Steady as they go

Craig Finn – singer, guitarist and lyricist with Brooklyn-based rock group The Hold Steady – looks like an archetypal US indie-rocker. He's bearded, be-spectacled and nerdy. His musical tastes lean in a somewhat different direction, though.

The Hold Steady are unapologetic FM rock fans who admire Thin Lizzy and deliver their fat, stadium-pleasing riffs without a trace of irony.
“A lot of the stuff that we were listening to in the early 2000s was kinda tight and syncopated,” explains Finn, while sitting in an empty bar, pre-show at the Temple Bar Music Centre. “It was not interesting to us – it seemed like choreography! Our music is hard rock, it’s ‘70s rock; certainly more so than the average indie band. It’s kinda back to basics.”
All well and good, though Finn disagrees with my contention that The Hold Steady’s take on classic rock is a particularly indie-friendly one. Have the group not succeeded in wooing listeners of a more fey and cerebral bent with a beefier, more party-oriented sound?
“A lot of our fans are people like us,” counters Finn. “They would be a little older than your average show-goer. As we got older, our record collections started to expand. We got more into stuff like the Stones, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen; things that had a more simple and direct approach. Once we played, we realised that we were doing something that a lot of people were missing, and weren’t getting through other bands.”
Fair cop, though perhaps their indie appeal lies in Finn’s distinctive brand of lyricism, which he accepts is “pretty dark for a sound that’s very celebratory”. There are also numerous religious references scattered across The Hold Steady’s material. Are these usually employed as a metaphorical device, or should they be taken at face value? Finn is quick to insist that the latter suggestion is closer to the truth.
“I don’t think they’re there for metaphor,” he asserts. “I was raised in the Catholic Church, and being Catholic is part of who I am – though I have my own version of it. I don’t go every Sunday, and I don’t follow the Pope that closely. It’s something I’m very interested in; the rituals, and where it fits into people’s lives.”
This year’s Boys And Girls In America is The Hold Steady’s first official album release in this neck of the woods, though they did have two records out prior to it, on native soil. The title is a decent indicator of its content; the more-universal themes of heartbreak and romantic relationships are present, but always in a palpably trans-Atlantic context. Finn agrees when I suggest that they are a quintessentially American band, though he doesn’t feel that it should be a barrier to success outside their homeland.
“I have a lot of really specific lyrics, and there are a lot of references that are pretty American,” he muses. “People wondered whether it would cross over, but when I was growing up in Minneapolis, I didn’t know a lot of things that The Clash were singing about. Regardless, I could feel the excitement, and it made sense to me.”
Indeed, it’s difficult not to enjoy the raw, exuberant rock that populates Boys And Girl In America. The record is not without contemporary touches (and Finn does accept that it’s a little more polished than the two that preceded it), but the group do frequently appear time-warped, in the best possible sense of the word. So, when I ask The Hold Steady vocalist to name some of his favourite contemporary songwriters, a brief response is anticipated. Not so; this is a band with more cronies than you might expect.
“We have contemporaries,” Finn confirms. “The Drive-By Truckers and Lucero, The Thermals, The Constantines. We’re all good friends. They’re bands that we’re very into, and they feel like peers. We try to play gigs together, and we go to each others’ shows.”
Finn’s list of all-time favourite songwriters is a little more predictable; Dylan, Lynott and Springsteen (the artist to whom they are most frequently compared) are all mentioned, though it may interest some to know that Paul Westerberg, of The Replacements fame, may be the biggest influence on The Hold Steady.
“The reality is that I’ve listened to four-hundred hours of The Replacements for every hour of Bruce Springsteen,” chuckles Finn.
Don’t be fooled by this last statement, though; the group are still huge fans of The Boss. Indeed, they recently managed to secure a gig at The Stone Pony – a legendary New Jersey music venue at which Springsteen (among others) built his reputation.
“It was really fun,” he smiles. “It’s exactly what you would think it is; a seaside bar that you can sing in! There’s a decrepit boardwalk and a Ferris wheel off in the distance – it’s very much what you would think of old Springsteen!”
The Hold Steady have been described as possessing a Springsteen-esque blue-collar vibe, and this is a label Finn is quite content with, saying that it is merely a testament to their hard-working mentality. This particular night’s work is still a couple of hour’s away, though, so once the interview is complete, Finn sets off to meet his bandmates for a couple of pre-show drinks. Their chosen watering-hole? Bruxelles, right next to Phil Lynott’s statue, of course. The Hold Steady’s love of classic rock won’t be fading any time soon.