WEBVTT - Ep 45: The Hold Steady 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:16.880 Loud and Quiet Presents Midnight Chats. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.920 I'll get this straight out of the way. I've got 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.200 a cold. Listeners, I've got a cold, but I'm not 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.480 going to talk about that, because there's nothing more boring 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.160 than hearing somebody talk about being ill or having a cold, 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.080 especially on a podcast. Welcome to this evening's episode of 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.120 Midnight Chats, number forty five. Thanks to those of you 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.920 who checked out Stuart's chat with Graham Coxon from Blur 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.440 last time out, it was great to have him on. 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:55.560 We've also got a couple of really good episodes that 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.880 we've already recorded coming up soon, so we're excited about 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.520 sharing those with you. If you are joining us for 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.160 the first time on Midnight Chats, do subscribe. If you 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.440 like what you're here, do RTUs do comment wherever you're 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.840 listening to this, hopefully you like it. I'm not going 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:17.000 to waste any time in getting into tonight's episode. Back 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.120 at the beginning of March, my guest was making a 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.880 quick stop in London. Craig Finn, the leader of the 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:28.559 Whole Steady, came by our office, the Brooklyn Bamber in town, 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.520 playing three shows across three nights in the Capitol, two 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.000 big ones and one tiny show. It was an approach 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.160 They gave a go in New York at the end 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.600 of twenty seventeen and that seemed to work well for them. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.520 They really enjoyed it, so they wanted to give it 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.319 a go here. They are a group who've been coming 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.400 to the UK regularly for well over a decade now. 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.440 Craig talks a bit about their first experiences of being 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.400 in Europe when their third album, Boys and Girls in America, 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.960 They're real breakthrough was taking off in two thousand and six, 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:08.640 and relatively speaking, the whole steady have slowed things down 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.280 for them at least a little bit over the past 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.200 few years. They released five albums in the first seven 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.360 years that we're together, but it's been four years since 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.520 their last one, though Teeth Dreams. Fans will know that 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.840 Craig doesn't ever sit around twiddling his thumbs. He's always writing, 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.679 and last year he released his third solo album We 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.280 All Want the Same Things, that he took on tour 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.440 and played a number of different types of shows that 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.240 he'd never done before. Now we've got a knack for 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.520 recording these conversations on occasions which seem to fit with 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.400 a little bit of history. The final print edition of 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.440 Enemy magazine came out on the same day that I 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.640 sat down with Craig. He mentions that, and it was 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.160 also the same day that Loud and Quiet, the magazine 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.280 that we every month, was relaunched in a new format. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:08.359 So maybe that was just a little footnote in the 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:13.520 history of UK music press. You never know, Craig fans 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.080 won't be surprised to hear was a gentleman. We covered 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.600 a bunch of different subjects during our chat. His attitudes 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.200 to social media, memories of touring boys and Girls in 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.800 America more than a decade ago, now, why it's important 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.520 to look after the band's dedicated fan base that they have, 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.840 and most importantly, I wanted to know about what he 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:41.680 orders as part of a classic British roast dinner. So 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.440 all of the important stuff covered. So here it is. 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.680 Then I'm off to find some lemsip. This is Craig 0:03:48.760 --> 0:04:06.720 Finn from the Old Steady on Midnight Chats. Enjoy, Welcome 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.520 to Midnight Chats, thanks for joining us, Thanks for having me. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.760 Welcome back to London. Obviously you've been here many many 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.960 times over the years, but you hate to play three 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.600 small intimate shows with a hold Steady. Tell me about 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.080 why you're attracted to doing a couple of small shows here. 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:23.800 Is it kind of getting back into things after a 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:24.640 little bit of time off. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.560 Well, yeah, in some way, I mean we I mean, 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.320 for one, London and the UK in general has been 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.200 very important to the band for a long time. It's 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.600 very supportive, and a couple of years ago, well, we 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:38.960 kind of were didn't do much for a few years, 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.440 and then we kind of came back a couple of 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.040 years ago and we booked four shows in our hometown 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.599 of Brooklyn to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Boys and 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.599 Girls in America, And we did the weekend and we 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.080 found it as a model that really it suited us. