Cass McCombs was born in 1977 and raised in Northern California. He is of the generation that grew up hearing the stories still fresh on people’s minds: Zodiac killings, Zebra killings, Manson, Black Panthers, SLA, riots, People’s Park, LSD, etc. These were the local legends and became the basis for McCombs’ imagination. He is a child of the 70s. Since leaving the area, he lived many years drifting the U.S. until ever attempting to make music seriously. He has said that from this experience he learned to listen people’s stories from many walks of life. Instead of university, this was his education. McCombs developed his narrative songwriting style, and since has always expressed himself through the use of characters. He writes stories for his friends using their humor, their language, with detail and color, relating their drug use to classical literary themes, for instance. Rather than fulfilling the stereotype of the confessional singer-songwriter, he describes the lifestyles and feelings of those that surround him, with more love than judgment. McCombs is a mirror. He currently lives in San Francisco and on the road and is working on a project surrounding a song he has written about Bradley Manning, which will be released in December 2011 at the time of the court-martial.
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