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• Chips Ahoy
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No matter how different we as individuals are, there are ties that bind us, and The Hold Steady has put their sights on those ties more than any modern-day band. The core of The Hold Steady, guitarist-singer Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler, were in the Minneapolis band Lifter Puller before they packed up and headed east to New York City to start a new group. With the wisdom of a slap-happy Springsteen and the energy of a dozen Budweiser Clydesdales, their 2004 debut The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me introduced listeners to a fictional but tangible world starring characters with names like Charlemagne and Gideon, and loads of blow-out parties full of drug-addled sin, music, and youths gone wild. The songs walloped with raucous rock n roll and Finn's yammering, down-your-throat delivery. Their second album, 2005's Separation Sunday, saw the return of Charlemagne plus some chick named Holly, a place called Penetration Park and all its seedy sacraments, Catholic (dis)belief and salvation. And now we have Boys and Girls in America, which can aptly be called the rock n roll soundtrack of teenage life. It's a vivisection of human relationships- both the agony and the ecstasy. Finn, Kubler, bassist Galen Polivka, drummer Bobby Drake, and keyboardist Franz Nicolay, have made the new r-o-c-k in the U.S.A. Virgin Mobile recently spoke to Finn and Kubler.

VM   How has New York City affected your songwriting?

TK   I think that being in the cultural and artistic center of the world, obviously it's like if you wanna to get in the game, you really hafta kinda kick it up a notch. There are so many incredibly talented people here and everybody's tryin' to do their thing. Everybody's going for the dream, I guess. I think that creatively, it's a really inspiring place; you're around a lot of people that have a lot of great ideas and stuff they want to do, and this is where they come to do it. To just be able to be involved in that larger collective of creativity is a big influence. Also, having said that, you really kinda need to accelerate what you do because things move so quickly and stuff happens so fast. It really facilitates that need to thrive. It's hard because you don't want to sound cliché, you come to New York City to find your voice and then how to express that somehow. It's the age-old tale of "Fame," the f*cking TV show, but it's the honest-to-God truth, really. It's kind of undeniable. As much as you don't want to sound like some American Express ad about the kind of talent that New York City inspires, but it is the truth. When I was 14 playing in punk rock bands, I never imagined I'd be one of the owners of my recording studio and have a band and we were able to play like, we're playing Irving Plaza in October, and it's kinda hard to wrap your head around.

VM   Boys and Girls in America has more musical elements than your previous albums, namely the keyboards and organs. The rocking out sounds more tempered and overall, you sound smoother.

CF   Yeah. One is, as far as the keys go, on our last record, Franz our piano player joined really just before we recorded. So a lot of it, he's playing on top of it. These songs we wrote with Franz so we were really able to take advantage of the piano more and make it more dynamic. And with the singing, it's a similar thing. Really kinda getting into, try to fit into the music rather than talking on top of it. It was sort of a personal goal of mine. And lastly, this is really the first time we did much in the way of backing vocals. And that I think also makes it smoother, but also maybe more memorable chorus-wise.

TK   Part of that [smoother sound] was kinda the songwriting process this time. Like, on Separation Sunday I had written a lot of the music in my apartment by myself and brought songs in. With this one, I brought a lot of music in but it was more, kind of we sat down and hashed it out. The last record, Bobby, our drummer, was new and a lot of the songs were written when Franz came in. He kinda just came in and put organs on songs that had been written. With this one, he and I starting out, when I had a lot of ideas, he and I would sit down in his apartment with an acoustic guitar and his piano and really work on how we wanted the songs to flow. We came together more organically as a band. Because of how this kind of came about, I kind of wanted to do less-is-more with the guitar. I've done a ton of layering and a lot of multiple tracks on the last two records. This one I was like, "You know what, I'm gonna do one or two guitar tracks." I was listening to the first Led Zeppelin record and I was like, "God, this thing sounds f*cking huge, and you always want to ... it's like ... you always think like, "more is more it must mean bigger." And I'm listening to it and I'm like "God, there's like two guitar tracks on this song!" So I tried to take that approach too, and not overdo it, and in doing so I think it not only gave Franz a lot more room to move around and shine as a piano player and organ player, but it also made the guitar sound that much bigger, too.

VM   You know that song "Walking In Memphis"?

CF   Yeah.

VM   Some songs on Boys and Girls in America sound like that but with power chords.

CF   (laughs) That's funny. What's that... Marc Cohn?

VM   Yeah, that's the guy. Boys and Girls sounds more deliberately pretty.

CF   Yeah, that's one of the challenges we had, or more, the challenges we gave ourselves, was to write more hooks and make things where the vocals weren't working against the music always, and also some songs are more like three minutes rather than the big six-minute epic.

