(This story originally appeared in SPIN in February 2021.)
The first story that I ever wrote for SPIN was about The Hold Steady, and specifically, about my trip to see them in London in March of 2020. It was right before the pandemic (which is a clever way of saying that it was totally during the pandemic, but we were simply still convincing ourselves that it wasn’t happening). I always laugh at the memory of those three shows, these sweaty, packed rooms of people from all over the world, an event that somehow didn’t include a devastating body count. About the only concession we made to the real world was that the meet-and-greets with the band didn’t feature the usual handshakes, just us all standing shoulder to shoulder without intentional skin-to-skin contact.
In London, the guys played some new songs and made clear that there was a new album on the way, but months later, as we all sat in a live-music-less world, the album never dropped. Understandably, the band was waiting until they could take the songs out on the road, but once it became clear that live shows weren’t on the horizon, the band decided to release Open Door Policy, their second album as a six-piece band (and their second with producer Josh Kaufman.)
The album is a real departure from most of the band’s previous work. There’s a lot more sonic composition, more complex layering that is common to Kaufman’s work. There are parts that feel like a Craig Finn solo album, and other guitar riffs that are clearly from the heart of THS. But there’s maturity and consequence in the lyrics, an evolution from the days when the kids were making the ER look kind of like an afterbar.
I liked doing this as a Q&A. Especially when I’m writing about a specific album in this way, I prefer to let the artists do most of the talking. I thought that Craig and guitarist Steve Selvidge both made me really think about what they were trying to do, where they succeeded, and what it means for the future of the band and the future of music if we can ever reach a post-pandemic world (fingers crossed).
https://www.spin.com/2021/02/the-hold-steady-craig-finn-steve-selvidge-interview/