Interview: The Hold Steady’s Tad Kubler on Teeth Dreams, Songwriting, and More

By: Luke Ottenhof –

The Hold Steady

It’s been four years since Brooklyn’s punk-tinged rock darling The Hold Steady released their last LP, 2010’s Heaven is Whenever, and for guitar Tad Kubler, the time off was both a blessing and a curse.

“I think being stationary after so many years of momentum had more of an impact than anything else, in both the plus and minus column,” he explains.

“It certainly allowed for some perspective. We were moving at a pace where just keeping up with what was happening required all of our attention and I think that took a toll – creatively. So the break allowed for me to think about what I needed, in terms of inspiration and where I wanted to try and take things creatively, and that was tremendously helpful. But with the time off, everyone kind of went their own separate ways, which made it a little more difficult to get things back up and running creatively and regain the momentum.”

Kubler and the rest of The Hold Steady are gearing up for their sixth studio release. Titled Teeth Dreams, the record drops on March 25 in the US and Canada. The band worked with a few new faces on the album. One was producer NickRaskulinecz.

“It’s RA-SKEW-LIN-ITCH,” Kubler highlights.

“I saw him in the Sound City movie… Nick kind of cut his teeth there. There’s a point in the movie where he’s talking about when Sound City closed, and just the people who worked there and the experience, and he kind of has a moment. I saw that and I was like, ‘That’s fucking awesome. There’s somebody who’s really connected to what he does, and loves what he does and feels really strongly about it.’”

“One of the first things he said was, ‘To be honest, I’m not that familiar with your band.’ I was like, ‘That’s fuckin’ perfect. This is what we need.’”

Raskulinecz’ status as a hold-steady (pun fully intended) in the producer’s chair has warranted dynamite results for bands like Foo Fighters, Deftones, Ghost, and more. You can comfortably scribble in The Hold Steady on that list once you’ve heard Teeth Dreams. There’s the same uncompromising sound and lyrical integrity, just more of it. And it wasn’t just for his prestige that the rockers brought him aboard; the trust and rapport they developed proved essential in the record’s creation.

“I realized in order for this to really work how it needs to, I was going to have to kind of surrender, and it was great.”

“I’ve always been pretty involved in the production of the records, but this one, it was one of those things where not only was there some kind of a trust there, almost immediately, just from the conversations that Nick and I had, but I realized in order for this to really work how it needs to, I was going to have to kind of surrender, and it was great.”

The fresh eyes and ears also freed up some new territory for Kubler’s guitar work. The slick and ocean-wide riffs are still present, ever-drenched in that sweet, punchy, tube-amp-on-10 tone, but there are elements, tough to quantify andverbalize, to tunes like lead single “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You” that put even more wind in the sails of a well-manned ship.

“There were times when…I’d go in and record it, and [Raskulinecz] would kind of tilt his head and say, ‘I’m not really feeling it.’ … ‘The fuck you mean, you’re not feeling it?!’ But it really forced me to think about things a little differently.”

“In general, over the last few years, I spent a lot more time thinking about the songwriting. Not so much the process, but what makes a good song, and I started thinking about it as more of a bigger picture. I think the writing for this record was more of, ‘What is going to serve the song best?’ not, ‘What is going to sound the coolest?’”

Raskulinecz also coaxed some new frontiers out of frontman and head-up, eyes-down-Romeo Craig Finn.

“I think he got Craig to do some things that Craig hadn’t really tried or thought of before, and I could tell there were moments when Craig was, I don’t want to say uncomfortable, but I could definitely tell there were moments when Craig was kind of outside the place where he sort of likes to work.

“Nick was kind of watching Craig, and as soon as Craig forgot what he was there to do, and just relaxed, then Nick would grab him and be like, ‘Alright, let’s go, everybody out, let’s do some vocals.’ And I think because of that, he got some really incredible performances out of Craig where he didn’t really think about what he was doing.”

Kubler doesn’t shy away from paying respects to his longtime collaborator and friend.

“It took me a long time to figure out what was different about Craig’s performances. I think he’s getting to this place where he’s really thinking about the melody of a song, but when he’s telling these tales and stories and talking about these characters, you can hear the compassion, and empathy in his voice, and that isn’t anything I’ve noticed before. He feels closer to what’s happening.

“When he’s telling these tales and stories and talking about these characters, you can hear the compassion, and empathy in his voice.”

“The other thing that I would say was different about this is on this record … was the music happened really separate form the lyrics. We did a lot of work when Craig wasn’t around, so I felt, after playing in two bands with Craig for the last 15 years, and having made five-plus albums with him, I wanted him to come back and be able to feel like it was a surprise.”

The other new face was only such in the recording arena; long-time touring guitarist and friend Steve Selvidge joined the band in the studio for the first time. Cases can surely be found of bandmates butting heads in self-centered dramas;Kubler and Selvidge are, if possible, the exact antithesis of those cases.

“I would not be able to overstate Steve’s importance in the record,” says Kubler. “Steve and I are super tight, and our friendship allows us to work in a way, especially for guitar players, where there’s not a lot of ego involved. [We’re] born on the same day, like a few hours apart.

“Steve is just a better guitar player than I am. That’s one of the reasons I really wanted to get him in the band, because I felt like I kind of plateau’d, or had gotten to a place where I’d gotten a little lazy. The guy’s ability is beyond what I’m able to do right now, and it’s not only made me a better guitar player, but it’s allowed me to really concentrate on the songs, and know that whatever I come up with, even if it seems too obvious or overly simplified, I know that Steve’s going to be able to come in and have a different approach on it that’s going to blow the thing right open.”

Now that The Hold Steady have been around for just over a decade, the punk poets have long since carved their initials on the same antiquated, peeled-paint bus-stop post that hosts the handwork of decades of musicians, and more are joining them all the time. The likes of Titus Andronicus, Japandroids, and Frank Turner quote The Hold Steady as swaying their musical endeavours, but as Kubler asserts, the respect is mutual.

“I went to [Japandroids’] show, and met those guys after the show, and they’re like, ‘We love you guys!’ and I was like, ‘That’s bizarre, cause I love you guys!’ So for me it seems like more of this mutual admiration.

“If that’s the kind of band we are to people, I couldn’t think of a higher compliment. I feel like that’s one of the biggest privileges of being at the place where we’re at now, is we get to have people like that in our peer group, and that’s kind of an hour.”

The Hold Steady will release their sixth album, Teeth Dreams, on March 25 via Washington Square.