from Sonicnet's Music News Of The World:
Soul Asylum Resurface With New Album
- 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 ]