Still Paunch-ing Above Their Weight

It’s midday in West Virginia and, in the back of a beat-up tour bus, the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn is in the middle of an old-fashioned rant. “Why would anyone want to join the Catholic Church?” he wonders. “My father said that to me once – ‘It’s one thing to be raised in the Church, but why would you voluntarily sign up?’”

Somehow our conversation has strayed onto the recent deluge of child abuse scandals threatening to unmoor the (already rickety) Papacy of Benedict XVI. It’s a subject upon which Finn, raised in a Roman Catholic family in Minneapolis is as well placed as anybody to comment upon.
“I still go to church from time to time,” he says, somewhat unexpectedly. “We weren’t raised in a strict household or anything. But it stays with you. I don’t go to mass every Sunday. But yeah, every so often I go back.”
The self-proclaimed ‘best bar band’ in America are about to charge back into action with their fifth album, Heaven Is Whenever. After the success of their last two records, 2006’s Boys And Girls In America and 2008’s Stay Positive, the new collection sees the band negotiating a major speed bump – it’s the first record they’ve made since the departure of keyboardist and founder member (and dapper dresser to boot) Franz Nicolai.
“He’s a great entertainer and a really talented guy,” says Finn of the tinkler, who is leaving to, ahem, pursue other projects. “In a way, it forced us to change our sound. There are less keyboards now. It’s more of a guitar-based project. It’s probably the hardest rocking thing we’ve done.”
Chubby and schlubby, these Brooklyn-based Midwesterners are about as far from NYC cool as it’s possible to get (journalists who dubbed them the anti-Strokes were referring to paunches as much as to their music). And yet, almost by accident, their beer belly image has become a calling card.
“It’s sort of our image now,” Finn proffers. “The thing is, it’s based in reality. It’s not an affectation. I’m 38-years-old. I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not. People can’t take our image away from us. This is what we’re really like.”
Ever since crashing the mainstream with Boys And Girls In America, The Hold Steady have had to endure endless comparisons to Springsteen (to be fair, Finn’s stream-of-consciousness murmur does have more than a whiff of Nebraska about it). So it was somewhat of a surprise to see them actively acknowledging their debt to The Boss when they covered his early hit ‘Atlantic City’, for the 2008 War Child charity record.
“In our defence, I would point out that the original artist picked who would do the covers. So when Springsteen asks you to play one of his songs, what are you going to do?”
Has Finn spent much time in the the Big B’s presence?
“Oh yeah, I’ve met him socially. There was that one time at Radio City Music Hall, where a bunch of artists were covering his songs. Nobody knew whether he’d turn up. But he came along and I ended up duetting with him. Right before he went on stage, he looked at me and said, ‘I hope you can remember the words, ‘cos I can’t.’”
Finn sees the self-effacing Springsteen as a perfect role model for rockers with aspirations towards a long term career.
“He’s kept everything real. For a guy who’s achieved what he has to be so down to earth is pretty damn astonishing really. When you meet him, he’s so quiet it’s almost embarrassing. Like, he asks you questions. And he’s genuinely interested.”
Finn got to bask in the company of another bunch of heroes when the Hold Steady supported The Rolling Stone at Slane in 2008.
“We didn’t get to meet them. On those huge productions there isn’t a lot of interaction with the headliners. But I saw them perform and it was a pretty amazing experience.”
There’s an urban legend that, playing Slane in 1985, Springsteen almost crapped himself when he caught his first glimpse of the 80,000 strong crowd. Did Finn suffer stage fright?
“Well, there certainly were a lot of people, that’s for sure. I would say the place was at least half-full when we got out there, so there was a degree of pressure. That said, nobody goes to a Rolling Stones show for the support, do they?”

Heaven Is Whenever is out now on Vagrant