Baseball, Indie Rock, And Long Talks About Depression: An Interview With Craig Finn

photo of Craig Finn by Mark Seliger

“People say we suck at sports, but they don’t understand / it’s hard to catch with holes right through your hands”

That, amongst many other Finn-isms are packed into Clear Heart Full Eyes, the first solo record from Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn. Separated from the beer-swilling, teen-apocalypse narratives of his main band’s frantic pomp - it’s a much smaller record, quieter, denser, more thoughtful. Finn wraps in pedal-steel and placid acoustic guitars, his lyrics talk about himself, rather than all his characters. It provides an ideal odyssey for bookish, lyrics-first Hold Steady fans, and genuinely pretty nighttime music. In advance of his show tomorrow night at Frank, we caught up with Finn at Dominican Joe’s for a quick chat about the record, his time in Austin, and the Minnesota Twins.

You’ve been recording down here, how’s the city been treating you?

Well, I first came down here in July for three weeks so that was pretty hot, but I certainly enjoyed it. I’ve got a few great friends here, which was definitely a draw. But I just like being here, a lot of musicians come down here for SXSW - but it was nice just to get into a routine for three weeks. I think I’m getting the extremes of the weather here. I really love being here, the solo-project kinda lives in Austin in some ways.

Were you surprised how low-key the city is outside of SXSW?

Yeah, I was laughing at how little time I spent downtown. I went to a couple shows but you just don’t hang out in the same places as you do during South By.

You’ve been influenced by everyone from The Band to Nas, but the solo album has a distinct country influence. What’s your personal history with country?

It’s not a super deep history; I mean I came up in punk rock. But the older I get the more I find myself listening to classic songwriters. Going from Bob Dylan to Warren Zevon and Randy Newman. Lyrical-driven things, songwriting in the classic sense. With The Hold Steady I’m singing in a rock band, which I think is a little different from traditional songwriting.

You released the album as “Craig Finn” and not a moniker, what made you make that decision?

With The Hold Steady, Tad usually writes the music and I write the lyrics, and I did struggle with what to call the solo-project. Eventually I just didn’t want it to be confusing so I just went with my name, and I do worry that it might diminish the impact that the musicians had on the record. But obviously that’s not the intention.

So this was one of your first times writing music?

I write a little bit of The Hold Steady stuff, but I’m a pretty limited musician, so I basically had these bare-bones chords and a vocal melody and the lyrics, and that’s one of the places the producer Mike McCarthy helped. His position was if I could sing him a song he could worry about the rest, and that was reassuring. He put together a band of his people, he chose very well, and that’s one of the ways he produced it.

The album has a meditative vibe in some ways, I feel like people will be comparing it to
the Springsteen album Nebraska, are you prepared for that at all?

Yeah maybe, I feel like Nebraska is a much sparser record. When I was going into the recording with these empty acoustic songs and I thought “I can’t do that.” I’m a huge Springsteen fan but it’d be too easy of a jump. But you may hear that, they are personal stories, the songs deal with people being alone by choice or not. And in some ways that works with me going down to Austin down all by myself.

Do you have any personal divisions between what’s a Craig Finn song and what’s a Hold Steady song?

Yeah, you can kinda figure it out. The Hold Steady is a rock band while this is a much more quiet, lyrical-driven thing.

I’d like to talk about a couple of the songs real quickly, firstly “New Friend Jesus.” You’ve written about religion in the past but this one has more humor to it.

Yeah, I was just thinking about in High School and your friend gets a new friend, and he keeps talking about that new friend. I was thinking about making Jesus that new friend. There’s always something attractive about writing about Jesus as a real person. I like putting him in that vernacular. It’s funny, there’s a lot of comedy around Jesus.

On the other side of the coin you have “Western Pier,” which might be your darkest narrative you’ve ever written.

“Western Pier” to me is about forgiveness. And someone who hasn’t done the best things in their life and still has the possibility to be redeemed.

Lastly I wanna talk about “No Future” which is kinda fatalistic, you’re mentioning people like Johnny Rotten and Freddie Mercury.

If there was one that might’ve been good for The Hold Steady it’d be that one. It’s about going through the loss of feeling, and depression, and being confused. Not the most uplifting song.

You do write a lot about dejection though.

Yeah, it’s an interesting topic because so many people have to deal with depression. Mental health is engaging because when you’re dealing with people who have mental health issues it can be hard to empathize, like “why don’t you just get out of bed? Let’s go get some drinks.” I think it’s something that’s affected people around me enough that I like to write about it.

Do you feel like this album is more personal?

I do, there’s less characters. And when you’re a touring musician you often find yourself alone and I think that influenced it. To the point where you kinda crave it, I think most touring musicians like that solitude.

Lastly, how surprised were you that the Cardinals took the World Series?

I wasn’t that surprised really, there’s just something about the Cards. Obviously I was surprised after Game 6 like most people. I wanted to see Ron Washington, and I don’t have any love for LaRussa. I’m hoping for a better year for the Twins next year. Free agency has looked good. I’d like to get Michael Cuddyer signed.

Would you consider writing another Twins anthem if they start winning again?

We made that one song and the second we released it things went wrong, so I hope we didn’t curse them. (laughs)