Artist Interview: Steel Train

Feb

22

2010

Our friend Kyle is a big Steel Train fan. Don’t get us wrong – we are too. It’s just that Kyle feels a special bond with this New Jersey five-piece and it shows. He’s not alone either. Over the past couple of years Steel Train has quickly developed a faithful following with their tried and true classic sound. Kyle was offered the chance to write about the band. Here’s what happened.

I feel weird. Jack was banging out the stand out track from Steel Train’s 2007 effort Trampoline when I realized these guys were no joke. I hadn’t come to see Steel Train. In fact, until that summer night of 2007 I had no clue who Steel Train was. I had gone to The New Daisy in Memphis, TN to see The Format. Steel Train was just some band I had to suffer through to get to the headliner. They were the THIRD opening band that night and I expected something completely underwhelming. Three songs into their half hour set I turned to my friend and said, “These guys alone were worth the ticket price.”

They had accomplished what most opening bands never do: Steel Train managed to make me forget I was there for any other reason.

I still remember hearing tracks like “Black Eye”, “Kill Monsters in the Rain”, and “I Feel Weird” and being completely enthralled by the curly headed front man and his twitchy on stage antics. That man was Jack Antonoff. The other players: Evan Winiker, Dan Silbert, Jon Shiffman, and Justin Huey.

After the show I went straight to the merch tables and there they were, hanging out by the shirts selling CDs. I signed up for their mailing list, bought the yet to be released Trampoline, and a sweet shirt. I told the guys I was pumped about their set and couldn’t wait for the album. Jack gave me a hug and was just as stoked as ever.

I later got Trampoline in the mail and it didn’t leave my CD player for the next three months. I love that album. With influences from Weezer to Dylan to The Strokes, Steel Train’s second studio effort delivered on all the power chord rock and acoustic solidity I was promised at the summer show months before. Trampoline was one of my favorite records of 2007 or of any year.

Recently, Jack sat down for an exclusive chat with LIS. Here’s what he had to say about the new album and how the down and out inspire them to keep making music.

LIS: What are you working on now?

Jack: We’ve been working on all the non musical parts of the new ST album. This time around (not that we haven’t in the past) we are really going for it with the art and whole aesthetic of the band. I really need it to be thought out from every angle to make sense. Sounds silly, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, like actually sitting in my room and thinking and trying to get ideas for how it should look and feel. I’m trying to get back to the way I looked at songs and touring before it was also a career. I’m still in love with the whole process like I was when I was 15 doing my first tours and making my first records. It’s a fight everyday to keep that as the main element in who we are. There are so many forces trying to break your over the top ideas and that is what this record will be about – getting back to (or staying at) the place where we are ageless / broke / and with nothing to lose.

LIS: What are you guys passionate about?

Jack: The band and eating. And other things, I guess. I try to be passionate about whatever I’m doing. It seems like a waste to not be.

LIS: Where do you look for inspiration?

Jack: People who are down or in a rough spot. I haven’t had a rough life or anything, but for some reason I really connect with people who have a lot to prove or people who have a lot going against them.I was never told by anyone I cared about that I couldn’t do something, but for some reason I feel like everyone is trying to stop and I have to break through something. It’s not the best quality, but it inspires me when I see it in other people. [I’m inspired by] people who are survivors. People who have nothing but themselves. People who aren’t crushed by the world around them into being something less then they really are. I guess people in general. There is nothing more inspiring to me than someone who is willing to take a lot of heat to be what they are, and there is nothing less inspiring to me than someone who thinks they have all the answers for anyone else.

LIS: What moves you to create?

Jack: The people I care about or feeling like I have something to say that I don’t want to just keep in my head.

LIS: What is one change the world desperately needs?

Jack: Don’t be someone who waits for someone stronger to change big issues. My grandfather marched with Martin Luther King. It means a great deal to me to know that I come from people who stood up for civil rights issues. I am proud of that. If for nothing else, I would want my family to remember me as someone who stood up for the civil rights issues of my time. I really want nothing to do with anyone who is so afraid of someone different that they would think they should deserve less rights . . . Very scary stuff. And the problem doesn’t just exist with people who are way old. I personally know young people who believe in other people having less rights based on them being “different” for one reason or another. It’s very sad, and it needs to change yesterday

The guys just kicked off their tour with the ever cool Tegan and Sara and will be all over the road for the next several months. With a stop at the 2010 Coachella Festival on the horizon and a new record in the works, Steel Train is making it happen. They are also using their influence to make a difference. Check out what they’re doing to help Haiti and Oxfam.org.

From the Steel Train website:

From the moment we heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12th we’ve wanted to figure out a way to participate in the relief efforts. With the help of the fine folks at Hello Merch, we have designed a new t-shirt. These shirts, which will be sold for $15 exclusively at SteelTrainMerch.com, will be printed on American Apparel shirts. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Response Fund.

Oxfam America has been on the ground in Haiti delivering clean water and sanitation to the people since the earthquake. For more information on Oxfam’s efforts, not only on the ground in Haiti, but all over the globe, head over to Oxfam.org.

Download their song “You and I Undercover” from here.

See and hear more at SteelTrain.net.

Follow the guys on Twitter.

Tags: artist interview, Haiti, Music, oxfam, rock, steel train, the format