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.760 We liked it. It made sense for several reasons. One 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.880 is just like not moving the equipment, you know, and 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.400 having people come to you kind of convenience is kind 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.880 of awesome. Well, I mean, and it's not just because 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.560 it's easy. It also allows us to sort of focus 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.400 on the things that I think really matter, which is 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.160 the music. The set lists. You know, we could play 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.440 a lot of different songs where if you're you know, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.000 driving to the next gig, tearing it down, setting it up. 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.200 So much of your day it goes to that, so 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.200 it kind of allowed us to kind of focus on 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.080 the music more. And also there's been such a community 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.760 around the whole study with the fans for since we 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.520 started it. Really it allowed us to get people together 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.200 and you know, do different shows each night and have 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.840 you know, like people would go to you know, bar 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.200 pub after and you know, there's certain these things with 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.840 the fans that that took on its own life that 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.760 you know, it's almost aside from us. So we really 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.240 like those weekends and we repeated it this year and 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.280 over the summer. We didn't want in Chicago and we 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.920 sort of said, like this is really something that we like, 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.159 this this model from the get go. We've won to 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.359 bring it to London because that seemed obvious like maybe 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.719 the next place, you know, So it took us a 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.880 while to get there. It's not really on an innniversary 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:10.880 of a record or anything, but we were able to 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.560 find this time to do it and I'm excited to 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.680 be here and the show's sold out and I think 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:18.559 it'll be a lot of fun. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.080 So doing three shows in London over the weekend, it 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.720 finishes with a show at a venue called the Lexington 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.680 on Sunday, and as part of that, in the afternoon 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.279 you are going to have a traditional British roast with 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.960 a bunch of fans. Where does that idea come from? 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.440 Well, I think Dave, our manager, thought of it. It 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.119 was sort of modeling the weekend we did last summer 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.239 in Chicago where we did two shows in a club 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.039 roughly the size of the Electric Ballroom, and then we 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:47.919 did one at the Empty Bottle, which is more like 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.719 the size of electings than a smaller one. So we thought, 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.279 you know, let's maybe do one that's just sort of 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.160 almost like too small, you know. But then we said, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:58.919 since it's a Sunday, you know, you can do a 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.880 smaller Obviously the big shows on the weekends nights and 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.280 Sundays for the diehards, right, so it's smaller, and we said, well, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:07.000 you know, let's how do we tie it in? And 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.159 we thought the Sunday roast would be a cool thing 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.840 that would make sense, and it might be a fun, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:14.880 you know, angle to it. I don't know how much, 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:19.120 you know, there's always a tricky thing about eating and 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.120 playing music, so I don't know how much eating any 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.280 of us can do, but we can certainly hang out 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.880 and I think, like you know, over the years, I 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.800 think we have settled into some Sunday roasts on days 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.160 off over here and things like that. And funny enough, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.800 up from the Lexington on Pittonville Road there there's a 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.160 what used to be a Jury's in. I think it's 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.080 a double tree now, but that was sort of headquarters 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.200 for the whole steady for a long time. We'd always 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.240 stay at that hotel and it saw some of our 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.400 best and worst moments. So it's kind of funny. We've 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.680 never played the Lexington before. It used to be something else. 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.040 I think maybe it was always the Lexington. I don't know, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.480 we never played there before, but I've certainly been there 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:57.120 a number of times. 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.760 So it's me about the traditional push where used to 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.120 you fan? Then if you have you you on the 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.040 menu and Sunday you've got You've got classic pork, you 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.200 have some chicken on there, there's a vegan nut raast. 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:08.400 What what are you going to go for? 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.280 I well, if I if I eat, I think I 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.200 would go for chicken. It seems like the best pre show. 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.680 Uh protein and uh do you have. 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.400 To think strategically before shot. 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.760 Yeah, well, you know, I'm forty six at this point, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:23.640 so yeah, more so than ever, you have to kind 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.840 of think of strategically about your your your food. I mean, 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:28.600 you don't want to get up there and feel I 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.680 feel like my best shows are when I'm hungry, uh 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.920 and and so like I feel like there's if you're 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.120 too sated, you know, I feel like you've had enough 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.160 to eat, or if you're comfortable, like your mind wanders, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.200 and your mind wandering is like the last thing you 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.520 wanted on stage, because then you're forgetting lyrics. We have 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.000 a lot of words. So I think like coming on 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:52.160 stage a little bit hungry is best. So loading down 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.680 with food I try. You know, I think most singers 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.760 probably go for three hours before or something like that. