Dustin Kensrue

Dustin Kensrue (born november 18, 1980) is vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist in the Orange County post-hardcore quartet Thrice, as well as a solo artist.

Although Thrice is not considered a Christian band, Kensrue himself is a Christian. Some of his lyrics are inspired by Christian morals and their place in society today, with Kensrue drawing much lyrical inspiration from the 20th century author C.S. Lewis, who penned the well-known Chronicles Of Narnia books and countless books on Christianity. He has a tattoo on his left wrist which is a passage from the bible written in Hebrew.

Kensrue, Teranishi and the Breckenridge brothers have toured the U.S. opening for My Chemical Romance, fronted by Kensrue's close friend, Gerard Way, and in the U.K. Thrice played a VS Tour with prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria, fronted by another of Dustin's friends, Claudio Sanchez. They have also played alongside The Used and Thursday, both of which Kensrue has mentioned having greatly enjoyed touring with.

Dustin also has a solo acoustic side project under his own name. He had toured in past years on his own under the moniker "Ursus Veritas", but decided to drop the name in favor of simplicity since "people have enough trouble just pronouncing [his] last name to begin with." The name was a play-on-words of its Latin components: Ursus meaning bear, and Veritas meaning truth. Kensrue has been quoted as saying there is no real special significance to the name, other than he likes bears, and thought it sounded cool.

On January 23, 2007, Kensrue released a solo album titled "Please Come Home" under his name, Dustin Kensrue and on the label Equal Vision Records. It includes the tracks "I Knew You Before," "Pistol," "I Believe," "Please Come Home," "Blood & Wine," "Consider The Ravens," "Weary Saints," and "Blanket Of Ghosts." He wrapped up the recording and mixing of the album at the home of fellow Thrice member Teppei Teranishi. The album opened at 142 on the Billboard 200 with 5,800 copies sold. He supported the album with a solo tour including stops on David Letterman's talk show and The Fuse Network. Please Come Home met with mostly favorable reviews from critics, who have compared Kensrue's versatility in his vocals to singer/songwriter Ryan Adams and Johnny Cash.

http://www.myspace.com/dustinkensrue