Hold Steady Celebrate 'Beauty and Power' of Music on New Album

On Record Store Day, the Hold Steady celebrated the upcoming release of their new album, 'Heaven Is Whenever,' in workmanlike fashion. Early in the evening, they rocked New York's Bowery Ballroom before heading to their home borough of Brooklyn for a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg that started just after midnight. Though frontman Craig Finn admits to being a bit apprehensive beforehand, he tells Spinner he was more than pleased with the end result.

"It was pretty awesome -- and tiring. We were out with this new band lineup, and there were some nerves to take it back to New York, our hometown," Finn says, remarking on the band's replacement of Franz Nicolay with a touring keyboardist and guitarist. "When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't have been more pleased with how everything went."

To have this celebration of the band's fifth album on Record Store Day was fitting; the LP's title comes from the track 'We Can Get Together,' in which Finn sings "Heaven is whenever/ we can get together/ sit down on your floor/ and listen to your records."

"That's about how we find moments of bliss and euphoria in rock 'n' roll and what role music plays in our lives," Finn says. "The real calm moments of just sitting on the floor with someone and listening to records is one of the most beautiful things I can think of. You create your own little world through music in some ways, so I was trying to capture that."

Recognizing the effects other people's music has had on his life, Finn says he's blown away to hear what the Hold Steady's songs have meant to fans. "I've heard some very heavy things and really beautiful things, just people getting through things with our music, whether it's an illness in their family or breakups," he says. "It's really flattering, sometimes a little bit scary. Mostly, it's just amazing. That's the beauty and the power of music."

Unfortunately, Finn didn't have time to make it a record store on April 17 because of his hectic schedule, but he does say the holiday is special to him. "The reason I'm into Record Store Day is what gets me excited about our shows: it's people getting together in a real physical space and communing over their love of something," he says. "In this case, music."

Now 38, Finn fondly recalls the time he spent in his teens searching through bins at Oar Folkjokeopus (now Treehouse Records) in Minneapolis. "The independent record store was hallowed ground for me," he says. "We'd take the bus down and take about two hours choosing what we're going to buy. Then there was the clerk, who was sometimes an intimidating person but could steer you in the right way. One guy said 'You're Living All Over Me' by Dinosaur Jr. would change my life -- and I think it did."

'Heaven Is Whenever' is out May 4 via Vagrant Records.