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:00.600 You need to kind of give it a pretty good 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.880 buffer and we'll see on that one it's but it'll 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.280 be a lot of fun either way. I do every 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.920 year I quit drinking for Lent, so but this kind 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.520 of is right in the middle of Lent. So I 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.040 saw the I saw up ahead. So this year I 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.000 started Lent two weeks early so I could take what 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.640 I'm calling a European exception. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:22.360 Taking a hiatus. 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.120 Yeah, well I'm going, I'm going my girlfriend's coming out, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.160 or were going to Paris and Amsterdam. I'm after so 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.240 I figured it needed to lent, needed a break. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.800 Talking about those early memories. End up coming over to 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.760 London with the whole steady going, staying at what used 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.760 to be the Jewelies in on Pennerville Road. For people 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:41.640 listening to this, that's a hotel that a lot of 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:43.920 bands often stay at when they come to London for 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.320 the first time, international bands because it's right in the 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:48.880 center of town. It's close to a lot of the 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.120 venues that bands often come and play, and the hotel 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.120 bar there. If wolves could speak, yeah, yeah, you're from 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:56.840 staying there. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.000 I mean, my favorite memory of staying there was there 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.280 one morning where I'm sure the hotel one want us 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.040 to say this, but we were up we'd gone to 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.320 like the off license, and we were up drinking in 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.920 the lobby and you know, we were trying to be polite, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.200 but we were there until right as the sun was 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.400 coming up. The manager came over and said, guys, you've 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:25.200 actually been fantastically quiet through this, and you know, it 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.920 really hasn't been a problem. But you are still drinking 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.960 at six in the morning, and the breakfast people are 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:32.760 gonna come down soon, and I don't want you to 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.480 scare them, So if you could go back up two 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:36.319 rooms now, we'd appreciate that. 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:36.760 That was a. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:42.480 Reasonable rock and roll interaction. You know, we stayed up late, 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:44.400 but we didn't cause too many problems, so that was 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.600 pretty good. We had such like you know, seven is 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.840 when Boys and Girls came out. We actually came over 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.320 once before that. We played one show with les AaB 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.320 fav at the Islington Academies. I think that's it's just 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.360 literally around the cool Yeah, but we didn't really have 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.040 a record out then over here, so we kind of 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.680 came and never followed up. So there's this one isolated 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.719 show that happened and then nothing. But then we came 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.040 over on Boys and Girls in America and it did 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.720 quite well and and and it was really a whirlwind 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.840 playing shows and people showing up repeatedly. In that first 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:25.000 year especially, we did like a lot of cool things. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.480 We played with kings Lean over at the Historia. Was 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.800 that what's called legendary yeah venue in London. Yeah, so 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.200 we got center Town, we got that one under our belt. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.960 You know, before I went down and UH and played 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:39.800 a couple of shows at the Borderline that were kind 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.640 of crazy really early on, and then UH, and then 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.680 just kept coming back and made a lot of friends here. 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.280 I think that's the biggest and most important thing. Made 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.079 a lot of friends that always wanted us to keep 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:51.680 coming back. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.360 You already mentioned it, the whole steady community of fans. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.400 In a way, it's an unusual thing now to have 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.400 the type of fandom the whole stead He has, because 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.040 you have a really dedicated fan base who like to 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.440 talk about the band, like to share stories, like to 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.000 come to see you. Like I imagine when you play 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:10.839 this run of shows, they're probably fans are going to 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:12.840 come in every night, and like you already said, they 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.280 go meet up, they have a drink beforehand, they chat 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.600 about memories, they chat about new records, things like that. 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.200 How do you view that fandom of your band. Is 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.640 it something that you really cherish and always want to nut, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:24.480 shows that you protective over it. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:26.840 Yeah, it's a huge part of what we do. I mean, 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.439 it's things, it's how we kind of arrange things, it's 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.280 what we think about, it is what we talk about. