the Church/Dime - basically what sets him over the edge.
-Melpomene is confirmed a love song to Ms. Leading from Hunter.
-He didn't talk much about Mr. Usher, but he did make an interesting comparison. Basically Hunter is Luke Skywalker, TP/P is Darth Vader, and Mr. Usher is Palpatine. TP/P is not Hunter's father and he doesn't find any redemption like Vader does, but he said it was accurate in how 'powerful' they are. Mr. Usher is not the devil or anything supernatural, just a powerful businessman looking to take over TP/P's operation.
-Hunter marries The Fiancee to maintain his appearance, but he is in love with Ms. Leading and they are together in the beginning of Act V, possibly IV too.
-Act II is set in the mid 1910s, and Hunter is in his late teens. Act III he's in his 20s, and he's 30-35 in Act V. The story takes place in a sort of "alternate history", which is basically Casey's way of justifying any actual historical errors.
-Mr. Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading in The Flame (Is Gone), which is Hunter's chief motivation in burning down the Church/Dime - basically what sets him over the edge.
-Melpomene is confirmed a love song to Ms. Leading from Hunter.
-He didn't talk much about Mr. Usher, but he did make an interesting comparison. Basically Hunter is Luke Skywalker, TP/P is Darth Vader, and Mr. Usher is Palpatine. TP/P is not Hunter's father and he doesn't find any redemption like Vader does, but he said it was accurate in how 'powerful' they are. Mr. Usher is not the devil or anything supernatural, just a powerful businessman looking to take over TP/P's operation.
9/20/16 - St. Louis, Missouri - The Ready Room
Spoiler
The Flame is Mr Usher convincing the priest to kill Ms Leading
Ms Leading is a bartender in A Night On the Town
Hunter burns the church/dime.
The dime is still closed during Act V and the church has not become a brothel, but they're close enough together that they both burn. EDIT: The Dime reopens during Act V.
There is still prostitution in Act V, but it isn’t confined to a particular building/place.
Both Hunter and TP/P are dead by the end of Act V
TPP's murder isn't explicit, but the fact that TPP's murder wasn't highlighted will come up in Act VI
Ms. Terri was not murdered
Ms Leading is a bartender in A Night On the Town
Hunter burns the church/dime.
There is still prostitution in Act V, but it isn’t confined to a particular building/place.
Both Hunter and TP/P are dead by the end of Act V
TPP's murder isn't explicit, but the fact that TPP's murder wasn't highlighted will come up in Act VI
Ms. Terri was not murdered
9/21/16 - Chicago, Illinois - Metro
9/23/16 - Ferndale, Michigan - The Loving Touch
9/24/16 - Cleveland, Ohio - Beachland Ballroom
Spoiler
Ms. Leading dies not in the Dime, but the Pimp and the Priest directly in cold blood murders her.
Mr. Usher conspires against TP/P AND Hunter
Act VI is possibly (probably) cinematic. Another chain of corruption. Mr. Usher will be TP/P in act VI. We won’t see Hunter's son corrupted - it's a redemption of the cycle.
Light is with fiancées son.
Mr. Usher conspires against TP/P AND Hunter
Act VI is possibly (probably) cinematic. Another chain of corruption. Mr. Usher will be TP/P in act VI. We won’t see Hunter's son corrupted - it's a redemption of the cycle.
Light is with fiancées son.
9/25/16 - Buffalo, New York - The Waiting Room
Spoiler
Wait is a duet between Hunter and Ms. Leading. They both realize they messed up but Hunter realizes what he has done to Ms. Leading is worse than than what Ms. Leading did to him, giving her redemption.
Hunter and the Fiancee are married in Act V (she is now The Wife), but he's also with Ms. Leading on the side. The Wife knows but looks the other way.
In The Flame, Mr. Usher convinces TP/P that he’s losing control of Hunter and Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading.
TP/P kills Ms. Leading and then her body is cremated in the fire.
"The Line" is Hunter having a conversation with himself and finally going through with no longer being Hunter and becoming his half-brother.
Hunter and the Fiancee are married in Act V (she is now The Wife), but he's also with Ms. Leading on the side. The Wife knows but looks the other way.
In The Flame, Mr. Usher convinces TP/P that he’s losing control of Hunter and Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading.
TP/P kills Ms. Leading and then her body is cremated in the fire.
"The Line" is Hunter having a conversation with himself and finally going through with no longer being Hunter and becoming his half-brother.
Spoiler
Q. Did you set out to write a dancy/jazzy song when you wrote King of Swords and Mr. Usher?
A. They came from two very different places. King of Swords came out of knowing the purpose of the song, but from jamming on a disco riff that we were playing as a joke. Imagine a montage in an 80's movie where the guy goes from a mailroom to the executive suite. Picture him trying on suits, getting his haircut, etc. Mr. Usher was a character that I had in mind for a long time, and I needed to write a character song to introduce him. I felt like it needed to be simultaneously charismatic and poised, but also sinister, and obvious that we're talking about a terrible person. It's like an old crooner song like Mack the Knife, with the sinister undertones of Baby It's Cold Outside (in which a guy is about to rape some woman). Mr. Usher is sort of whimsical (with obvious Andrews Sisters harmony in the middle). It's intentionally a 1930's-40's big band swing throwback. But it does serve the same purpose as King of Swords as the "sore thumb" of the album, very standout. But the writing process for the two was very different.
Q. Is the "Haves Have Naught" Mr. Usher and Hunter?
A. Yeah
Q. Is "The Flame (Is Gone)" Mr. Usher and The Priest?
A. Yes
Q. Which song from the Color Spectrum is about your dog?
A. (after some confusion, the general consensus was that it's "She's Always Singing.")
Q. What kind of timeframe will the Act graphic novels come out?
A. Faster than once per year. I'm getting color tests for Act II right now. Normally if it was going this slow, I'd get a different artist, but the Act II artist is amazing.
Q. Do you plan your inclusion of melodic references/reprises ahead of time or as you go?
A. A bit of both. Like in "The March," I know what is going to happen in the story, so I know what reprises I want to use. I really love obsessing over things like reprises.
Q. Do the reprises tend to have a thematic point? Like at the end of "The Flame (is Gone) with the Melpomene reference?
A. Yes, the significance to that is that Melpomene is Ms. Leading's song, and now she's dead, so her song is flipped into a minor key (lots of people are shocked that she is dead).
Q. Can you explain the line "Lungs of a Lark?"
A. There's a lot there. Lark's are fragile, and since the line is sung by the Boy/Man, he is also representing himself as a very fragile person trying to express himself. Also, a Lark can imitate other birds, and the Boy is mimicking another person too.
Q. Can you explain Mr. Usher's motivations?
A. The comparison I've been using is the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke, in terms of the power triangle. By the end of Star Wars, you get the idea that the Emperor didn't really care if Vader won or if Luke won, he just wanted a sort of power from pitting people against each other. It's also a sort of "controlled demolition," creating an opportunity for him to move in and take the power and control. It's not just that he revels in causing chaos.
Q. So Mr. Usher is the one who convinces him to burn the Dime?
A. He convinces the Pimp to kill Ms. Leading. The motivation that he suggests is "if you take away this one remaining thing from this person's life that ties them to their old self, you will leave behind a malleable shell with nothing left to cling to." He tries to manipulate the Boy first in "The Haves Have Naught," but he doesn't succeed. He knows if he can instigate open hostility, it will just be met with retaliation and more retaliation.
Q. Is Mr. Usher literally the devil? Representative of the devil?
A. He's not literally the devil. Then I would just call him "the devil." The parable of the devil and the gambler is something I came up with when I was looking for a way for the Priest to twist the knife while giving, on the surface, an anti gambling sermon to the congregation. But it's being delivered in such a way that, to the Boy, it is clearly about Act IV. He tried to beat the devil, but really he ended up setting the devil free. There are definite elements of Mr. Usher's character that I like to think are pure evil, and no so much about wanting to cause chaos, as much as deriving glee from the pain of others, but he is not actually supposed to represent the devil per se.
Q. At the start of "The Flame (is Gone)," what is the Pimp nervous about?
A. He's starting to see that the Boy...actually I'm just going to call him Hunter, because that's his name. He sees that he is starting to have less control over Hunter. Hunter is becoming less and less apt to play along, which you can sort of see through the first half of the record. The entirety of "The Moon" is him being determined to do right by his younger self, which is the apparition that he sees. He is in an opium den, addicted, and goes there to have this manifestation of himself. Now that he has this assumed identity, he wants to be connected to something that he actually is, which is the apparition. He is doing the same thing in "Gloria." Take "Who Am I?" It's a moment of him wondering if it is worth it to keep playing along, and he wonders whether he is the gambler or the devil from the parable.
Q. Does Mr. Usher have a prior relationship with the Pimp/Priest? Is he a mob boss?
A. I pictured him more as an ex-politician. Someone who had success in politics and then went on to be a successful businessman who is invovled with organized crime. Everyone is to afraid of him to be fully involved in what he does, but also to afraid to oppose him. I pictured him as aging, maybe in their 70's almost, who still wears Victorian era clothes in the 1930's. He's sort of a relic, but very capable of terror. But he has no interest in doing it himself. He loves the act of turning people against each other. He might be able to achieve his goals in a more savory way, but he likes the less savory process.
