Craig Finn of The Hold Steady

From an outsider’s perspective, it’s been a strange year for The Hold Steady. Flamboyant former keyboardist Franz Nicolay put in his notice of resignation in September 2009, and his absence can be felt in the roomier corners of the band’s 2010 effort, Heaven Is Whenever. But despite Nicolay’s departure and the fact that the transitional Heaven Is Whenever failed to light the underground aflame in the same manner as acclaimed predecessors like Separation Sunday and Boys And Girls In America, the band’s frontman, Craig Finn, remains endlessly upbeat. (One of his finest anthems is called “Stay Positive,” after all.) The bespectacled singer-songwriter is pleased with the way The Hold Steady has reinvented itself as a touring six-piece—adding Memphis-based guitar-slinger Steve Selvidge and keyboardist Dan Neustadt—and he’s happy to be sharing that version of the band for the first time with some U.S. cities. With Finn and the band set to play Fun Fun Fun Fest this weekend, The A.V. Club spoke with Finn about spreading out on Heaven Is Whenever, talking to a younger version of himself in song, and various “rock problems” like not drinking 10 beers every night.
AVC: With the addition of the new members, will the next record stray from the more spacious arrangements on Heaven Is Whenever?
CF: I don’t know—those guys are touring members, so I’m not sure how the writing and recording will go. But the spacious part of it, I’m a pretty big fan of it, and it lets things breathe a little more. I think some times it’s easy to get caught up in trying to fill every available space with music, and it ends up claustrophobic. I think one of the triumphs of Heaven Is Whenever is that we stayed out of each other’s way very well.
AVC: Plus, that makes a little more room for the lyrics.
CF: [Laughs.] Obviously that’s something I like, as a lyricist. I think it kind of stirs them up a little more.
AVC: Over the space of five records, your lyrics have built a world with its own idioms, landmarks, and cast of characters. Do you ever feel confined by that world, or is it an environment that’s continually revealing new facets of itself?
CF: It’s revealing, but I’ll write a song that has nothing to do with it. I feel like “Hurricane J,” for instance, is a song that just completely exists 100 percent outside of the world that I’ve created from the other records. It gives me options—I think, “Is this song part of the whole thing, or is this a stand-alone song?” And that allows me to do things that are more personal at times, but then also go back and work with [Laughs] what seem like old, familiar friends.
AVC: In terms of the more personal songs, is the refrain of “Soft In The Center”—“You can’t get every girl”—a message from Craig Finn circa 2010 to a younger version of yourself?