“I think the biggest thing - and this I think is true of songs but also of movies and books and art in general - is when you have this moment where you hear a song or whatever and you say, "Hey, I've felt that exact way as a human being," and there's no easy way to describe it.” ThinkingWayHumansArtBookMomentsSongFeltEasyHuman BeingsHeyEasy Way 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
“Sometimes things reveal themselves to you a little bit. I think it was Joan Didion that said, "We write to find out what we're thinking." And sometimes that happens.” ThinkingWritingLittlesSaidSometimesHappensBitsLittle Bit 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 think you want to write a song that's like the songs you are into.” ThinkingWantWritingSong Author:Craig Finn
“You are hearing this song, and you're 16, and it's a song about love, or a girl. And then maybe there's a girl at school that you like. So you're going to be thinking about that girl. That song is sort of about that girl. The songwriter doesn't know that girl, obviously. He wrote it for something else. But there's the specific meaning with the universal again.” ThinkingKnowsSchoolSongGirlUniversalHearingSongwritersThat Girl Author:Craig Finn
“I think making the songs is to put strength in the community in some way.” ThinkingWaySongCommunity Author:Craig Finn
“I'm not a horror movie guy, but I think the guy that did Saw, or maybe House or something, he was saying you love that age as a storyteller because a nineteen-year-old is still dumb enough to make really bad decisions, but he's allowed to be out on his own.” ThinkingYearsStillsEnoughAgeGuyHouseDecisionSawsHorrorDumbStorytellerNineteenBad Decision Author:Craig Finn
“I think the other thing that shaped me a little bit is that I really didn't have any success in music until my early to mid-30s.” ThinkingLittlesBitsLittle Bit 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
“There's a lot of ways to be honest that don't necessarily involve absolute facts being true. I think that's something I absolutely try to do.” ThinkingWayTryingFactsHonestAbsolutesBeing TrueBeing Honest 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
“I think having a coach or an editor or whatever the novelist's producer is could help. If you finish a chapter and you turn it in to him, and he or she said, "That was pretty good, it might go better." Maybe that's what I'll try to find.” IfsThinkingTryingSaidHelpingMightTurnsCoachesProducersNovelistsEditorsChapters Author:Craig Finn
“At forty-one, now I think it would be really cool to have an A&R guy say, "You know what? I don't think you've got this album sequenced right."” ThinkingKnowsWould BeGuyAlbumsFortyReally Cool 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
“I think, Trump ran a very nostalgic campaign. There's an idea of like, to put it bluntly: What if it was like before all our kids got strung out on drugs? You know, what if it was like that? Make America like that.” ThinkingKidsDrugRanWhat IfNostalgic Author:Craig Finn
“It's really easy, in a band, to overstate - you feel like everything you do is different than the past. I think this is just another Hold Steady record, but at the same time, there is some evolution. Like, "How can we make this chorus bigger?" "What do we want this to sound like?"” ThinkingDifferentPastEasyEvolutionSteadyChorus 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
“Ray Cappo never tried to convert me into a Krishna, although one of his cohorts probably did. I think it was just about being wrapped up in this thing. Hardcore, at one point, meant everything to me. Now you look back, and I still think it's cool, but to some extent I grew out of it. Other things became a bigger priority for me.” ThinkingPrioritiesKrishnaHardcore 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
“It's a template record for the intersection between pop and noise, starting out with 'Sunday Morning' - a real beautiful, almost innocent sunny day song. You have a lot of different types of things on one record. It can be really pretty, or it can be really awful inside, depending on where your head's at at the moment. I got it in ninth grade and I think I've listened to it every month since then.” ThinkingDifferentRealMomentsBeautifulSongMorningRecordsTypeMonthsStartingPopsInnocentNoiseAwfulGradesSundayBeing RealSunnyStarting OutIntersectionsSunday MorningSunny DayReally PrettyNinth Grade Author:Craig Finn
“There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right / Boys and Girls in America / Have such a sad time together.” ThinkingTogetherAmericaNightGirlBoysParadiseBoy And GirlTime TogetherSad Times Author:Craig Finn