Q. What is the time period?
A. Act V is the 30's. Act IV is the 20's.
Q. Who is "That charlatan" from the end of "The Haves Have Naught?"
A. Mr. Usher.
Q. "Light" is about Hunter's son right?
A. Yeah, a son he had with the Fiance/now wife.
Q. What's up with the Senator?
A. He was someone I was going to put in, but didn't make the cut.
Q. Does Hunter's wife know what's up with him?
A. Think of like...every politician.
Q. But she know's he's not the brother?
A. Yes
Q. Is that what "The Line" was about?
A. No
Q. Is "The Line" Ms. Leading's song?
A. No
Q. What relationship is ending in "The Line?"
A. It's his decision to become this person officially, he's saying goodbye to Hunter as a person.
Q. Is the Half Brother actually his half brother or just someone that looks like him?
A. ...it's his half brother, actually more than his half brother, but to explain that would be very hard for me right now. But it will be 100% clear in the graphic novel. But he is related to him, very close in age.
Q. When he says "I'm a Killer" does he kill the Pimp/Priest?
A. It's not as literal as there being a point in the song where he kills him, but he does kill him. That line is him looking at everything he's done to that point already. But then there is this sort of physical determined move that he makes at the end, which is him resolving to kill the Pimp/Priest.
Q. Is there an upside down humanoid in the artwork for Act V?
A. Not intentionally. Someone asked me if it was the monster from Stranger Things.
Q. Are there plans to re-release Acts I-III with new artwork from the same artist as IV and V?
A. I want to, but probably not, it would be tough to convince the label.
Q. What is Ms. Leading's song from Act IV?
A. She appears at the end of A Night on the Town, and Wait is sung from both her and Hunter's perspective. They look at what they've done in the past, and look at their fear of being judged for their past deeds, and they find a connection. This brings them back together and redeems her in Hunter's view.
Q. Nothing happens between the two of them again?
A. Oh, the whole time.
Q. Even though he's married?
A. Again, think of any politician. He and Ms. Leading are totally in love though.
Q. What happens in Act IV before "ANOTT"?
A. "Rebirth" is an intro, "Old Haunt" refers to him returning to the City, "Waves" is him saying goodbye to love as a possibility, committing himself to his newfound persona and his ambition. "At the End of the Earth" is him visiting the mother of the half brother, sung from her perspective, simultaneously about an overwhelming happiness to see her son that she blindly accepts him, but also her mourning her husband who didn't return (the Father presumably). "Remembered" is an internal song about him saying goodbye to his actual mother.
Q. So the half brother's mother dies?
A. No
Q. What's up with the Half Brother and Hunter's relationship?
A. There's a simple answer, but I can't really get into it now. They do both share a father.
Q. Is it a coincidence that the Father and the Pimp/Priest are the same actor in the "Gloria" video?
A. Yeah, we don't have a lot of money.
Q. Do any characters from Act III besides Hunter appear in later Acts?
A. No
Q. What is the purpose of the "He Said He Had A Story" reprise at the end of "The Most Cursed of Hands?"
A. "HSHHAS" is a story that shook Hunter and had a devastating effect on him. The parable being told by the Pimp/Priest in "TMCOH" has the same effect.
Q. At the very end of "A Beginning," the callback to Act I with that motif from "The Lake South, what's up with that?
A. There's something very special about the last few minutes of "A Beginning," with that sound and then the reprise, but I can't tell you why, that's going to be a big part of Act VI.
Q. Will there be enough of a musical aspect in Act VI that we will be able to enjoy it on its own?
A. Yes, but it probably won't be quite the same.
Q. Has Mr. Usher been pulling strings all along?
A. He has an existing relationship with the Pimp/Priest, but it isn't really important to the past. He has not been in any of the Acts before.
Q. How close is the story now to what you originally envisioned?
A. It is the same story. Battesimo del Fuoco and Blood of the Rose refer to Act V.
Q. Is "the Flame" a play on words, referring to Ms. Leading?
A. Yes, but there's more to it.
Q. Favorite dinosaur?
A. Raptors
A. They came from two very different places. King of Swords came out of knowing the purpose of the song, but from jamming on a disco riff that we were playing as a joke. Imagine a montage in an 80's movie where the guy goes from a mailroom to the executive suite. Picture him trying on suits, getting his haircut, etc. Mr. Usher was a character that I had in mind for a long time, and I needed to write a character song to introduce him. I felt like it needed to be simultaneously charismatic and poised, but also sinister, and obvious that we're talking about a terrible person. It's like an old crooner song like Mack the Knife, with the sinister undertones of Baby It's Cold Outside (in which a guy is about to rape some woman). Mr. Usher is sort of whimsical (with obvious Andrews Sisters harmony in the middle). It's intentionally a 1930's-40's big band swing throwback. But it does serve the same purpose as King of Swords as the "sore thumb" of the album, very standout. But the writing process for the two was very different.
Q. Is the "Haves Have Naught" Mr. Usher and Hunter?
A. Yeah
Q. Is "The Flame (Is Gone)" Mr. Usher and The Priest?
A. Yes
Q. Which song from the Color Spectrum is about your dog?
A. (after some confusion, the general consensus was that it's "She's Always Singing.")
Q. What kind of timeframe will the Act graphic novels come out?
A. Faster than once per year. I'm getting color tests for Act II right now. Normally if it was going this slow, I'd get a different artist, but the Act II artist is amazing.
Q. Do you plan your inclusion of melodic references/reprises ahead of time or as you go?
A. A bit of both. Like in "The March," I know what is going to happen in the story, so I know what reprises I want to use. I really love obsessing over things like reprises.
Q. Do the reprises tend to have a thematic point? Like at the end of "The Flame (is Gone) with the Melpomene reference?
A. Yes, the significance to that is that Melpomene is Ms. Leading's song, and now she's dead, so her song is flipped into a minor key (lots of people are shocked that she is dead).
Q. Can you explain the line "Lungs of a Lark?"
A. There's a lot there. Lark's are fragile, and since the line is sung by the Boy/Man, he is also representing himself as a very fragile person trying to express himself. Also, a Lark can imitate other birds, and the Boy is mimicking another person too.
Q. Can you explain Mr. Usher's motivations?
A. The comparison I've been using is the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke, in terms of the power triangle. By the end of Star Wars, you get the idea that the Emperor didn't really care if Vader won or if Luke won, he just wanted a sort of power from pitting people against each other. It's also a sort of "controlled demolition," creating an opportunity for him to move in and take the power and control. It's not just that he revels in causing chaos.
Q. So Mr. Usher is the one who convinces him to burn the Dime?
A. He convinces the Pimp to kill Ms. Leading. The motivation that he suggests is "if you take away this one remaining thing from this person's life that ties them to their old self, you will leave behind a malleable shell with nothing left to cling to." He tries to manipulate the Boy first in "The Haves Have Naught," but he doesn't succeed. He knows if he can instigate open hostility, it will just be met with retaliation and more retaliation.
Q. Is Mr. Usher literally the devil? Representative of the devil?
A. He's not literally the devil. Then I would just call him "the devil." The parable of the devil and the gambler is something I came up with when I was looking for a way for the Priest to twist the knife while giving, on the surface, an anti gambling sermon to the congregation. But it's being delivered in such a way that, to the Boy, it is clearly about Act IV. He tried to beat the devil, but really he ended up setting the devil free. There are definite elements of Mr. Usher's character that I like to think are pure evil, and no so much about wanting to cause chaos, as much as deriving glee from the pain of others, but he is not actually supposed to represent the devil per se.
Q. At the start of "The Flame (is Gone)," what is the Pimp nervous about?
A. He's starting to see that the Boy...actually I'm just going to call him Hunter, because that's his name. He sees that he is starting to have less control over Hunter. Hunter is becoming less and less apt to play along, which you can sort of see through the first half of the record. The entirety of "The Moon" is him being determined to do right by his younger self, which is the apparition that he sees. He is in an opium den, addicted, and goes there to have this manifestation of himself. Now that he has this assumed identity, he wants to be connected to something that he actually is, which is the apparition. He is doing the same thing in "Gloria." Take "Who Am I?" It's a moment of him wondering if it is worth it to keep playing along, and he wonders whether he is the gambler or the devil from the parable.
Q. Does Mr. Usher have a prior relationship with the Pimp/Priest? Is he a mob boss?
A. I pictured him more as an ex-politician. Someone who had success in politics and then went on to be a successful businessman who is invovled with organized crime. Everyone is to afraid of him to be fully involved in what he does, but also to afraid to oppose him. I pictured him as aging, maybe in their 70's almost, who still wears Victorian era clothes in the 1930's. He's sort of a relic, but very capable of terror. But he has no interest in doing it himself. He loves the act of turning people against each other. He might be able to achieve his goals in a more savory way, but he likes the less savory process.
Q. What is the time period?
A. Act V is the 30's. Act IV is the 20's.
Q. Who is "That charlatan" from the end of "The Haves Have Naught?"
A. Mr. Usher.
Q. "Light" is about Hunter's son right?
A. Yeah, a son he had with the Fiance/now wife.
Q. What's up with the Senator?
A. He was someone I was going to put in, but didn't make the cut.
Q. Does Hunter's wife know what's up with him?
A. Think of like...every politician.
Q. But she know's he's not the brother?
A. Yes
Q. Is that what "The Line" was about?
A. No
Q. Is "The Line" Ms. Leading's song?
A. No
Q. What relationship is ending in "The Line?"
A. It's his decision to become this person officially, he's saying goodbye to Hunter as a person.
Q. Is the Half Brother actually his half brother or just someone that looks like him?
A. ...it's his half brother, actually more than his half brother, but to explain that would be very hard for me right now. But it will be 100% clear in the graphic novel. But he is related to him, very close in age.
