Rock
Steady
American rockers The Hold Steady have racked up an impressive 10 years of vibrant riffs and vibrant storytelling. With a prolific output of six albums in that time – despite the four-year break before 2014’s Teeth Dreams – they have a hefty back catalogue to call on ahead of this month’s UK tour. Josh Allen finds out more. “I suppose you could say that we’re more HBO than Hollywood,” deadpans guitarist Tad Kubler down the line. About to tour the UK with their first new album since 2010, Teeth Dreams, which came out in the spring, Tad is talking about the band’s “lyrically dense” creative process. “I write the music. I think Craig [Finn, lead singer and lyricist] has always really liked narratives that are very specific, but also at the same time very cinematic in a way that’s episodic.” So where do those dense, tense, forensic, TV drama type narratives come from? “Craig always says: ‘If I wrote songs about my life they’d just be really dull.’ But that ain’t true, his life is actually really exciting! [Although in a different way from our music]. I suppose the reality is that he just likes writing the lyrics for our records that way.” That’s not to say that the crafting of each Hold Steady outing is the same. Whilst “the music and lyrics always happen separately”, this was the first time in six records that the band went into the studio without anything already written. “Craig quite often has ideas he’s already thought up,” Tad says, “but this time the dynamic was different in lots of ways. For instance this is the first record we’ve done with Steve [Selvidge, who October 2014
joined the band as a permanent fifth member in 2011]. Steve and I have a great rapport both personally and when we play together. I find we’re really complementary. “Also Craig had been working on a solo project and we’d all been doing different things, giving us some breathing space, some growing space, so it was really exciting to get back together again in the studio. [Personally], as we’ve done more and more records and I’ve become more and more proficient, I’ve found that I’ve been able increasingly to bring sonic ideas that I’ve already worked out to the process.” He quickly jumps in to assure that this doesn’t crowd out the other band members – “we work through each song together. [But] I find it helps me focus on the song structure and maybe the arrangement…it just makes it nice.” Despite the four-year gap between their last two albums, fans might not have to wait quite so long after this tour for another LP. “There’s been talk of going straight back into the studio, as well as talk of taking a break… Last time we wrapped up the touring cycle for Heaven Is Whenever and only intended to take six months out, that just naturally turned into two years so who knows.”
So what other impact has the passing of time had? Has success and getting older changed the band’s outlook? “[When you’re starting out] you spend eight hours in practice spaces making your record, that’s the focus. Then you get a bit of success and other stuff comes your way, wives, girlfriends, buying a bar…maybe more girlfriends if that’s your thing, all of that. It changes your focus, reduces your creativity, or at least redirects it; I guess that’s a shame. Technology has changed dramatically, it changed the world of music. Just think, when we started out, Twitter, Instagram, they didn’t exist, they were a few years away from existing. For a long time I guess we kind of thumbed our noses at the social media side. This was a mistake and a shame for our fans. Our attitude was ‘we can put 600 people in a room in Cleveland on a Tuesday night, we don’t care how many Facebook friends we have’.” Now though their attitude towards social media as a communications medium has undergone a sea change. “If you do it in your own voice, in the right way it can be really fun. That’s something I really enjoy doing, we all really enjoy doing it now.” The Hold Steady are live at the O2 Academy 2, Birmingham, on October 13. 19