To be honest, I was quite nervous to sit down with Craig Finn, the frontman of New York by-way-of Minnesota’s The Hold Steady. Not only had I never heard a single song he has written, but I didn’t know a thing about him or his band. Then a bomb dropped; critics were drooling over these guys (in fact, they have the 21st most critically acclaimed album of the year according to www.metacritic.com) so I naturally assumed that they were as egomaniacal as another band I interviewed that day whose name I will omit for legal reasons. As I frantically ran up to journalists and fans alike, scrambling for any information they would give me, I realized my impending doom: This guy was going to see right through me, give me bullshit answers for about seven minutes, and leave me scrambling for material to use.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, I was introduced to a sincere, soft spoken man, who seemed unfazed by unrelenting hype, like being the first band to grace the cover of New York’s Village Voice in 15 years (May, 2005). The Machine sat down with Finn to discuss the underrated Minneapolis music scene, avoiding the proverbial sophomore slump, and his beef with the Mall of America.
Machine: How does a band with such a unique sound thrive in a place like Minneapolis?
Finn: Minneapolis is very interesting because 20 years ago The Replacements and Husker Du really made a lot of noise and a lot of people got a sense of civic pride of having these local live bands getting covered and getting critically acclaimed on the coasts. I think its become a very vibrant music scene and even-dare I say-square people go out and see local music and its almost like a sport team the way people follow the bands. It’s a music scene unlike any other I’ve seen before. Hip hop bands play with hardcore bands that open for singer/songwriters.
The Machine: So when did you move to New York?
Finn: I moved to New York in 2000 which has definitely been good for my career, but going back to Minneapolis it is certainly a great place to build a following. We still have our biggest shows there.
Machine: You just came out with your sophomore effort. How do you follow up a debut record (Almost Killed Me) that was so loved by fans and critically acclaimed?
Finn: Our first album was a little off the cuff. It was recorded in two 3-day sessions. It started out as demos and finished out into a record. We had 12 songs, cut out two, arranged the remaining songs, and called it a record. With Separation Sunday as the band jelled and played more shows, we were excited to make a more deliberate record. We spent a month on it.
The Machine: It must be easier to put a record all together at once.
Finn: Yeah, I got to spend more time on the lyrics, too. The first record I was kind of getting on the mic and talking shit. The second one I really thought about what I wanted to say. We really wanted to make an album rather than a collection of 10 songs.
The Machine: What’s your take on the industry, with iPods and everything, making the album almost a thing of the past?
Finn: I think people consume music quicker now. Because of the internet, it’s more disposable. I think artists might have to think about coming out with a record now in sort of the New World Order. Bands like The Beatles and The (Rolling) Stones were putting out albums once a year; sometimes quicker. Musicians may need to go back to that in order to keep up and stay on top.
Top 5 most annoying things with the Mall of America.
There used to be this cereal bar and the cool thing is you could get your picture taken and put on a Wheaties box. Les Savy Fav did one and a couple other bands I know. And they closed it down. So that was annoying; that The Hold Steady never got to get a Wheaties box.
There’s a radio ad for this restaurant, and they never said it is in the Mall of America, they just say its on the upper east side, not the upper east side of the Mall of America.
Glamour Shots. My wife had never seen it before and said “What is this place? They dress you up like a hooker and take your picture?”
The roller coast in Camp Snoopy is pretty weak. A kid died in Camp Snoopy in a gang fight. Thugged out Minnesotian gangsters hanging out at the Mall of America.
The smell of Cinnabon and those Carmel Corn places. I can smell it on me a day after I leave the mall.
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