Q. When he says "I'm a Killer" does he kill the Pimp/Priest?
A. It's not as literal as there being a point in the song where he kills him, but he does kill him. That line is him looking at everything he's done to that point already. But then there is this sort of physical determined move that he makes at the end, which is him resolving to kill the Pimp/Priest.
Q. Is there an upside down humanoid in the artwork for Act V?
A. Not intentionally. Someone asked me if it was the monster from Stranger Things.
Q. Are there plans to re-release Acts I-III with new artwork from the same artist as IV and V?
A. I want to, but probably not, it would be tough to convince the label.
Q. What is Ms. Leading's song from Act IV?
A. She appears at the end of A Night on the Town, and Wait is sung from both her and Hunter's perspective. They look at what they've done in the past, and look at their fear of being judged for their past deeds, and they find a connection. This brings them back together and redeems her in Hunter's view.
Q. Nothing happens between the two of them again?
A. Oh, the whole time.
Q. Even though he's married?
A. Again, think of any politician. He and Ms. Leading are totally in love though.
Q. What happens in Act IV before "ANOTT"?
A. "Rebirth" is an intro, "Old Haunt" refers to him returning to the City, "Waves" is him saying goodbye to love as a possibility, committing himself to his newfound persona and his ambition. "At the End of the Earth" is him visiting the mother of the half brother, sung from her perspective, simultaneously about an overwhelming happiness to see her son that she blindly accepts him, but also her mourning her husband who didn't return (the Father presumably). "Remembered" is an internal song about him saying goodbye to his actual mother.
Q. So the half brother's mother dies?
A. No
Q. What's up with the Half Brother and Hunter's relationship?
A. There's a simple answer, but I can't really get into it now. They do both share a father.
Q. Is it a coincidence that the Father and the Pimp/Priest are the same actor in the "Gloria" video?
A. Yeah, we don't have a lot of money.
Q. Do any characters from Act III besides Hunter appear in later Acts?
A. No
Q. What is the purpose of the "He Said He Had A Story" reprise at the end of "The Most Cursed of Hands?"
A. "HSHHAS" is a story that shook Hunter and had a devastating effect on him. The parable being told by the Pimp/Priest in "TMCOH" has the same effect.
Q. At the very end of "A Beginning," the callback to Act I with that motif from "The Lake South, what's up with that?
A. There's something very special about the last few minutes of "A Beginning," with that sound and then the reprise, but I can't tell you why, that's going to be a big part of Act VI.
Q. Will there be enough of a musical aspect in Act VI that we will be able to enjoy it on its own?
A. Yes, but it probably won't be quite the same.
Q. Has Mr. Usher been pulling strings all along?
A. He has an existing relationship with the Pimp/Priest, but it isn't really important to the past. He has not been in any of the Acts before.
Q. How close is the story now to what you originally envisioned?
A. It is the same story. Battesimo del Fuoco and Blood of the Rose refer to Act V.
Q. Is "the Flame" a play on words, referring to Ms. Leading?
A. Yes, but there's more to it.
Q. Favorite dinosaur?
A. Raptors
9/27/16 - Pawtucket, Rhode Island - The Met
9/29/16 - Boston, Massachusetts - Paradise Rock Club
9/30/16 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Union Transfer
Spoiler
Almost everyone is dead at the end of Act V.
Ms Leading dies at the end of The Flame (Is Gone) hence the Melpomene reprise at the end
Hunter and the Pimp and the Priest die in The Fire (Remains) and Blood.
The Fiancee (who becomes The Wife during Act V) and her Son flee the city to start anew in the Lake.
Ms Leading and Hunter's relationship during Acts IV and V: They share an intimacy that doesn't necessarily have to be sexual (although he implied it is). He spends his home life with the Fiancee/Wife being his half-brother, and then spends his leisure time with Ms Leading being his real self, and there's an intimacy in that.
The reason The Lake and The River's guitar solo is Evicted's melody is because they're both songs about him leaving home - TLATR being him leaving his physical home and Evicted being him leaving his metaphorical one with Ms Leading.
Migrant and The Color Spectrum reprises on Acts IV and V are not a total accident. He really expanded his palette of writing with those two albums, and when he finds that he wants to write about a certain subject matter, "like the afterlife, I can write something that sounds like White, because I've already explored what I perceive the afterlife to sound like."
The Devil (from the Most Cursed of Hands) is not Mr Usher, but Hunter comes to view Mr Usher as something worse than the devil "because there's something horrifying in seeing Mr Usher do this awful deplorable things and knowing that he's just a regular human being."
"There isn't anything fantastical or supernatural or science-fictiony in the stories. Everything is grounded in the real world, there's no magic or anything. Actually, the most fantasy thing in the story is probably that it's not at all historically accurate."
Battisimo Del Fuoco is about the fire in Act V.
"The only way you can get bigger than your band being backed by a full orchestra is getting as small as possible. I think that could be where we go for the next one." Later: "In the next year or so we'll probably be touring for a new album - it won't be Act VI."
When asked about listening to his own albums: "I never listen to them after they're out. There's like a two week period after everything is done that I listen to them over and over and over again and I truly love them, but then the minute that they're released to the public, I can't listen to them anymore, because they no longer belong to me. This is a really bad metaphor, but it's almost like watching your significant other, like, get passed around. And then I want nothing to do with it."
On writing reprises: "I actually start each album with a track listing. It helps me when I already know what each song is going to be about, so when I'm writing about a certain event, I have this running narrative in my head of everything so I know which events tie together, and so which tracks should reference which.
Ms Leading dies at the end of The Flame (Is Gone) hence the Melpomene reprise at the end
Hunter and the Pimp and the Priest die in The Fire (Remains) and Blood.
The Fiancee (who becomes The Wife during Act V) and her Son flee the city to start anew in the Lake.
Ms Leading and Hunter's relationship during Acts IV and V: They share an intimacy that doesn't necessarily have to be sexual (although he implied it is). He spends his home life with the Fiancee/Wife being his half-brother, and then spends his leisure time with Ms Leading being his real self, and there's an intimacy in that.
The reason The Lake and The River's guitar solo is Evicted's melody is because they're both songs about him leaving home - TLATR being him leaving his physical home and Evicted being him leaving his metaphorical one with Ms Leading.
Migrant and The Color Spectrum reprises on Acts IV and V are not a total accident. He really expanded his palette of writing with those two albums, and when he finds that he wants to write about a certain subject matter, "like the afterlife, I can write something that sounds like White, because I've already explored what I perceive the afterlife to sound like."
The Devil (from the Most Cursed of Hands) is not Mr Usher, but Hunter comes to view Mr Usher as something worse than the devil "because there's something horrifying in seeing Mr Usher do this awful deplorable things and knowing that he's just a regular human being."
"There isn't anything fantastical or supernatural or science-fictiony in the stories. Everything is grounded in the real world, there's no magic or anything. Actually, the most fantasy thing in the story is probably that it's not at all historically accurate."
Battisimo Del Fuoco is about the fire in Act V.
"The only way you can get bigger than your band being backed by a full orchestra is getting as small as possible. I think that could be where we go for the next one." Later: "In the next year or so we'll probably be touring for a new album - it won't be Act VI."
When asked about listening to his own albums: "I never listen to them after they're out. There's like a two week period after everything is done that I listen to them over and over and over again and I truly love them, but then the minute that they're released to the public, I can't listen to them anymore, because they no longer belong to me. This is a really bad metaphor, but it's almost like watching your significant other, like, get passed around. And then I want nothing to do with it."
On writing reprises: "I actually start each album with a track listing. It helps me when I already know what each song is going to be about, so when I'm writing about a certain event, I have this running narrative in my head of everything so I know which events tie together, and so which tracks should reference which.
10/1/16 - New York, New York - Webster Hall
Spoiler
Gloria is also an opium hallucination. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here” - basically his subconscious imploring him to keep his visions a secret, since nobody would believe what he experiences while he’s high.
In Act V, Hunter is a fractured mess of a person, married to the Wife with a son as the mayor in public, but seeing Ms Leading and addicted to opium in his private life.
The apparition refers to his former self, the person he feels he has wronged.
Casey shot down the theory of Mr Usher being a representative/avatar of the Devil. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “Isn’t he that much more evil if he’s just a man?”
Having Gavin sing as Mr Usher in The Haves Have Naught was just a stylistic choice, because Casey wanted it to be obvious that it was two people singing and he didn’t want to do two different voices.
Casey said he didn’t do, well, any historical research for the albums so everything is meant to be just a vague approximation of the time period. He used the example of the line “an innocent telephone call” in Where The Road Parts. At that time, telephone calls weren’t just an easy way to contact somebody, and not everybody had access to a telephone. He did say that the Dime closed because of WWI and did mention Prohibition, so that suggests Hunter may actually be American.
Presumably before he burns down the buildings, Hunter sends away his wife and son, to the lake and the river, since his remaining in their lives will only cause them harm.
