Thrice is an American rock band that formed in Irvine, California in 1998. The four members of Thrice are Dustin Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi, Eddie Breckenridge, and Riley Breckenridge.

The band name came from an inside joke: A friend claimed that he had beaten the computer game Frogger twice, but Dustin Kensrue responded that he had beaten the game “thrice”. Lacking better ideas, they chose it as their band name for their first show, but never loved it and considered changing it every album for the next ten years until finally accepting it.

Their style early on was characterized by fast tempos, unusual time signatures, heavy distorted guitars, and screaming – falling somewhere between punk and hardcore.

Their musical style evolved significantly over time and they’ve shown themselves to be skilled and eclectic as musicians and songwriters, retaining some of their older style while expanding into other genres as well. Thrice songs cover a spectrum of genres including acoustic, electronic, hardcore, punk, grunge, blues, and folk. The band often writes the music and lyrics to reflect the same emotional and thematic content and their songwriting process is very democratic.

From early on to Alchemy to more recently, lead singer Dustin Kensrue has written the lyrics to nearly every track. His lyrics are finely crafted and often have multiple layers of meaning. About his message, Kensrue has said:

I want my music to be engaging for humans in general, not just a specific subset of someone that believes something. There’s enough shared experience for us as humans to communicate meaningfully through conversation and art, even with people that you don’t agree with.”

Many of Thrice’s lyrics are poetic, though others read more like prose essays. Both from his lyrics and interviews, it is evident that Kensrue is a voracious reader and deep thinker [1:31:36]. He is a Protestant Christian and frequently uses themes and allusions from the Bible – and sometimes direct quotations. In the same vein, there are numerous references in Kensrue’s lyrics to work by Christian writers including C.S. Lewis (Dustin’s favorite author) and G.K. Chesterton. Additionally, Kensrue gets inspiration for lyrics from historical people and events, novels, films, Greek philosophy, and a host of other subjects. Regardless of the subject, the feelings and subjects explored in their tracks are personally meaningful to the band.