A-Sides Interview: Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner Discusses Life in Minneapolis, George Floyd, and the Band Waiting for a Post-Pandemic World
The A-Sides music series with Jon Chattman ran for over six years on Huffington Post. It’s an informal chat with celebs (mostly musicians) and often includes a musical performance. I’m proud to bring it to Medium.
There’s a great meme that likens 2020 to “looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by an airplane.” It’s so funny, it hurts. Literally. Like all of us, Dave Pirner is reeling from the suckage that is 2020 and he’s done it from his home in Minneapolis. After living in New Orleans for nearly 17 years, the Soul Asylum frontman moved back to his native city and recorded a new album with his band entitled Hurry Up and Wait — so appropriate for these times it could be a meme itself. The long-awaited release, the band’s first since 2016’s Change of Fortune, arrived in April — just a month after Pirner’s book Loud Fast Words: Soul Asylum Collected Lyrics dropped. Timing is, um, everything. The band played a few dates with Local H but that was it. They, like everybody, are in holding pattern.
Lately, Pirner is serving as an audience member to change like so many of us but from a Twin Cities lens. We know the story but since history has an unfortunate way of repeating itself, I’ll repeat the recent sad history: On May 26, George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man was killed during an arrest after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes as three other officers watched on. Last Friday, June 12, Pirner and I talked about the fallout of Floyd’s death, his band’s music, and the strange timing of everything: release a book and album during a pandemic and move back to Minneapolis, which becomes the birthing place unfortunately to the greatest series of protests and unrest quite possibly in our history.
The interview was conducted days after Soul Asylum released free downloads and streaming of their song “Black And Blue” as well as a cover of “Nazi Punks F*ck Off” by the Dead Kennedys on their website to “show our support for George Floyd, his family, and everyone peacefully seeking justice.” They also encouraged donations to “Official George Floyd Memorial Fund” on Gofundme, and for fans to sign the petition “Justice for George Floyd” on change.org. Lastly, they included a link to register and vote. Click the links, watch below…