As others have said, The Flame is Mr Usher convincing TPP to murder Ms Leading. Casey has not thought through the details of how Ms Leading is murdered, because he felt that would be a bit too dark to think about. Hunter burns down the Church/Dime with Ms Leading’s body inside. Casey hasn’t thought about whether there is anybody inside either building when they burn, but probably not.
So TPP riles up the mob, leads them to Hunter’s house. He basically says “let me go in and try to reason with him,” and goes in, where Hunter kills him (again didn’t specify method of death). He stands over TPP’s body in his house and contemplates what is left for him - nothing. If he dies, this pain will stop, it will all be over, at least things won’t suck anymore. OR, and this is the turning point in A Beginning, what if there is some sort of afterlife and everyone you’ve loved is there and it’s great? He commits suicide.
Casey had originally written a different ending/second half to A Beginning (starting at that hopeful turning point) but scrapped it and re-recorded what became the final version.
Casey owns the orchestral parts of Acts IV and V. He made a deal with the label that since he was paying for the orchestra separately, they would not own that music. He has plans to sort of remix the orchestral parts into a symphonic experience of Acts IV and V - he used Cirque du Soleil’s Love as an example but he said it wouldn’t be quite that involved of a remix.
Casey said that any melodic motifs in the later Acts are not necessarily meant as callbacks to specific events, but as callbacks to the emotional impact of the former song. Example used was the Mustard Gas reprise in ANOTT, Hunter is drunk and passing out in ANOTT, like when he blacked out in Mustard Gas.
Casey said for the most part we have the story correct for the first three acts. He said he has seen incorrect theories but couldn’t remember any specifics.
Casey was very involved with the casting of the Gloria video, with the exception of Ms Leading. He felt it would have been too weird. The actor who played Hunter was a method actor who listened to nothing but TDH in the weeks leading up to the video shoot and insisted that Casey and everyone call him Hunter.
Casey’s favorite wrestler is The Rock.
In Act V, Hunter is a fractured mess of a person, married to the Wife with a son as the mayor in public, but seeing Ms Leading and addicted to opium in his private life.
The apparition refers to his former self, the person he feels he has wronged.
Casey shot down the theory of Mr Usher being a representative/avatar of the Devil. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “Isn’t he that much more evil if he’s just a man?”
Having Gavin sing as Mr Usher in The Haves Have Naught was just a stylistic choice, because Casey wanted it to be obvious that it was two people singing and he didn’t want to do two different voices.
Casey said he didn’t do, well, any historical research for the albums so everything is meant to be just a vague approximation of the time period. He used the example of the line “an innocent telephone call” in Where The Road Parts. At that time, telephone calls weren’t just an easy way to contact somebody, and not everybody had access to a telephone. He did say that the Dime closed because of WWI and did mention Prohibition, so that suggests Hunter may actually be American.
Presumably before he burns down the buildings, Hunter sends away his wife and son, to the lake and the river, since his remaining in their lives will only cause them harm.
As others have said, The Flame is Mr Usher convincing TPP to murder Ms Leading. Casey has not thought through the details of how Ms Leading is murdered, because he felt that would be a bit too dark to think about. Hunter burns down the Church/Dime with Ms Leading’s body inside. Casey hasn’t thought about whether there is anybody inside either building when they burn, but probably not.
So TPP riles up the mob, leads them to Hunter’s house. He basically says “let me go in and try to reason with him,” and goes in, where Hunter kills him (again didn’t specify method of death). He stands over TPP’s body in his house and contemplates what is left for him - nothing. If he dies, this pain will stop, it will all be over, at least things won’t suck anymore. OR, and this is the turning point in A Beginning, what if there is some sort of afterlife and everyone you’ve loved is there and it’s great? He commits suicide.
Casey had originally written a different ending/second half to A Beginning (starting at that hopeful turning point) but scrapped it and re-recorded what became the final version.
Casey owns the orchestral parts of Acts IV and V. He made a deal with the label that since he was paying for the orchestra separately, they would not own that music. He has plans to sort of remix the orchestral parts into a symphonic experience of Acts IV and V - he used Cirque du Soleil’s Love as an example but he said it wouldn’t be quite that involved of a remix.
Casey said that any melodic motifs in the later Acts are not necessarily meant as callbacks to specific events, but as callbacks to the emotional impact of the former song. Example used was the Mustard Gas reprise in ANOTT, Hunter is drunk and passing out in ANOTT, like when he blacked out in Mustard Gas.
Casey said for the most part we have the story correct for the first three acts. He said he has seen incorrect theories but couldn’t remember any specifics.
Casey was very involved with the casting of the Gloria video, with the exception of Ms Leading. He felt it would have been too weird. The actor who played Hunter was a method actor who listened to nothing but TDH in the weeks leading up to the video shoot and insisted that Casey and everyone call him Hunter.
Casey’s favorite wrestler is The Rock.
10/5/16 - Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel
10/7/16 - Carrboro, North Carolina - Cat's Cradle
Spoiler
There's a decent time gap between IV and V, and Hunter has a child with the fiancé, but is still seeing Ms. Leading and is stupidly in love with her. Light is about the infant son and fiancé leaving back to the Lake and the River. He also mentioned that Hunter is on opiates. That's what Moon is about. And that the 'apparition' is Hunter's past self reminding him that the person he is now is completely separate from who he was.
The piano part in Mr Usher was done by Gavin.
The piano part in Mr Usher was done by Gavin.
Spoiler
First off, Hunter and the fiance never break up at the end of act four, they are still together all through act five, as well as he is dating Ms. Leading, kinda keeping her on the side while he maintains his political career. Melpomene is just the boy and Ms. Leading kind of remarking on how they are the only bright spots in each others life. Throughout all of act five Hunter is addicted to opiates and all of the apparition talk through the whole of act five is hallucinations from the drug as he reflects upon his past, and Gloria is just a big hallucination of his past. Mr. Usher is in fact a real person, and he never leaves the scene. The whole time he is conniving against the boy and TP&TP trying to get them to fight. The flame(is gone) is Mr. Usher trying to convince TP&TP to kill Ms. Leading. Act five happens many many years after act four. Also near the end of act five the boy sends the fiance (now wife) and his son to the house by the lake and the river to get them away from the town, which reinforces this even more. This whole time TP&TP has the boy under his thumb and is controlling his whole political career. At the beginning of act four as well, the boy travels back home and disguises himself as the brother and lives among the brothers mom. Casey said that the boy and the brother look exactly alike, and the mother never questioned whether it was him or not, she knew for sure it was actually the brother and was a bit senile and depressed because she thought her son was dead and so she accepted wholeheartedly that Hunter was her son
10/8/16 - Nashville, Tennessee - Exit In
10/9/16 - Atlanta, Georgia - Terminal West @ King Plow Arts Center
Spoiler
Fav color to work on: Indigo, lots of late nights.
How premeditated was the story?: Demos had isolated story, once decided what it needed to be, wrote an outline about the entire story. Cross talk isn’t always backwards. Elements of Act VI in all of the records. Mr. Usher was waiting to be filled but didn’t know name or anything about
the song, just knew about the character. Building blocks were there but small facets were waiting.
A Night on the Town: Only people he knew connected to the character (mother/Fiance) was due to post-cards the brother had on him. He was able to trick his mother in the same way that she was just happy to see her son & forgave obvious inconsistencies ala the Majestic. He thinks he’s kidnapped but it’s actually his friends who’ve taken him out. First verse is them saying everything’s fine & the second verse is them being like how do you not recognize us? Hunter glorifies the brother but then realizes he can skate by through being a shitty person as the fiancée wasn’t surprised to see him drunk on Squeaky Wheel.
Abandoned: Priest talking to Hunter to manipulate him into being mayor (he’s a war hero). Hunter thinks he can crush him w/ his power. Priest has known the whole time who Hunter is.
A whole graphic novel series.
Act V is years after Act IV. Beginning is him having a change of heart. P&TP feels like he’s lost control. You won’t return comes from Mr. Usher under his breath. The Flame is Gone The Fire remains has her theme from Melepomene.
Haves that Have not: didn’t want to use character voices but thought this would be good due to it being a true duet.
Go Get Your Gun is meant as a cheesy drinking song that’s been around in that world. A novelty of the time. As if it has existed in this world for a long time. Most Cursed Hands is a parable that’s existed in this world.
The son of the fiancé/Hunter: it’s a cycle. Mother w/ Child outside of city & an evil person after them. She’s going to have to come back & have an arrangement. Cyclical. Hunter sends them away because he doesn’t feel fit to be the father. Sends to Lake And the River. If his son can be a good person, the course correction would be worth it to make up from all of his corruption.
Hunter’s biggest flaw is that he’s completely reactionary.
Hunter/brother look eerily close for reasons revealed in the graphic novel.
Hunter takes brother’s life to keep him alive so that Hunter can die. Hates father more so due to the story & how he spoke of Ms. Terri. Everything Hunter goes through allows him to kill his father. Hunter believes he could be the brother, this better person.
Hunter thinks that dying by his own hand is better than what would happen if the mob gets a hold of him. Everyone knows who he is, lover is dead, antagonist is dead, woman & child are safe. Die on own terms or surrender? Weighing options of what happens when you die.
A Beginning: There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
A Beginning: There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
Loved Preacher
Wants to do Indigo record & a symphony this winter.
Trying to do a short film w/ Gloria director about Most Cursed Hands.
Wants to do a podcast w/ Alex.
Going to do a side project w/ Andy Hull, how much money can be
made for merch w/ no music?
