“One of the things is my process requires a lot of repetition. I can probably drive people crazy because I'm interested in playing a song twenty times in a row.” PeopleI CanSongProcessCrazyTwentiesRepetition Author:Craig Finn
“Some people will totally get restless, since you can make demos pretty easy. It's not unreasonable for someone to say, "All right, can you just record this and go home and work on it?"” PeopleHomeEasyRecordsRestlessUnreasonableDemos Author:Craig Finn
“When people hit on feeling a certain melancholy or elation, it's a really exciting moment. I think making that connection is the goal, and what makes something great.” PeopleThinkingMomentsFeelingsCertainGoalConnectionsExcitingMelancholyElation Author:Craig Finn
“I think when you are doing a song you're trying to give people enough details that they connect.” PeopleThinkingGivingTryingEnoughSongDetails Author:Craig Finn
“I use a lot of specific places in my songs - traditionally, a lot from Minneapolis and St. Paul, where I grew up. Most people, especially when you get into international touring, have not been there. So you say, "Well, isn't it risky to talk about the corner of Franklin Avenue and Lyndale?" If you do it right, someone should say, "God, I know a corner like that." Offering specific details to describe something universal.” PeopleIfsKnowsShouldWellsUseSongGrewGrew UpUniversalInternationalDetailsCornersOfferingAvenuesTouringFranklinMinneapolis Author:Craig Finn
“Sometimes people come up and say, "You have this line in this song and it meant a lot to me." You don't always remember that line as the one. You're putting part of your human being on the page so people are going to have different responses - the other humans are going to connect with different parts.” PeopleHumansDifferentSometimesRememberSongLinesHuman BeingsPagesResponseCome Up Author:Craig Finn
“People make maps of all the places I've mentioned. I knew that those people were out there. I wanted to create something for them.” PeopleWantedMaps Author:Craig Finn
“You can think of a number of bands where the first record is by far their biggest record. And that must be hard for people to recapture. Hard for people to live with.” PeopleThinkingFirstsHardNumbersRecordsBand Author:Craig Finn
“I've tried to write songs for other people and it usually requires them singing it and then changing the phrasing. I can put a lot of words in a song, and one of the reasons is, I'm not that good of a singer, so I don't hold a lot of notes.” PeopleWritingI CanReasonSongSingingNotesSingers Author:Craig Finn
“I don't really pursue writing songs for other people. I guess one of the things I always think about is a good line in a song should be something I can hear myself saying.” PeopleThinkingShouldWritingI CanSongLinesPursueWriting Songs Author:Craig Finn
“A conversation with you is a different thing than projecting to a couple hundred people. It's bigger and more animated and it's on a bigger scope, but still in the heart, it's honestly me.” PeopleHeartStillsDifferentCoupleConversationHundredBiggerHonestlyDifferent ThingsScopeAnimated Author:Craig Finn
“I really like narrative songs, but I wonder if that's a thing for some people. Once they've heard the story, do they really need to hear the story again?” PeopleIfsNeedsStoriesSongWonderHeardNarrative Author:Craig Finn
“An album doesn't mean as much to a lot of people now, compared to just songs.” PeopleMeanSongAlbums Author:Craig Finn
“People think of songwriting as a very personal thing: A guy gets up there with an acoustic guitar and he sings his heart out, bares his soul.” PeopleThinkingHeartSoulGuyGuitarGet UpSongwritingAcousticsPersonal ThingsAcoustic Guitar Author:Craig Finn
“My style of lyric-writing is very specific and has a lot of details, and I think people react most to that.” PeopleThinkingWritingStyleDetails Author:Craig Finn
“The critics and hardcore music fans, those are the people you have to get to first, so we're really happy about it.” PeopleFirstsFansCriticsReally HappyHardcoreMusic Fans Author:Craig Finn
“The Catholic influence just comes from being raised Catholic, going to church every Sunday, being confirmed, going to church on holy days. So it's coming from where I am. It serves the purpose of having people who have a base or foundation where they know what's right.” PeopleKnowsPurposeChurchInfluenceHolyCatholicFoundationRaisedSundayGoing To ChurchHoly Days Author:Craig Finn
“I made a decision at some point to live a nontraditional life. I've become like, the opposite of a consumer. I just want freedom. I don't want stuff. I don't want clutter. I just want to be able to move freely. I want to be good to the people I love. But I don't want stuff. I just want, you know, love and big ideas.” PeopleMovingDecisionBe GoodClutter Author:Craig Finn
“Some people I've talked to have had really an interpretation of this record as being nostalgic. But in some ways, when we were writing Stay Positive, I was really obsessed with age. I kept saying it was a record about trying to age gracefully. This record, I think actually was us aging gracefully.” PeopleThinkingWritingTryingAgeAgingObsessedNostalgicAging Gracefully Author:Craig Finn
“When we started the band, I was really like, "We just want to make a lot of records" - not quite unlike Guided By Voices' schedule. I've always thought that our live thing is what we do best, and having a really robust, big catalog makes for the most interesting live band - especially with people, at this point, traveling to see us night after night. For us to have almost 100 songs to pull from is a really cool thing. The sets can be different. They can be invigorating on an intellectual level. I definitely hope to continue to release records at an accelerated pace.” PeopleDifferentNightSongInterestingIntellectualMost InterestingReally Cool Author:Craig Finn
“There's somewhat of a real fascination with American bands and American mythology in London, so I think we've tapped into some of that. Maybe because of the way the press works or whatever, they have extremely knowledgeable music fans over there. People who will sit there and talk to you about some record that came out in 1967 out of Memphis that you've never heard before.” PeopleThinkingRealMythologyKnowledgeable Author:Craig Finn
“Springsteen on that record started writing less about having your wind in your hair and turning the radio up and more about being dragged down by adult things. Regular people trying to get ahead. A little less mythical and romantic, and more real. It's a really spectacular record for that reason.” PeopleWritingTryingLittlesRealReasonRecordsWindHairAdultsRadioSpectacularGet AheadSpringsteen Author:Craig Finn
