from Sonicnet's Music News Of The World:

Soul Asylum Resurface With New Albumplm.jpg (6910 bytes)

Band looks to take the punked-up garage sound of its past to another
level with new 11-track LP.
 
Correspondent Gianni Sibilla reports:
MILAN, Italy -- In many ways, singer Dave Pirner still considers Soul
Asylum a garage band.
 
Maybe not in sound and technique, but certainly in spirit. From their
recent show at the annual Austin, Texas, South By Southwest music
conference, which features many unsigned and relatively unknown acts, to
the band's forthcoming album, Candy From A Stranger, Soul Asylum's main
songwriter said his band has tried to maintain the musical edge that is
often lost with fame.
 
"We've all grown a little bit and we understand music a little bit
more. Hopefully this will make the new record different in a better
way," Pirner said of the soon- to-be-released LP (May 12). "But at the
same time, we're still the same idiots from Minneapolis," he joked,
laughing loudly.
While there's certainly a garage element to their look -- torn jeans
and T-shirts all around -- when it comes to putting out records, they
are as far from the garage as a band could hope to get. As proof,
bandleaders Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy sat comfortably in the
lounge of Milan's Palace hotel recently to talk about the band's new
album and latest single, "I Will Still Be Laughing".
"We are very busy. We got in the eye of the hurricane. In these
situations you're always touring, promoting, 20 countries at the same
time. Do this. Do that. You don't even know this until you're in the
middle of it," the 35-year-old Murphy said, his hair disheveled as if
he'd just woken up.
After the huge success of 1993's smash album, Grave Dancers Union,
which launched several hit singles -- including "Runaway Train" -- and
raised the band's status from underground pop-punk rockers to
superstars, the Minneapolis-based quartet had some adjusting to do.
The band's subsequent album, 1995's Let Your Dim Light Shine, didn't
earn the success of its predecessor, but Soul Asylum say they don't see
Candy From a Stranger as a do or die project. "The last record sold
about a million copies. If that's our standard, I'm happy with it. So if
the new one does that, I'll be happy," Murphy said.
"All of this is not really in our control," the 34-year-old Pirner
added. "The record is in our control. We give it to the record company
and say, 'You work it out now.' I'm just looking forward to playing,
that's our priority," Pirner explained.
 
Having started writing material for the new album in 1996, Pirner said
the band had to choose from 40 demos recorded between then and now to
come up with the 11 tracks on the album. "It was quite an extensive
writing period, to make sure we had enough material to choose," he
explained, adding that he has spent a good deal of time just letting
himself experience life to come up with much of the material.
What he came out with is an album full of some of the classic pop-punk
rock that has made a name for Soul Asylum over nine albums, an edgy,
guitar-driven sound fueled by lyrics that speak simply of some of life's
biggest dilemmas, including love and the struggle for self-fulfillment.
Among the songs that he composed during that time are the album's
first single and another new track, "See You Later." Among the pop-punk
standards that drive the album to its conclusion are the tracks "Blood
Into Wine," "Lies of Hate" and "The Game." Some of the lyrics contained
in those songs reflect on Pirner's ever-changing attitudes about his
life and music.
 
"I'm always kind-of writing things and trying to figure out what to do
next, but I also have to live a little bit to see what my new attitude
is," he explained.
The band recorded the album with drummer Sterling Campbell, who left
the band after finishing the sessions. His spot has been temporarily
filled by Charlie Quintana, who has played with folk-rock legend Bob
Dylan and pop songstress Joan Osborne. But Pirner and Murphy emphasized
that Quintana is not a permanent replacement.
 
The band recently tried out Ian Moshington, an unknown drummer that
Soul Asylum met in London while playing on a TV show. "He's really
exciting. His style is pretty different from Charlie's one and they're
gonna change what the band is gonna sound like," Pirner said. "So we
have to be careful, and we still have a little time to make this
decision."
Quintana played some club shows with the band and was in Soul Asylum's
lineup at the band's recent appearance at the South By Southwest
festivities in March, an event that traditionally offers relatively
unknown bands a chance to display their talents to a collection of
industry people. "I felt a little bit uncomfortable playing there,
because it started out as an event to get unsigned bands signed. Those
are the kind of industry things that make my skin crawl. Our record
company was insisting on it," Murphy remembered.
 
For Pirner, the annual event was like the announcement of a second
coming for Soul Asylum.
"In a way, we did something good, because a lot of people saw the
bands that opened for us," he said. "It was supposed to be our debut
again. And we were introducing our new material to the music community
and trying to maintain our place in that community."
[ Tue., Apr 28, 11:50 AM PDT ]