How premeditated was the story?: Demos had isolated story, once decided what it needed to be, wrote an outline about the entire story. Cross talk isn’t always backwards. Elements of Act VI in all of the records. Mr. Usher was waiting to be filled but didn’t know name or anything about
the song, just knew about the character. Building blocks were there but small facets were waiting.
A Night on the Town: Only people he knew connected to the character (mother/Fiance) was due to post-cards the brother had on him. He was able to trick his mother in the same way that she was just happy to see her son & forgave obvious inconsistencies ala the Majestic. He thinks he’s kidnapped but it’s actually his friends who’ve taken him out. First verse is them saying everything’s fine & the second verse is them being like how do you not recognize us? Hunter glorifies the brother but then realizes he can skate by through being a shitty person as the fiancée wasn’t surprised to see him drunk on Squeaky Wheel.
Abandoned: Priest talking to Hunter to manipulate him into being mayor (he’s a war hero). Hunter thinks he can crush him w/ his power. Priest has known the whole time who Hunter is.
A whole graphic novel series.
Act V is years after Act IV. Beginning is him having a change of heart. P&TP feels like he’s lost control. You won’t return comes from Mr. Usher under his breath. The Flame is Gone The Fire remains has her theme from Melepomene.
Haves that Have not: didn’t want to use character voices but thought this would be good due to it being a true duet.
Go Get Your Gun is meant as a cheesy drinking song that’s been around in that world. A novelty of the time. As if it has existed in this world for a long time. Most Cursed Hands is a parable that’s existed in this world.
The son of the fiancé/Hunter: it’s a cycle. Mother w/ Child outside of city & an evil person after them. She’s going to have to come back & have an arrangement. Cyclical. Hunter sends them away because he doesn’t feel fit to be the father. Sends to Lake And the River. If his son can be a good person, the course correction would be worth it to make up from all of his corruption.
Hunter’s biggest flaw is that he’s completely reactionary.
Hunter/brother look eerily close for reasons revealed in the graphic novel.
Hunter takes brother’s life to keep him alive so that Hunter can die. Hates father more so due to the story & how he spoke of Ms. Terri. Everything Hunter goes through allows him to kill his father. Hunter believes he could be the brother, this better person.
Hunter thinks that dying by his own hand is better than what would happen if the mob gets a hold of him. Everyone knows who he is, lover is dead, antagonist is dead, woman & child are safe. Die on own terms or surrender? Weighing options of what happens when you die.
A Beginning: There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
A Beginning: There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
Loved Preacher
Wants to do Indigo record & a symphony this winter.
Trying to do a short film w/ Gloria director about Most Cursed Hands.
Wants to do a podcast w/ Alex.
Going to do a side project w/ Andy Hull, how much money can be
made for merch w/ no music?
10/12/16 - Orlando, Florida - The Social
10/14/16 - Houston, Texas - White Oak Music Hall
10/15/16 - Austin, Texas - The Mohawk
10/16/16 - Dallas, Texas - Gas Monkey Bar N Grill
10/19/16 - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Launchpad
10/20/16 - Phoenix, Arizona - Crescent Ballroom
10/21/16 - San Diego, California
10/22/16 - Pomona, California - The Glass House
10/25/16 - Los Angeles, California - El Rey Theatre
10/28/16 - San Francisco, California - The Fillmore
SPOILERS SORTED BY ALBUM/TOPIC
ACT I:
Spoiler
- Battesimo del Fuoco is about Act V.
ACT II:
Spoiler
- Act II is set in the mid 1910s, and Hunter is in his late teens.
- Ms. Terri was not murdered.
- Blood of the Rose is about Act V.
- The reason The Lake and The River's guitar solo is Evicted's melody is because they're both songs about him leaving home - TLATR being him leaving his physical home and Evicted being him leaving his metaphorical one with Ms Leading.
- Ms. Terri was not murdered.
- Blood of the Rose is about Act V.
- The reason The Lake and The River's guitar solo is Evicted's melody is because they're both songs about him leaving home - TLATR being him leaving his physical home and Evicted being him leaving his metaphorical one with Ms Leading.
ACT III:
Spoiler
- In Act III Hunter is in his 20’s.
- The “half-brother” is Hunter’s half brother, actually more than his half brother, but to explain that would be very hard right now. But it will be 100% clear in the graphic novel. But he is related to him, very close in age. They both have the same father.
- The “half-brother” had post-cards on him from home. This is how Hunter knew about the half-brothers friends/family/etc.
- No characters from Act III other than Hunter appear in later albums.
- “Go Get Your Gun” is meant as a cheesy drinking song that’s been around in this world. It’s a novelty of the time, as if it has existed in this world for a long time.
- Hunter and the half-brother look eerily similar for reasons that will be revealed in the graphic novel.
- Hunter steals the half-brother’s life to keep him alive so that Hunter can die. Hunter hates the Father moreso due to the story & how he spoke of Ms. Terri. Everything Hunter goes through allows him to kill his father. Hunter believes he could be the a better person as the half-brother.
- The “half-brother” is Hunter’s half brother, actually more than his half brother, but to explain that would be very hard right now. But it will be 100% clear in the graphic novel. But he is related to him, very close in age. They both have the same father.
- The “half-brother” had post-cards on him from home. This is how Hunter knew about the half-brothers friends/family/etc.
- No characters from Act III other than Hunter appear in later albums.
- “Go Get Your Gun” is meant as a cheesy drinking song that’s been around in this world. It’s a novelty of the time, as if it has existed in this world for a long time.
- Hunter and the half-brother look eerily similar for reasons that will be revealed in the graphic novel.
- Hunter steals the half-brother’s life to keep him alive so that Hunter can die. Hunter hates the Father moreso due to the story & how he spoke of Ms. Terri. Everything Hunter goes through allows him to kill his father. Hunter believes he could be the a better person as the half-brother.
ACT IV:
Spoiler
- Act IV takes place in the 1920’s.
- Rebirth is an intro.
- “Old Haunt” refers to Hunter returning to the City.
- “Waves” is Hunter saying goodbye to love as a possibility and committing himself to his newfound persona and his ambition.
- "At the End of the Earth" is Hunter visiting the mother of the half brother, sung from her perspective, simultaneously about an overwhelming happiness to see her son (which is why she blindly accepts him despite the obvious inconsistencies), while also her mourning her husband who didn't return. The half-brother’s mother does not die.
- "Remembered" is an internal song about Hunter saying goodbye to Ms. Terri.
- “A Night on the Town” is about Hunter being “kidnapped” by the Brother’s friends. They think he is the Brother and want to surprise him by taking him out for a night on the town. Hunter thinks he’s really being kidnapped but it’s actually his friends who’ve taken him out. The first verse is them saying everything’s fine & the second verse is them wonder why Hunter does not recognize them.
- Ms Leading is a bartender in A Night On the Town
- Hunter glorifies the half-brother but then realizes he can skate by through being a shitty person as the fiancée wasn’t surprised to see him drunk in The Squeaky Wheel.
- Hunter’s son's mother is definitely the Fiancee of the half-brother, who he marries so he can run for office.
- “Abandoned” is TP/P talking to Hunter to manipulate him into using his status as a war hero to run for Mayor. Hunter thinks he can crush TP/P with his power, but TP/P has known the whole time who Hunter is and is just manipulating him.
- King of Swords came out of knowing the purpose of the song, but from jamming on a disco riff that we were playing as a joke. Imagine a montage in an 80's movie where the guy goes from a mailroom to the executive suite. Picture him trying on suits, getting his haircut, etc.
- "The Line" is Hunter having a conversation with himself and finally going through with no longer being Hunter and becoming his half-brother.
- “Wait” is a duet between Hunter and Ms. Leading. They both realize they messed up but Hunter realizes what he has done to Ms. Leading is worse than than what Ms. Leading did to him, giving her redemption.
- In “Wait”, Hunter and Ms. Leading look at what they've done in the past, and look at their fear of being judged for their past deeds, and they find a connection. This brings them back together and redeems her in Hunter's view.
- Rebirth is an intro.
- “Old Haunt” refers to Hunter returning to the City.
- “Waves” is Hunter saying goodbye to love as a possibility and committing himself to his newfound persona and his ambition.
- "At the End of the Earth" is Hunter visiting the mother of the half brother, sung from her perspective, simultaneously about an overwhelming happiness to see her son (which is why she blindly accepts him despite the obvious inconsistencies), while also her mourning her husband who didn't return. The half-brother’s mother does not die.
- "Remembered" is an internal song about Hunter saying goodbye to Ms. Terri.
- “A Night on the Town” is about Hunter being “kidnapped” by the Brother’s friends. They think he is the Brother and want to surprise him by taking him out for a night on the town. Hunter thinks he’s really being kidnapped but it’s actually his friends who’ve taken him out. The first verse is them saying everything’s fine & the second verse is them wonder why Hunter does not recognize them.
- Ms Leading is a bartender in A Night On the Town
- Hunter glorifies the half-brother but then realizes he can skate by through being a shitty person as the fiancée wasn’t surprised to see him drunk in The Squeaky Wheel.
- Hunter’s son's mother is definitely the Fiancee of the half-brother, who he marries so he can run for office.
- “Abandoned” is TP/P talking to Hunter to manipulate him into using his status as a war hero to run for Mayor. Hunter thinks he can crush TP/P with his power, but TP/P has known the whole time who Hunter is and is just manipulating him.