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.800 It was from the get go something we wanted to foster. 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.080 I was really into hardcore growing up, and I thought like, 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.560 what if there was some of that community, the scene, 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.360 so to speak, in a band that wasn't necessarily hardcore, like, 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.600 you know, more a classic rock band, but had this 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.520 kind of thing. And pretty early on when we started 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:58.120 playing shows for whatever reason, people started to travel, you know, 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.240 and you'd say like, wow, that guy's been in the 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.079 front row of four nights in a row. Let's see 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.439 if he's here tomorrow, and you could kind of pick 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.600 them out. And then a really cool thing happened at 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.200 some point where there was a message board where fans 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.560 would talk to each other, but everyone's using handles, you know. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.200 So someone went to a show and said, I was there, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.000 but I didn't know what any of you guys looked like. 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.079 And so someone else said, all right, well, I'm gonna 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.079 put together T shirts. And it was called the Unified Scene, 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.480 which is based on a lyric and if you give 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.600 me your number, like you know, say you want number thirteen, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:32.280 and you give me your size, I'll send one to 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.880 you free. And there were several runs of these where 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.080 people sort of payd it forward. Someone said I'll do 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.480 the next round, and you could make a roster and 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.240 you'd say, like, I'm number twelve, so I'm gonna wear 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.160 my shirt at the show. If you're looking for me, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.720 you can see on the master list. Oh you know 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.160 Craig Finns number twelve, or you know dog Guy or 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.840 whatever you know, and you say, hey, dog Guy and 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.079 I'm like, yay, you know, I'm Catman or whatever. And 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.680 so then they know each other. And then that really 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.840 grew the community a lot, and people really felt a 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.280 part of something. And you know, this weekend, well in Brooklyn, 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.320 we had people from all over Europe, New Zealand, Australia, 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.600 all over the US, Canada that flew in. They see 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.400 each other, and you know, I know there's a lot 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.680 of Americans in town tonight. There's people I know from Norway, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.800 from New Zealand, people from all over the world coming 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.440 in this weekend. I think it's as much to be 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.320 a part of that as to see the band, you know, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.440 I mean, and that's something we've deliberately fostered. I think 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:34.800 is very important. 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.360 When something as organic happens like that, has ever been 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.600 like an instance of like a whole steady wedding that 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.840 you're aware of, or anything like people that have met 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.720 via coming together over the band who are still coming 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:48.200 to shows together or anything like that. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.520 All the time on social media people say send me 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.000 photos of their wedding and say, like, you know, our 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.800 first show was in Louisville, Kentucky four years ago, our 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.200 first date. You know, it was a show we had 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:05.560 an engagement of two fans in Chicago that we kind 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.800 of facilitated from the stage, that kind of thing. So, yeah, 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.480 there's old steady weddings, there's old steady. 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:13.120 Yeah. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:20.640 Divorce yeah, well they probably will happen some well statistically, right. 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.040 When I was reading about the shows that you played 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.400 in Brooklyn at the end of last year, you made 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:27.960 reference to a guy called mosh Pitch. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.080 Josh. Yeah, who's mush Pitch Josh. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.640 Josh is our merch guy and Josh Gourdon and Josh's 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.560 has worked for us a long time. He's become a 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.000 great friend. But he had done merch for kind of 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.360 a lot of more like Hate Breed and kill Switch, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.760 engaged some kind of heavier bands. Yeah, yeah, heavier bands. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.000 I think he so much has said when he started 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:54.840 working us that he was happy to be on tour 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.360 selling tea shirts, but the music wasn't really his thing. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.200 But then cut to a few months later, he declared 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.000 Hold Steady was his favorite band, and he got a 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:07.640 Hold Steady tattoo, and now he occasionally, if the night's right, 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.440 joins us on Stay Positive. He's able to kind of 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.400 provide more of a hardcore feel. So this this song 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.360 is kind of a homage to you know, eighties hardcore, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:21.640 and he's able to kind of bring it a little 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.160 harder than I can. Rough voice, He's got a gruff voice, 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.240 a gruff exterior. I would say we. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.800 Talked a bit about the Hold Steady community. What about 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.640 the Hold Steady yourselves as a band obviously where what 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.440 fourteen fifteen years into the bout? 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.600 Yeah? Fifteen yeah, how does it still feel exciting? 