The Story of The Dear Hunter

Casey Crescenzo is a songwriter who hates writing about himself.

"I've never really been a fan of just singing about myself in a totally transparent way," said the mind behind the indie/experimental rock band The Dear Hunter. "I always felt it was a little bit selfish, you know, and a little arrogant in assuming that you are important enough to talk about."

Crescenzo started out in playing in the Boston-based experimental, post-hardcore rock band, The Receiving End of Sirens, which broke up in May of 2008. The Dear Hunter was something Crescenzo created on the side.

"I started writing music that was really different from the band that I was in and there was no reason or way to bring it to the band because it probably would never be used."

The result became a six-part story about the birth, life and death of a male protagonist. The first album, Act I: The Lake South, The River North was released in 2006, the second, Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading in May of 2007, and third - most recent - Act III: Life and Death was released this past June.

"I'm a fan of things that have an absolute end to them," Crescenzo said. "Not that [the series] wraps everything up nicely, but that you don't need to go back, it wraps it up enough...so there is some sense of fulfillment in the end and you can move on to something else."

By the time Crescenzo finishes the six-act story, he estimates that he would have spent eight years creating the final product.

Come see Casey Crescenzo and the rest of The Dear Hunter tell its story at Mac's Bar on September 24.