- King of Swords came out of knowing the purpose of the song, but from jamming on a disco riff that we were playing as a joke. Imagine a montage in an 80's movie where the guy goes from a mailroom to the executive suite. Picture him trying on suits, getting his haircut, etc.
- "The Line" is Hunter having a conversation with himself and finally going through with no longer being Hunter and becoming his half-brother.
- “Wait” is a duet between Hunter and Ms. Leading. They both realize they messed up but Hunter realizes what he has done to Ms. Leading is worse than than what Ms. Leading did to him, giving her redemption.
- In “Wait”, Hunter and Ms. Leading look at what they've done in the past, and look at their fear of being judged for their past deeds, and they find a connection. This brings them back together and redeems her in Hunter's view.
ACT V:
Spoiler
- Act V takes place during the 1930’s
- During Act V Hunter and Ms. Leading are back together. Hunter is leading a double life with her in secret.
-The Dime remains closed throughout Act V. There is still prostitution in the City, but it isn’t confined to a particular building/place. EDIT: The Dime reopens during Act V.
- Hunter and the Fiancée are married in Act V (she is now The Wife), but he's also with Ms. Leading on the side. The Wife knows but looks the other way. The Wife also knows that Hunter is not the half-brother.
- Hunter spends his home life with the Fiancee/Wife being his half-brother, and then spends his leisure time with Ms Leading being his real self, and there's an intimacy in that.
- In Act V, Hunter is a fractured mess of a person, married to the Wife with a son as the mayor in public, but seeing Ms Leading and addicted to opium in his private life.
- The Moon / Awake is about the boy going to an opium den and having an out of body experience and being able to basically see himself and talk to himself.
- The apparition refers to his former self, the person he feels he has wronged.
- The entirety of "The Moon" is Hunter being determined to do right by his younger self, which is the apparition that he sees. He is in an opium den, addicted, and goes there to have this manifestation of himself. Now that he has this assumed identity, he wants to be connected to something that he actually is, which is the apparition.
- “The Moon” is mostly sort of a message between Hunter and his younger self. The idea is that we become completely different people over time, so the person Hunter used to be no longer exists. The song is a message to his older self, almost trying to make sure he is doing right by what that person would want.
- The HSHHAS callback in The Most Cursed of Hands is a parallel to when Hunter was mad hearing that story, like he is hearing the Priest tell this one.
- The parable of the devil and the gambler is something I came up with when I was looking for a way for the Priest to twist the knife while giving, on the surface, an anti gambling sermon to the congregation. But it's being delivered in such a way that, to the Boy, it is clearly about Act IV. He tried to beat the devil, but really he ended up setting the devil free.
- The parable in “Most Cursed Hands” has existed in this world for a long time (similar to the drinking song in “Go Get Your Gun”).
- "Who Am I?" is a moment of Hunter wondering if it is worth it to keep playing along, and he wonders whether he is the gambler or the devil from the parable.
- Casey is trying to do a short film w/ Gloria director about Most Cursed Hands of Hands.
- Melpomene is about Ms. Leading.
- Mr. Usher does not take sides - he conspires against both TP/P AND Hunter
- Casey shot down the theory of Mr Usher being a representative/avatar of the Devil. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “Isn’t he that much more evil if he’s just a man?”
- Casey said Mr. Usher in a way represents himself, and how he is the one who brings about the end of these characters.
- There are definite elements of Mr. Usher's character that I like to think are pure evil, and not so much about wanting to cause chaos, as much as deriving glee from the pain of others, but he is not actually supposed to represent the devil per se.
- The Devil (from the Most Cursed of Hands) is not Mr Usher, but Hunter comes to view Mr Usher as something worse than the devil "because there's something horrifying in seeing Mr Usher do this awful deplorable things and knowing that he's just a regular human being."
- Mr. Usher was a character that I had in mind for a long time, and I needed to write a character song to introduce him. I felt like it needed to be simultaneously charismatic and poised, but also sinister, and obvious that we're talking about a terrible person. It's like an old crooner song like Mack the Knife, with the sinister undertones of Baby It's Cold Outside (in which a guy is about to rape some woman). Mr. Usher is sort of whimsical (with obvious Andrews Sisters harmony in the middle). It's intentionally a 1930's-40's big band swing throwback. But it does serve the same purpose as King of Swords as the "sore thumb" of the album, very standout.
- The comparison I've been using [for Mr. Usher, TP/P and Hunter] is the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke, in terms of the power triangle. By the end of Star Wars, you get the idea that the Emperor didn't really care if Vader won or if Luke won, he just wanted a sort of power from pitting people against each other. It's also a sort of "controlled demolition," creating an opportunity for Mr. Usher to move in and take the power and control. It's not just that he revels in causing chaos.
- Mr. Usher is something like an ex-politician. Someone who had success in politics and then went on to be a successful businessman who is involved with organized crime. Everyone is too afraid of him to be fully involved in what he does, but also too afraid to oppose him. I pictured him as aging, maybe in their 70's almost, who still wears Victorian era clothes in the 1930's. He's sort of a relic, but very capable of terror. But he has no interest in doing it himself. He loves the act of turning people against each other. He might be able to achieve his goals in a more savory way, but he likes the less savory process.
- Mr. Usher has an existing relationship with TP/P, but it isn't really important to the past. He has not been in any of the Acts before.
- “The Haves Have Naught” is between Mr. Usher and Hunter.
- Having Gavin sing as Mr Usher in The Haves Have Naught was just a stylistic choice, because Casey wanted it to be obvious that it was two people singing and he didn’t want to do two different voices.
- “The charlatan” referred to at the end of The Haves Have Naught is Mr. Usher.
- In “The Haves Have Naught” Mr. Usher is trying to convince him the people aren't worth saving.
- Light is with the Fiancée’s/Wife’s son.
- Light is about the infant son and Fiancée/Wife leaving back to the Lake and the River.
- Hunter sends them away because he doesn’t feel fit to be a father.
- Gloria is also an opium hallucination. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here” - basically his subconscious imploring him to keep his visions a secret, since nobody would believe what he experiences while he’s high.
- Casey was very involved with the casting of the Gloria video, with the exception of Ms Leading. He felt it would have been too weird. The actor who played Hunter was a method actor who listened to nothing but TDH in the weeks leading up to the video shoot and insisted that Casey and everyone call him Hunter. The fact that the same actor plays TP/P and the General is just a coincidence.
- In The Flame, Mr. Usher convinces TP/P that he’s losing control of Hunter and Mr. Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading. The motivation that he suggests is "if you take away this one remaining thing from this person's life that ties them to their old self, you will leave behind a malleable shell with nothing left to cling to." He tried to manipulate the Boy first in "The Haves Have Naught," but he doesn't succeed. He knows if he can instigate open hostility, it will just be met with retaliation and more retaliation.
- At the beginning of the Flame, TP/P is starting to see that he is starting to have less control over Hunter. Hunter is becoming less and less apt to play along, which you can sort of see through the first half of the record.
- In “The Flame (Is Gone)”, Mr. Usher is talking to The Pimp/Priest, trying to convince him to kill Ms. Leading but make it look like an accident, so that the Boy will be broken and empty, making him an easy person to manipulate. Mr Usher knows this won’t work but simply wants to bring an end to it all.
- The line “You won’t return” in “The Flame” is Mr. Usher speaking under his breath.
- The significance to the Melpomene reprise as the end of The Flame is that Melpomene is Ms. Leading's song, and now she's dead, so her song is flipped into a minor key.
- There's a lot in the line “Lungs of a lark”. Larks are fragile, and since the line is sung by Hunter, he is also representing himself as a very fragile person trying to express himself. Also, a Lark can imitate other birds, and the Boy is mimicking another person too.
- Hunter burns the Church/Dime.
- Presumably before he burns down the buildings, Hunter sends away his wife and son, to the lake and the river, since his remaining in their lives will only cause them harm.
- Ms. Leading doesn’t die in the fire, but the Pimp and the Priest directly murders her in cold blood her.
- The Flame is Mr Usher convincing TPP to murder Ms. Leading. Casey has not thought through the details of how Ms. Leading is murdered, because he felt that would be a bit too dark to think about. Hunter burns down the Church/Dime with Ms. Leading’s body inside. Casey hasn’t thought about whether there is anybody inside either building when they burn, but probably not.
- “The Flame” is a play on words referring to Ms. Leading, but there’s also more to it than that.
- Hunter finds Ms. Leading dead in the church, so he burns it down with her inside like a funeral pyre.
- After TP/P kills Ms. Leading, her body is cremated in the fire.
- The Dime is still closed during Act V and the church has not become a brothel, but they're close enough together that they both burn.
- TP/P riles up the mob and leads them to Hunter’s house. He basically says “let me go in and try to reason with him,” and goes in, where Hunter kills him (again didn’t specify method of death). He stands over TP/P’s body in his house and contemplates what is left for him - nothing. If he dies, this pain will stop, it will all be over, at least things won’t suck anymore. OR, and this is the turning point in A Beginning, what if there is some sort of afterlife and everyone you’ve loved is there and it’s great? He commits suicide.
- Hunter thinks that dying by his own hand is better than what would happen if the mob gets a hold of him. Everyone knows who he is, Ms. Leading is dead, TP/P is dead, his Wife and Son are safe. He can die on own terms or surrender. He weighs the options of what happens when you die.