TK   Part of that, too, is how we approached the whole record of like, working with a producer, with John [Agnello], for the first time, and really letting him put his thumbprint on it. It came together better. I had been so involved with the mixing with the records before, with this one I was like, you know, if we're gonna let John do his thing, we gotta let him do his thing. I kinda stayed out of it. I listened to it initially, and I was like "Oh my God, we ruined it!" and I had to take like about a month off from it, and then listened to it and was like, "Oh, thank God."

VM   All three of your albums really struck deep with listeners because you really hit on the poignancy of the "teenage wasteland" thing but you don't romanticize it and people seem to appreciate that.

CF   That's sort of the idea in that rock n roll is often lyrically, the teenage years are sort of a familiar... something that's certainly written about throughout rock n roll, like Chuck Berry or whoever. The reality is, being a teenager isn't always about being in a convertible with wind rushing through your hair. There are scary parts, too, so that's what we try to capture.

VM   So what's happening to boys and girls in America that's different from when you were in their position?

TK   That's a broad question, but being a parent - I have a two-year old daughter - I try to pay attention to this. The way society consumes at this point is just so rapid. And the modern age, man, things just move quicker, access is easier to all kinds of different things. But the thing is, as far as Boys and Girls in America, I think what Craig is trying to say lyrically with the record is that, in terms of relationships, it doesn't matter if you're 14 or 40, and it doesn't matter if it's 1960 or 1984 or 2005, there's always the same elements of every kind of romance. It's kind of undeniable. Same highs, same lows. It's the age-old theme.

VM   On this album, characters from previous albums return, similar scenarios happening. It's like the Harry Potter for indie rock in that there's this anticipation and desire to know if these characters' stories continue.

CF   Really?

VM   I think so, yeah. With this an intention when you first started writing songs for the Hold Steady Almost Killed Me or did it just suck you in?

CF   No, no, no. It's not something that I planned out that long ago. I think Almost Killed Me worked in someway that made me want to keep going on it. But also I think this record is way more of a theme record, going back to the theme of "boys and girls in America," than it is a linear story like Separation Sunday was. In some ways, I feel it almost goes back to Almost Killed Me, which I thought was a more fun record than Separation Sunday and that was something we wanted to try to do again because. Separation Sunday, I'm very proud of it, but it was certainly kinda a little heavy at times.

VM   Let's talk about drugs. How is getting high or getting wasted - and the rituals involved - such a lucrative element of your lyrics?

CF   Well, I think for one, it's a real part of growing up in America. That's one of the reasons it's in the song. Also, highs and lows are a part of life and it's sort of an interesting thing for me to think of---the artificial, manufactured highs and lows. And I try to always point out the hangover as well as the elation, so to speak. I think that those soaring highs and crashing lows are sort of things of rock n roll.

VM   On the song "First Night," you bring Holly back and she looks great, but she looks different and you sing "We can't get as high as we did on that first night." What happens when stuff you knew suddenly becomes unrecognizable?

CF   Well, I mean that's sort of the drug thing, but it's applicable across the board, you know, getting jaded or burnt out on something. And I think that part of growing up is feeling a little less or less impressed by certain things. Certainly the idea of drugs and getting high or not getting high. But also maybe rock n roll might impress people less as they get older.

VM   "First Night" and "Citrus" kinda came out of nowhere. They're countrified, slower, a little sadder. Why for this record?

TK   I think that we've proven that we can make a loud rock record, and pull it off live, and do it as a band. One of the things I tried to do, musically, I was a little more deliberate when I went about it. I was like, I'd like to concentrate on areas of my playing personally that I know aren't particularly strong or that I just, and for whatever reason. One, I'm not at that level of playing yet or, or I don't do them very often. I mean, "Citrus" isn't something I get a change to do a lot in Hold Steady, so when I start to think about musically what I wanted to accomplish on a personal level, I was like "Let me come up with exercises that I'll practice playing and they eventually turned into songs." I just think that, I know that we wanted to deliberately make more of a dynamic record. And also, it's like trying to grow as a band and just kinda musically explore other parts of songwriting. Hopefully the next record after this will be a little more different and the next a little more so.

VM   Craig gives some advice to girls, saying "There's always other boys." What was some good advice someone gave to you?

CF   (laughs) My dad told me to stay away from malt liquor when I went away to college. It was pretty good advice. I didn't follow it but I knew once I went against it, I knew he was right.

TK   (laughs) Oh, I'm so uncomfortable with these kinds of questions... Oh Jesus, ahh... um. I mean there's been so many times I've been in dire need of good advice and I've gotten it, now I can't even give credit where credit is due. I can't tell you who gave me this advice, but I will say that somebody once said to me "Hey man, relax. Rock n roll can lead to some morally complex situations."