The Hold Steady

“Four records ago Craig and I had a band in Minneapolis called Lifter Puller that split in about 2000; Craig moved to New York, I moved to L.A. and then eventually New York. We were hanging out and just thought it would be fun to play music again,” explains Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler when asked about his band’s beginnings. “We had little ambition back then aside from getting together to play. We didn’t have plans to tour but thought we might put out a record or something. The digital era had dawned and we realized that if we did record stuff we didn’t necessarily have to have a label. Bands have websites that offer music and shit like that. It all snowballed and we started touring, so now here we are, four records later, sometimes playing festival crowds with 40,000 people.”

So it goes for The Hold Steady, a band of 30-something rockers most effortlessly described as The Replacements of their abstemious (read: more controlled) times. Riding the buzz of their 2006 breakthrough, Boys and Girls in America, the NYC (by way of Minneapolis) band quickly recorded what has become one of this year’s biggest success stories, their fourth studio record, Stay Positive.

“There’s been a little bit made about our age because we’re all in our 30s,” Kubler said when asked if the band felt added pressure when following up Boys and Girls. “I think instead of stressing out about how to impress people like bands that are first starting out would, we’ve always gone out with the attitude that, you know, ‘now we have everyone’s attention, let’s show ‘em what we can really do.’”

Stay Positive, the record the band rolls into Bloomington on November 13 in support of, holds the bar higher than ever, offering a bigger, more ambitious sound and song structures and writing that can only be described as grower material. “With the amount of touring we did for Boys and Girls, we really got to know what each other’s strengths are as far as playing and songwriting, so that really helped us with Stay Positive.

“Everybody is involved with the writing process. Sometimes I’ll just bring in some ideas and then Galen [Polivka], Bobby [Drake] and I will sit down and work stuff out and hash some ideas out. Then Franz [Nicolay] will come in - and the guy can play anything!” Kubler explained. “The arrangements then start to really take shape as Craig [Finn] brings in the lyrics and his story.

“We’re not out buying cars and houses. No AMEX Platinum cards or anything,” Kubler joked when asked about quitting day jobs and such. “We’ve treated the band like any other job. We just decided that if we’re gonna do this, that’s all we’re gonna do. And so we have four albums in five years.”

Written by G. William Locke