- There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
- The line “I’m a Killer” is not as literal as there being a point in the song where Hunter kills TP/P. That line is Hunter looking at everything he's done to that point already. But then there is this sort of physical determined move that he makes at the end, which is him resolving to kill TP/P.
- Casey had originally written a different ending/second half to A Beginning (starting at that hopeful turning point) but scrapped it and re-recorded what became the final version.
- Both Hunter and TP/P are dead by the end of Act V.
- There's something very special about the last few minutes of "A Beginning," with that sound and then the reprise, but I can't tell you why, that's going to be a big part of Act VI.
- Casey has obviously envisioned the Acts as a movie – I asked what was happening in Cascade and he walked us through the beginning of Act V as if it were a movie. He said the Awake part of The Moon/Awake is where the opening title would come in, and then Cascade is Hunter’s inner monologue as he walks through the City on his way to the Church. He also said that if it were a movie, the end of The Flame would be TPP standing in Ms Leading’s doorway in silhouette, coming in to kill her – then fade to black.
- During Act V Hunter and Ms. Leading are back together. Hunter is leading a double life with her in secret.
-
- Hunter and the Fiancée are married in Act V (she is now The Wife), but he's also with Ms. Leading on the side. The Wife knows but looks the other way. The Wife also knows that Hunter is not the half-brother.
- Hunter spends his home life with the Fiancee/Wife being his half-brother, and then spends his leisure time with Ms Leading being his real self, and there's an intimacy in that.
- In Act V, Hunter is a fractured mess of a person, married to the Wife with a son as the mayor in public, but seeing Ms Leading and addicted to opium in his private life.
- The Moon / Awake is about the boy going to an opium den and having an out of body experience and being able to basically see himself and talk to himself.
- The apparition refers to his former self, the person he feels he has wronged.
- The entirety of "The Moon" is Hunter being determined to do right by his younger self, which is the apparition that he sees. He is in an opium den, addicted, and goes there to have this manifestation of himself. Now that he has this assumed identity, he wants to be connected to something that he actually is, which is the apparition.
- “The Moon” is mostly sort of a message between Hunter and his younger self. The idea is that we become completely different people over time, so the person Hunter used to be no longer exists. The song is a message to his older self, almost trying to make sure he is doing right by what that person would want.
- The HSHHAS callback in The Most Cursed of Hands is a parallel to when Hunter was mad hearing that story, like he is hearing the Priest tell this one.
- The parable of the devil and the gambler is something I came up with when I was looking for a way for the Priest to twist the knife while giving, on the surface, an anti gambling sermon to the congregation. But it's being delivered in such a way that, to the Boy, it is clearly about Act IV. He tried to beat the devil, but really he ended up setting the devil free.
- The parable in “Most Cursed Hands” has existed in this world for a long time (similar to the drinking song in “Go Get Your Gun”).
- "Who Am I?" is a moment of Hunter wondering if it is worth it to keep playing along, and he wonders whether he is the gambler or the devil from the parable.
- Casey is trying to do a short film w/ Gloria director about Most Cursed Hands of Hands.
- Melpomene is about Ms. Leading.
- Mr. Usher does not take sides - he conspires against both TP/P AND Hunter
- Casey shot down the theory of Mr Usher being a representative/avatar of the Devil. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “Isn’t he that much more evil if he’s just a man?”
- Casey said Mr. Usher in a way represents himself, and how he is the one who brings about the end of these characters.
- There are definite elements of Mr. Usher's character that I like to think are pure evil, and not so much about wanting to cause chaos, as much as deriving glee from the pain of others, but he is not actually supposed to represent the devil per se.
- The Devil (from the Most Cursed of Hands) is not Mr Usher, but Hunter comes to view Mr Usher as something worse than the devil "because there's something horrifying in seeing Mr Usher do this awful deplorable things and knowing that he's just a regular human being."
- Mr. Usher was a character that I had in mind for a long time, and I needed to write a character song to introduce him. I felt like it needed to be simultaneously charismatic and poised, but also sinister, and obvious that we're talking about a terrible person. It's like an old crooner song like Mack the Knife, with the sinister undertones of Baby It's Cold Outside (in which a guy is about to rape some woman). Mr. Usher is sort of whimsical (with obvious Andrews Sisters harmony in the middle). It's intentionally a 1930's-40's big band swing throwback. But it does serve the same purpose as King of Swords as the "sore thumb" of the album, very standout.
- The comparison I've been using [for Mr. Usher, TP/P and Hunter] is the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke, in terms of the power triangle. By the end of Star Wars, you get the idea that the Emperor didn't really care if Vader won or if Luke won, he just wanted a sort of power from pitting people against each other. It's also a sort of "controlled demolition," creating an opportunity for Mr. Usher to move in and take the power and control. It's not just that he revels in causing chaos.
- Mr. Usher is something like an ex-politician. Someone who had success in politics and then went on to be a successful businessman who is involved with organized crime. Everyone is too afraid of him to be fully involved in what he does, but also too afraid to oppose him. I pictured him as aging, maybe in their 70's almost, who still wears Victorian era clothes in the 1930's. He's sort of a relic, but very capable of terror. But he has no interest in doing it himself. He loves the act of turning people against each other. He might be able to achieve his goals in a more savory way, but he likes the less savory process.
- Mr. Usher has an existing relationship with TP/P, but it isn't really important to the past. He has not been in any of the Acts before.
- “The Haves Have Naught” is between Mr. Usher and Hunter.
- Having Gavin sing as Mr Usher in The Haves Have Naught was just a stylistic choice, because Casey wanted it to be obvious that it was two people singing and he didn’t want to do two different voices.
- “The charlatan” referred to at the end of The Haves Have Naught is Mr. Usher.
- In “The Haves Have Naught” Mr. Usher is trying to convince him the people aren't worth saving.
- Light is with the Fiancée’s/Wife’s son.
- Light is about the infant son and Fiancée/Wife leaving back to the Lake and the River.
- Hunter sends them away because he doesn’t feel fit to be a father.
- Gloria is also an opium hallucination. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here” - basically his subconscious imploring him to keep his visions a secret, since nobody would believe what he experiences while he’s high.
- Casey was very involved with the casting of the Gloria video, with the exception of Ms Leading. He felt it would have been too weird. The actor who played Hunter was a method actor who listened to nothing but TDH in the weeks leading up to the video shoot and insisted that Casey and everyone call him Hunter. The fact that the same actor plays TP/P and the General is just a coincidence.
- In The Flame, Mr. Usher convinces TP/P that he’s losing control of Hunter and Mr. Usher convinces TP/P to kill Ms. Leading. The motivation that he suggests is "if you take away this one remaining thing from this person's life that ties them to their old self, you will leave behind a malleable shell with nothing left to cling to." He tried to manipulate the Boy first in "The Haves Have Naught," but he doesn't succeed. He knows if he can instigate open hostility, it will just be met with retaliation and more retaliation.
- At the beginning of the Flame, TP/P is starting to see that he is starting to have less control over Hunter. Hunter is becoming less and less apt to play along, which you can sort of see through the first half of the record.
- In “The Flame (Is Gone)”, Mr. Usher is talking to The Pimp/Priest, trying to convince him to kill Ms. Leading but make it look like an accident, so that the Boy will be broken and empty, making him an easy person to manipulate. Mr Usher knows this won’t work but simply wants to bring an end to it all.
- The line “You won’t return” in “The Flame” is Mr. Usher speaking under his breath.
- The significance to the Melpomene reprise as the end of The Flame is that Melpomene is Ms. Leading's song, and now she's dead, so her song is flipped into a minor key.
- There's a lot in the line “Lungs of a lark”. Larks are fragile, and since the line is sung by Hunter, he is also representing himself as a very fragile person trying to express himself. Also, a Lark can imitate other birds, and the Boy is mimicking another person too.
- Hunter burns the Church/Dime.
- Presumably before he burns down the buildings, Hunter sends away his wife and son, to the lake and the river, since his remaining in their lives will only cause them harm.
- Ms. Leading doesn’t die in the fire, but the Pimp and the Priest directly murders her in cold blood her.
- The Flame is Mr Usher convincing TPP to murder Ms. Leading. Casey has not thought through the details of how Ms. Leading is murdered, because he felt that would be a bit too dark to think about. Hunter burns down the Church/Dime with Ms. Leading’s body inside. Casey hasn’t thought about whether there is anybody inside either building when they burn, but probably not.
- “The Flame” is a play on words referring to Ms. Leading, but there’s also more to it than that.
- Hunter finds Ms. Leading dead in the church, so he burns it down with her inside like a funeral pyre.
- After TP/P kills Ms. Leading, her body is cremated in the fire.
- The Dime is still closed during Act V and the church has not become a brothel, but they're close enough together that they both burn.
- TP/P riles up the mob and leads them to Hunter’s house. He basically says “let me go in and try to reason with him,” and goes in, where Hunter kills him (again didn’t specify method of death). He stands over TP/P’s body in his house and contemplates what is left for him - nothing. If he dies, this pain will stop, it will all be over, at least things won’t suck anymore. OR, and this is the turning point in A Beginning, what if there is some sort of afterlife and everyone you’ve loved is there and it’s great? He commits suicide.
- Hunter thinks that dying by his own hand is better than what would happen if the mob gets a hold of him. Everyone knows who he is, Ms. Leading is dead, TP/P is dead, his Wife and Son are safe. He can die on own terms or surrender. He weighs the options of what happens when you die.
