In the great tradition of songwriters, it’s the scant few who can craft a compelling narrative that at once seems universally relatable, yet somehow extremely personal.
In the great tradition of songwriters, it’s the scant few who can craft a compelling narrative that at once seems universally relatable, yet somehow extremely personal. The Hold Steady and their songwriter / frontman / bespectacled talisman Craig Finn, through the twin benefits of age and hindsight achieve that idea in a hail of confused and hazy adolescent tales and characters frozen in the stark reality of contemporary society. So, that’d be opposite of Wall Street 2 , then?
"That was not worth my time… It’s a convoluted mess, it really is," laughs Finn.
The easy way out would be to blame the modern black hole of good acting, Shia LeBeouf right?
"In part…" Finn chuckles, "but I think in a lot of movies now they just have too many characters. You know what I mean?" he quizzes. "There’s like ten different subplots, but none of them are really developed, so you don’t necessarily like any of them."
Like fucking Tron: Legacy – where the audience are encouraged to, er, not kill themselves at how boring it was. At least, that’s what it seemed like the message behind that abortion of a movie was. But Finn’s idea rings very true – the cinematic experience is much better when characters and narratives are self-contained and relatable.
Wait. So… just like a Hold Steady tune. See what happened there?
"Yeah, it’s hard," Finn muses on the idea of constructing stories and people that an audience can understand. "That’s the thing; I go to movies often and think ‘god, there are too many characters’ and they stuff them with too many stars… so it gets to this part where there’s ten kinda famous people in the movie, but it isn’t in any way compelling."
That’s entirely the role of the artist though – to make people at least think about the topic you’re creating discourse on. It’s something The Hold Steady have achieved across their five albums – the New York band (formerly of Minnesota, home of excellent beer, the Twins, The Vikings, and er, many large coats) turning the memories of an America (or anywhere, really) that exists in the lives and experiences of young dreamers, dynamos, dropouts and drug-fiends everywhere.
They turn tales of hookers and waitresses into ideas of redemption and idealism, of unified scenes, partied out suburban legends – even if a world-weary, mature eye seems to be cast over them across their last two albums, Stay Positive and Heaven Is Wherever, preaching – or, rather, acknowledging – that redemption and struggle usually go hand in hand. And makes the success all the sweeter. The romance is slightly less overt, and the tales are ever more affecting. It’s like Jennifer Aniston’s nipples in the middle seasons of Friends – subtle, but still more than noticeable.
"I think that’s it – and what you’re trying to do as a songwriter or a painter or any kind of artist is you’re searching for that moment with your audience where they say ‘hey, I’ve felt that way too’.
"And when you’re connecting, it doesn’t matter if you’re from the US or Australia or Germany or wherever, people are saying ‘I don’t exactly know that street corner he’s talking about, but damn… I’ve felt that way too’. I think in the great moments of a Hold Steady show, that’s what people are kind of yelling: ‘hey, I’ve felt that too’."
That’s a premise that most bands struggle with, more than Jason Sudekis struggles with being recognised beyond ‘hey, you’re that, er, guy, from that… thing’. But for The Hold Steady, it comes more naturally than crazy comes to Charlie Sheen. Especially live, where the band’s sheer enthusiasm for their music is palpable. As Finn explains, it’s this element that stands at the heart of The Hold Steady.
"Well, I think one thing we try to communicate is that we have a really good time," he offer. "I think it’s maybe because we’re a little older, we have a pretty good perspective on what’s sort of important… and I think people come to a show and they deserve a moment, of elation, or euphoria. That’s something we’re trying to get to on stage, and we’re trying to help people who come out get to it with us.
"I say," he continues, "at the end of shows – no all shows, but some of them – I have this thing where I say ‘there is so much joy in what we do up here, and I want to thank you for being here tonight to share that joy with us’ (you can actually hear him say almost exactly that on their excellent live album, A Positive Rage) and I think that’s a very honest statement.
"We have a really amazing time doing The Hold Steady, and it’s amazing to have people come and be that excited with you. I continue to enjoy the touring and the travel, and we still are finding great audiences that are expanding, and yeah, it’s still the best job I’ve ever had," he chuckles.
As for the band’s plans for their sixth album, Finn explains that they’re in no real rush to add to their already impressive canon, which has been as timely as it has verbose and wide. Five albums in six years? Clearly they’re a band who aren’t short of material, nor can you begrudge them not releasing an album this year – that’d be like complaining about Tommy Alvin’s hair, or the run rate of Geoff Swampy Marsh, or praising the Anthony Edwards movie Miracle Mile – redundant and plain stupid.
"I’m not sure yet," Finn says of what the band intend to do for that sixth albums, "because we haven’t really started yet… but we’ve all got some ideas and we just need to sort them out.
"With the touring last year we didn’t get that much new stuff written, but I think there are ideas – we’ll have to start slinging them around in the next few months… but we’ve had such a break-neck pace of making records and putting them out that I maybe wouldn’t mind slowing it down a little with this one and letting it breathe a little more, see what develops naturally, rather than saying ‘alright, six weeks from now we’re going in to records, let’s get some songs together’. Sort of feel it out… we have put out a lot of music in short amount of time."
Indeed – and audiences surely wouldn’t hold it against them – unlike, say, AAMI changing the chick in their ads. But their upcoming Australian tour might provide the needed impetuous to get some material written. Especially in the rolling wheat field surrounds of Golden Plains.
"I’ve heard it’s amazing," Finn offers. "It’s a natural amphitheatre right? We can’t wait. I think we’ll get through these shows in Australia, and I’ll stay in Australia for an extra week, so hopefully I’ll get some ideas there… then we’ve got some shows in April, then we’ll start to look at it. But I’d like to think we’ll be looking at late summer/fall for us."
As for what they could thematically case it around – without taking on board an idea about the follow up story of John Kreese and Terry Silver? "Maybe the financial collapse," Finn suggests, :that is what I’m reading about… Probably not that, but you never know."
THE HOLD STEADY play The Hi-Fi this Friday March 11 (tickets from thehifi.com.au) and GOLDEN PLAINS from March 12-14 (tickets and info from goldenplains.com.au). Heaven Is Whenever is out now through Shock.
