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 Guitarist TAD KUBLER of Brooklyn’s THE HOLD STEADY convinces THOMAS NASH that they’re trying to grow up.
Stay Positive marks The Hold Steady’s fourth album in five years and sees Brooklyn’s quintessential bar band hunting for sonic expansion. Guitarist Tad Kubler explains. “I wanted to try to do a more dynamic record than we’d done in the past. A slight departure would be the best way to describe it.”
The thought of bringing this sound to the stage had Kubler worried, mentioning that “...after we finished the record and when I knew that we were going to start actually playing the new songs there were fucking nights where I’d wake up at four in the morning and wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. I was just like ‘Oh fuck, god help us. Are we going to shit the bed on this?’” But, thankfully, it didn’t come to that and being the rock & roll veterans they are, the quintet pulled it off.
It’s the combination of huge, razor-sharp rock & roll riffs and gritty, intoxicated lyrics that leads most people to believe that they have a penchant for living large. But after speaking with Kubler it quickly becomes apparent that The Hold Steady could be a victim of their own success, haphazardly tip-toeing along the knife edge of the proverbial double-edged sword they may have drawn against themselves – one side favouring the hard-living, young-dying diehards and the other (perhaps the more accurate?) turning on them with sharpened, alienating maturity. “I just put my four-year-old to bed,” he confesses. “I think we have to take a little bit of responsibility for the image that we’ve perpetuated as being hard-drinking, uh, you know, guys that just party all the time. It’s really not the case.”
However Kubler is quick to assume the groove on the fence he has carved for himself, saying that the band “...do have moments – when we’re on tour, we’re on tour, and we like to have a good time.”
Although in all honesty, this conflict soon becomes irrelevant after hitting the play button on your iPod/iTunes/CD player. Front-man Craig Finn’s lyrical prowess and acute observational skills accurately paint a gritty, hard-living, substance-abusing lifestyle, and when combined with the band’s stellar musical abilities, The Hold Steady’s potential is fully realised.
“Craig said, which really gave me a lot of insight into what was happening, that he’s really more of an observer and he tells the story as he sees it unfold, rather than him being a central character in it. Ever since he’s said that I’ve paid closer attention and I’ve noticed more, like ‘Oh, I remember that party.’”
Perhaps I was hasty in saying that The Hold Steady are trying to grow up.
“I suppose that everybody has a very personal interpretation of [the lyrics]. I find it’s a very positive thing in the songs.”
STAY POSITIVE is out now through Vagrant/Shock. Hit up www.theholdsteady.com for more details.
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