- There’s nothing in death, there’s everything in death. Either are better than continuing on.
- The line “I’m a Killer” is not as literal as there being a point in the song where Hunter kills TP/P. That line is Hunter looking at everything he's done to that point already. But then there is this sort of physical determined move that he makes at the end, which is him resolving to kill TP/P.
- Casey had originally written a different ending/second half to A Beginning (starting at that hopeful turning point) but scrapped it and re-recorded what became the final version.
- Both Hunter and TP/P are dead by the end of Act V.
- There's something very special about the last few minutes of "A Beginning," with that sound and then the reprise, but I can't tell you why, that's going to be a big part of Act VI.
- Casey has obviously envisioned the Acts as a movie – I asked what was happening in Cascade and he walked us through the beginning of Act V as if it were a movie. He said the Awake part of The Moon/Awake is where the opening title would come in, and then Cascade is Hunter’s inner monologue as he walks through the City on his way to the Church. He also said that if it were a movie, the end of The Flame would be TPP standing in Ms Leading’s doorway in silhouette, coming in to kill her – then fade to black.
ACT VI:
Spoiler
- TPP's murder of Ms. Leading isn't explicit, but the fact that TPP's murder wasn't highlighted will come up in Act VI.
- Act VI is possibly (probably) cinematic. Another chain of corruption. Mr. Usher will be TP/P in act VI. We won’t see Hunter's son corrupted - it's a redemption of the cycle.
- There will be music elements to Act VI, but it probably won’t be quite the same as prior albums.
- Act VI is possibly (probably) cinematic. Another chain of corruption. Mr. Usher will be TP/P in act VI. We won’t see Hunter's son corrupted - it's a redemption of the cycle.
- There will be music elements to Act VI, but it probably won’t be quite the same as prior albums.
General Acts-Related Info:
Spoiler
- The acts take place in an alternate history.
- Casey said he didn’t do, well, any historical research for the albums so everything is meant to be just a vague approximation of the time period. He used the example of the line “an innocent telephone call” in Where The Road Parts. At that time, telephone calls weren’t just an easy way to contact somebody, and not everybody had access to a telephone. He did say that the Dime closed because of WWI and did mention Prohibition, so that suggests Hunter may actually be American.
- Casey owns the orchestral parts of Acts IV and V. He made a deal with the label that since he was paying for the orchestra separately, they would not own that music. He has plans to sort of remix the orchestral parts into a symphonic experience of Acts IV and V - he used Cirque du Soleil’s Love as an example but he said it wouldn’t be quite that involved of a remix.
- Casey said that any melodic motifs in the later Acts are not necessarily meant as callbacks to specific events, but as callbacks to the emotional impact of the former song. Example used was the Mustard Gas reprise in ANOTT, Hunter is drunk and passing out in ANOTT, like when he blacked out in Mustard Gas.
- Casey said for the most part we have the story correct for the first three acts. He said he has seen incorrect theories but couldn’t remember any specifics.
- The Acts Graphic Novels should be coming out more than once per year. As of late September, Casey was getting color tests for Act II.
- Q. Do you plan your inclusion of melodic references/reprises ahead of time or as you go?
A. A bit of both. Like in "The March," I know what is going to happen in the story, so I know what reprises I want to use. I really love obsessing over things like reprises.
- The Senator was somebody Casey was going to put it, but he didn’t make the cut.
- Casey would like to re-release Acts I-III with new artwork from the same artist as Acts IV and V, but it will most likely not happen.
- The original demos had an isolated story. Once Casey decided what the story needed to be, he wrote an outline about the entire story. Cross-talk in the albums isn’t always backwards. There are elements of Act VI in all of the records. The idea for Mr. Usher always existing, but was waiting to be filled. Casey initially didn’t know his name or anything about the song, he just knew about the character. The building blocks were there but small facets were waiting.
- Hunter’s biggest flaw is that he’s completely reactionary.
- The Acts have a cyclical quality. A Mother w/ Child outside of city & an evil person after them. She’s going to have to come back & have an arrangement. If Hunter’s son can be a good person, the course correction would be worth it to make up from all of his corruption.
- Casey wants to do a podcast w/ Alex.
- Migrant and The Color Spectrum reprises on Acts IV and V are not a total accident. He really expanded his palette of writing with those two albums, and when he finds that he wants to write about a certain subject matter, "like the afterlife, I can write something that sounds like White, because I've already explored what I perceive the afterlife to sound like."
- "There isn't anything fantastical or supernatural or science-fictiony in the stories. Everything is grounded in the real world, there's no magic or anything. Actually, the most fantasy thing in the story is probably that it's not at all historically accurate."
- On writing reprises: "I actually start each album with a track listing. It helps me when I already know what each song is going to be about, so when I'm writing about a certain event, I have this running narrative in my head of everything so I know which events tie together, and so which tracks should reference which.”
- Casey said he didn’t do, well, any historical research for the albums so everything is meant to be just a vague approximation of the time period. He used the example of the line “an innocent telephone call” in Where The Road Parts. At that time, telephone calls weren’t just an easy way to contact somebody, and not everybody had access to a telephone. He did say that the Dime closed because of WWI and did mention Prohibition, so that suggests Hunter may actually be American.
- Casey owns the orchestral parts of Acts IV and V. He made a deal with the label that since he was paying for the orchestra separately, they would not own that music. He has plans to sort of remix the orchestral parts into a symphonic experience of Acts IV and V - he used Cirque du Soleil’s Love as an example but he said it wouldn’t be quite that involved of a remix.
- Casey said that any melodic motifs in the later Acts are not necessarily meant as callbacks to specific events, but as callbacks to the emotional impact of the former song. Example used was the Mustard Gas reprise in ANOTT, Hunter is drunk and passing out in ANOTT, like when he blacked out in Mustard Gas.
- Casey said for the most part we have the story correct for the first three acts. He said he has seen incorrect theories but couldn’t remember any specifics.
- The Acts Graphic Novels should be coming out more than once per year. As of late September, Casey was getting color tests for Act II.
- Q. Do you plan your inclusion of melodic references/reprises ahead of time or as you go?
A. A bit of both. Like in "The March," I know what is going to happen in the story, so I know what reprises I want to use. I really love obsessing over things like reprises.
- The Senator was somebody Casey was going to put it, but he didn’t make the cut.
- Casey would like to re-release Acts I-III with new artwork from the same artist as Acts IV and V, but it will most likely not happen.
- The original demos had an isolated story. Once Casey decided what the story needed to be, he wrote an outline about the entire story. Cross-talk in the albums isn’t always backwards. There are elements of Act VI in all of the records. The idea for Mr. Usher always existing, but was waiting to be filled. Casey initially didn’t know his name or anything about the song, he just knew about the character. The building blocks were there but small facets were waiting.
- Hunter’s biggest flaw is that he’s completely reactionary.
- The Acts have a cyclical quality. A Mother w/ Child outside of city & an evil person after them. She’s going to have to come back & have an arrangement. If Hunter’s son can be a good person, the course correction would be worth it to make up from all of his corruption.
- Casey wants to do a podcast w/ Alex.
- Migrant and The Color Spectrum reprises on Acts IV and V are not a total accident. He really expanded his palette of writing with those two albums, and when he finds that he wants to write about a certain subject matter, "like the afterlife, I can write something that sounds like White, because I've already explored what I perceive the afterlife to sound like."
- "There isn't anything fantastical or supernatural or science-fictiony in the stories. Everything is grounded in the real world, there's no magic or anything. Actually, the most fantasy thing in the story is probably that it's not at all historically accurate."
- On writing reprises: "I actually start each album with a track listing. It helps me when I already know what each song is going to be about, so when I'm writing about a certain event, I have this running narrative in my head of everything so I know which events tie together, and so which tracks should reference which.”
Non-Acts Related TDH Stuff:
Spoiler
- Indigo was Casey’s favorite color to work on (Lots of late nights)
- Casey would like to do a side project with Andy Hull
- "The only way you can get bigger than your band being backed by a full orchestra is getting as small as possible. I think that could be where we go for the next one”
- “In the next year or so we'll probably be touring for a new album - it won't be Act VI."
- When asked about listening to his own albums: "I never listen to them after they're out. There's like a two week period after everything is done that I listen to them over and over and over again and I truly love them, but then the minute that they're released to the public, I can't listen to them anymore, because they no longer belong to me. This is a really bad metaphor, but it's almost like watching your significant other, like, get passed around. And then I want nothing to do with it."
- Casey would like to do a side project with Andy Hull
- "The only way you can get bigger than your band being backed by a full orchestra is getting as small as possible. I think that could be where we go for the next one”
- “In the next year or so we'll probably be touring for a new album - it won't be Act VI."
- When asked about listening to his own albums: "I never listen to them after they're out. There's like a two week period after everything is done that I listen to them over and over and over again and I truly love them, but then the minute that they're released to the public, I can't listen to them anymore, because they no longer belong to me. This is a really bad metaphor, but it's almost like watching your significant other, like, get passed around. And then I want nothing to do with it."
Totally Random:
Spoiler
- Casey’s favorite wrestler is The Rock.
- Casey’s favorite dinosaurs are raptors.
- Casey loved the show “Preacher”.
- Casey’s favorite dinosaurs are raptors.
- Casey loved the show “Preacher”.
