I use a lot of specific places in my songs - traditionally, a lot from Minneapolis and St. Paul, where I grew up. Most people, especially when you get into international touring, have not been there. So you say, "Well, isn't it risky to talk about the corner of Franklin Avenue and Lyndale?" If you do it right, someone should say, "God, I know a corner like that." Offering specific details to describe something universal.
The point of being in a band, for instance, isn't to get big; it's about enjoying playing shows.
If you wait four or five years between records, it better be a masterpiece, you know? And if you keep putting them out, you're saying, 'Hey, here's 10 more songs'.
My style of lyric-writing is very specific and has a lot of details, and I think people react most to that.
The more you release records, in some ways it takes pressure off you.
An album doesn't mean as much to a lot of people now, compared to just songs.
There's somewhat of a real fascination with American bands and American mythology in London.
Being on a microphone nightly has made me better at what I do, made me better able to sing a little bit, but also more confident at trying it.
When you get into rock 'n' roll myths, like that Rod Stewart blew his whole band and had to get his stomach pumped, it's ridiculous, but everyone's heard it.
The critics and hardcore music fans, those are the people you have to get to first, so we're really happy about it.
I graduated high school in 1989, and there was no alternative rock radio, and there wasn't really good college radio you could get on a car stereo. Once you get a car at that age, you're spending all the time you can away from home, sometimes just driving around aimlessly. Listening, or not even listening, but subconsciously soaking up this classic rock barrage.
Some people I've talked to have had really an interpretation of this record as being nostalgic. But in some ways, when we were writing Stay Positive, I was really obsessed with age. I kept saying it was a record about trying to age gracefully. This record, I think actually was us aging gracefully.
It's really easy, in a band, to overstate - you feel like everything you do is different than the past. I think this is just another Hold Steady record, but at the same time, there is some evolution. Like, "How can we make this chorus bigger?" "What do we want this to sound like?"
My big thing is to get onstage sober. Whatever happens from there happens. But you get onstage drunk and it's not going to be good. It takes a while. I have to sing a lot, so I can only drink so much. So most nights it's fine; even if I drink as much as I possibly can, I can't get that drunk.
The idea of anyone collecting compact discs just seems bizarre to me.
I made a decision at some point to live a nontraditional life. I've become like, the opposite of a consumer. I just want freedom. I don't want stuff. I don't want clutter. I just want to be able to move freely. I want to be good to the people I love. But I don't want stuff. I just want, you know, love and big ideas.
As a writer, if you have something on a page, you can start moving it around and get something you like. But if you have a blank page, it's just gonna be a blank page.
I think, Trump ran a very nostalgic campaign. There's an idea of like, to put it bluntly: What if it was like before all our kids got strung out on drugs? You know, what if it was like that? Make America like that.
My wife is very happy about me keeping all my music in my pocket.
The Catholic influence just comes from being raised Catholic, going to church every Sunday, being confirmed, going to church on holy days. So it's coming from where I am. It serves the purpose of having people who have a base or foundation where they know what's right.
I can still sing most Eagles songs, even though I never bought a record and never liked the band.
If we enjoy what we're doing, we shouldn't really need a break.
I am a really obsessive music listener, and I would look for clues.
I don't have a problem rhyming "bar" with "car" - I do it all the time - but sometimes it doesn't feel right.
I think the other thing that shaped me a little bit is that I really didn't have any success in music until my early to mid-30s.