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:40.760 Way? 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.160 He has to be in the Hold Steady every day. 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:42.680 It does. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.000 It does, and you know, partially because of a lot 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:46.960 of it's because of the community. But you know, I 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.600 feel like, you know, it's changed a little bit over 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.720 the years. Obviously everyone's changed as people if you have 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:54.920 to in fifteen years. But I think one of the 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.640 most exciting things right now is that Franz went away 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.400 for a while and we got Steve Salvage on guitar, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:02.560 so we added you know, Franz left, we had another 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.800 guitar player. Now Franz is back. We're a six piece 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.959 lineup and it's really like, I'm not pandry. It is 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.679 the best Hold Steady. So it's like we're in twenty 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.439 eighteen and where we have the best lineup of the 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.360 whole Steady we've ever had. So that's incredible. To have 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.000 both Steve and Franz on stage is a blessing, and 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.480 we were able to do some new songs, which is 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.359 exciting too. So I mean, like it feels really good 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.480 and we aren't doing two hundred and fifty dates anymore, 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.280 but that's fine. You know, we've done that and I 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.480 think that, like what we're doing now makes a lot 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.160 of sense and it has been really rewarding. 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.800 When you have a dedicated audience like you have with 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.560 the Hold Steady, what fact does that have on your 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.280 approach to writing new material. You've made six albums, so 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.520 do you worry about the reaction that you might have 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.560 from that that audience or do you think, you know what, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.919 I can only make music for myself or ourselves, right, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.600 the if we make a divisive record, if we do 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.840 something a little bit different, if we split those people's 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.520 opinions on new stuff, that's okay, that's pompossible. 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:09.160 Being in a band. 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:11.720 I think more of the latter, I think, and I 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.240 guess I think that. There's my view on everything is 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.359 there's some always more songs. When we started the whole study, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.400 one of the things I was kind of adamant about, 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.080 or talked a lot about, was to keep music coming. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.639 And so, you know, not quite in the guided by 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.920 voices pace, but something you know, an album a year 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.040 was my and that's what we did for the first 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.359 four years. Yeah, And my thought is like if you 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.159 wait too long, then you kind of have to come 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.199 up with a masterpiece, right, you know, you have to 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.159 come up with Sergeant Pepper's or something. And instead you 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.159 can just be like, hey, we got ten songs. You 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.160 want to hear them. So what we've done the last 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.560 two you know, we just we put out we recorded 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:49.760 four songs in November, we put two out before the 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.359 show's in Brooklyn. We just put two out this week. 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.680 That's kind of connected to that logic. It's like, hey, 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.320 here's two more songs, and you know, the way we've 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.280 listened to music has changed a lot, with Spotify streaming 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.480 all that that, it doesn't I think it's just kind 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.720 of makes more sense at this point to not be 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.359 going off for a month to record this album and 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.120 then wait eight, you know, seven months to ramp up 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.240 to put it out and then go on this tour. 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.760 I think everything else has changed, so I sort of 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.879 feel like our outlook has has to change too, about 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.760 how we put things out. And I don't know, I 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.399 feel like you can look at it both ways. But 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.960 having six records out, you know, and that people seem 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.840 to like, or our fans really like, I don't think 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.359 there's much we could do that would like at least 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.159 erase those six you know, like you could have a misstep, 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:42.280 but it wouldn't be huge. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.840 Have you always been somebody who embraces change and see 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.800 yourself as adaptable. You mentioned it there, the evolving ways 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.560 that people consume music, they listen to their music. Even 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:54.719 this week, there's been loads of chat about that in 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.840 the UK because obviously in the music press, arena enemy 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:00.920 the print magazine is that shoe comes out today. 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:01.760 I just got it. 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.719 You picked it up yeah, okay, probably looks different from 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:06.879 the enemy that you first. 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.320 Yes, yes, quite a bit skinnier. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:10.440 Yeah. 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.040 And it comes in the same week when other magazines 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.640 have relaunched. Kerrang for example, was relaunch this week Loud 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.760 and Quiet. We've literally just about our relaunch issue today. 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.880