Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner on the New Album, Runaway Train & Kamala Harris

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum at the Bourbon & Beyond music festival, just a week before the release of the group’s latest album, Slowly But Shirley. This album is a big deal for Pirner as his last was released in 2020, just in time for the Covid-19 lockdown. The tour was cancelled, and the album’s release didn’t get the attention that it should have.

The new album once again brings up the Tom Petty comparison, but it is filled with all the variety there can be of rock music, from classic to alternative. If the huge crowd at the Bourbon & Beyond performance is any indication, Soul Asylum fans are more than ready for Slowly But Shirley.

Pirner was open about how the album came about, the truth behind the Grammy winning “Runaway Train,” and even his pick for the presidential election when we sat down before the band was to hit the stage.

Marcia Frost: We talked last nine years ago at House of Blues in Chicago.

Dave Pirner: I remember. I love Chicago. My son (Eli, 22) is in school in Chicago, at the (School of the) Art Institute.

MF: You have brought him on stage a couple times. Is he interested in music as a career?

DP: He's interested in music more as a producer. He likes messing around with music. He likes really modern stuff. He likes hip hop and crazy sounds.

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Can you help me remember how to smile?

Make it somehow all seem worthwhile

How on Earth did I get so jaded?”

“Runaway Train” by Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

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MF: “Runaway Train” is famous for having helped rescue 21 missing children. You said in recent years you actually wrote “Runaway Train” about depression you were going through at the time. That's become much more talked about than it was years ago. Do you feel that's a good thing and it’s something your now more comfortable talking about?

DP: I hope so. I mean I was talking to somebody about that time. There was a lot of suicide and stuff like that, and a lot of discovering Prozac. Absolutely, I think that it's not as ‘get away from me,’ People figured out that it (mental illness) is not really contagious.

MF: You're back in Minneapolis now. It’s different from New Orleans (where he lived for many years).

DP: I think that's what I like so much about New Orleans they have this polar opposite thing going on there than Minneapolis. They both have their qualities. They're very different kind of qualities, but I think I mean it's not to say that Minneapolis is not a cultural city, but the culture in New Orleans is astonishing and so much musical history.

MF: You’ve always been very supportive of various causes. What are you passionate about now?

DP: Well, it's interesting that the missing children thing is as relevant today as it was. I'm doing another project with the guy who directed the ‘Runaway Train’ video (Tony Kaye) and he's doing a project on it with his daughter, which is just really cool.

I'm excited about Kamala Harris. I think, politically, that's a little overwhelming as far as what's on my mind. I'm like, wow, what if she can really do something? I'm excited that she’s very sharp. She has a great background, and she's a woman. We’ve never had a woman president. Maybe it'll just feel really different. I'm willing to find out.

We do this thing called Joey’s Song in Madison (Wisconsin) every year, which is to raise money (in the name of) a kid who died. Most of it involves young people.

We also had a kid, and he had a fatal diagnosis of cancer around the age of nine. He was a drummer and a real fan of music and stuff. His parents told us about him, and he came out to Minneapolis, and he recorded one of his songs with me and my bass player. It was a really amazing experience. I'm glad to have known him because he is no longer with us.

MF: Let's talk about the album, Slowly But Shirley. I listened to all of the songs. I really enjoyed it, especially “You Don't know Me” and “Freak Accident.” Can you tell me what brought those songs to the album?

DP: Well, it's interesting. “You Don’t Know Me” is probably one of the more current things and “Freak Accident” is something that we had played before.

MF: This version seems different.

DP: Yeah, we were kind of trying to put the songs together for the record and producer Steve Jordan says to the band, ‘Well, what's the band’s favorite? They all went, ‘Freak Acident.’

We'd never recorded it. We gave it a different feeling; we sped it up a little bit. I played electric instead of acoustic. It turned out good. I think the style of the record lends itself to that song.

MF: “You Don't Know Me?”

DP: It was a demo that I had in my basement, and I played it for Ryan… Ryan Smith, right over there (points to Ryan). He is great. He went, ‘That one, that’s cool.’ We started playing it, so it was just kind of a thing that I had been working on and that’s how it came about.

MF: Your last album, Hurry Up and Wait, unfortunately came out at a very bad time. Covid hit right before you were supposed to go on tour and promote it. What did you do after that to get yourself motivated again?

DP: We got really into just walking around with slippers and sweatpants!

MF: I think a lot of people did that.

DP: Me and Ryan did a thing once a week and we played live like four songs a week until we got to 100 songs. We played 100 original songs for the people that were homebound. I'm glad I did it, but it was like what are we gonna do? That kept things rolling a bit, but yeah it was terrible timing.

MF: I think there's probably a couple million people that agree with you.

DP: My book came out then too. I didn’t have to go on book tours, which might be a good thing!