Tim Kasher plays Alamo Drafthouse Cedars on Wednesday, Sept. 13.Whether it’s with his indie rock bands Cursive or the Good Life or in his solo work, Tim Kasher writes lyrics that have a cinematic quality. Now he's taken a step into the film world with his first feature, No Resolution.
Kasher wrote and directed the film with a small group of actors and composed the soundtrack. He’s on a small tour, showing the film at theaters and playing an acoustic set afterward. That tour will stop at the Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas next week.
Like Kasher's lyrics, which often focus on the good and the bad of romantic love, No Resolution tells the story of one difficult, argumentative night in a couple's life.
Kasher made a name for himself in Omaha, Nebraska, with his bands Slowdown Virginia and Commander Venus before forming Cursive. But he got restless to experience life outside of the state. “I didn’t plan on staying in Omaha my whole life,” he says, speaking with the Observer from his home in Los Angeles.
He relocated LA to write and sell scripts, moved to a town in Montana, went back to his hometown of Omaha, then spent time in Atlanta and Chicago before finally settling down for good in Los Angeles, where his wife found a job. “I do feel like I’m starting to get a little older and wanting to be a little bit more sedentary,” he says.
His bandmates in Cursive and the Good Life are still in Omaha, but they don't have trouble finding time to play together and tour.
“It’s a really great place for a lot of musicians,” he says. “It’s really fuckin’ cheap place to live, which is awesome for them. It’s a great place to keep all of our gear and our vans. It’s right in the middle of the country. I spend a little extra money by flying in and flying some of the musicians in, but it’s OK.”
Putting a film together proved much more difficult than assembling an album or a tour.
“I’ve had a lot of success of doors being open for me and meeting people and getting people together to make these productions over the years,” Kasher says. “I’ve had many ups and downs bringing this script and that script into production and then it falling through.”"I felt determined and finally did what I should have done 10 years ago, which was set out and just do it myself." – Tim Kasher
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He was set to make a film in 2014, but it fell apart after the producers backed out.
“I felt determined and finally did what I should have done 10 years ago, which was set out and just do it myself,” Kasher says. “No regrets, really. Whenever you’re being offered help, always take it. I’m really glad that I went ahead and took matters into my own hands.”
Kasher took what could have been a short film and made it feature length. “An hour and a half as a film is actually quite short if you think about the length of time an argument takes in your life,” he says.
Even with a low budget, he had to take out loans to make No Resolution, and it took him a few years to pay them off. But he has his sights on more film work and albums. On Cursive's 2009 album, Mama, I'm Swollen, Kasher sang, "I spent the best years of my life/ Waiting on the best years of my life/ So what's there to write about?/ What have I done?"
So it's meaningful when he now says, “I’m glad with what I’ve done.”
