“In a lot of ways, the new record embraces every element that the band has managed to touch on. If it sounds like a departure from our last record, parts of it sound like a return to things that happened a long time ago. We always hoped not to fit into a niche or try to appease a certain aesthetic.”

Every kid who picks up a broom and plays air guitar has a dream that probably looks a lot like the career of Soul Asylum. Formed by three high school friends in 1981, the band created a cult following in their native Minneapolis through a series of breakneck punk rock records on the indie label Twin/Tone. Honing their songcraft over the course of five albums, the band rode the early ’90s alternative revolution to superstardom on 1992’s Grave Dancers Union, the double-platinum album that spawned an omnipresent single (“Runaway Train”) and led to Grammy Awards and dates with movie stars. Soul Asylum released two more albums and then, surprisingly, went silent.

“We sort of hit a wall,” singer/guitarist Dave Pirner says of the time following 1998’s Candy From a Stranger. “The band had reached a point where we just needed to take a break. And that’s what we did.” Now, eight years later, the band finally returns with The Silver Lining, out this month on Columbia/Legacy. “We took our time to get this record together,” Pirner explains, “because there wasn’t a real pressing demand for it. We didn’t want to just keep on cranking out records for the sake of cranking ‘em out. It just took a while to get it right.”

In the downtime between albums, Pirner released a soul-influenced solo album, 2002’s Faces and Names. “It was kind of a relief to return to form,” Pirner says of the new album. “[The solo album is] what I had to do in order to miss it. I sort of painted myself into a corner with the whole loud, loud, loud guitar thing. So actually coming back to it was great—the way I equated it was like putting on a comfortable pair of jeans.”

“Comfortable” is a good way to describe an album that finds Soul Asylum settled, reveling in their classic-rock influence as never before. Though often pigeonholed as ’90s alt-rock, The Silver Lining is a collection of utterly timeless rock, packed with Dan Murphy’s soaring guitar solos and Pirner’s epic, melodic choruses, bursting right out of the gate with its opening track, the anthemic, positively Springsteen-ian “Stand Up and Be Strong.”

Says Pirner, “In a lot of ways, the new record embraces every element that the band has managed to touch on. If it sounds like a departure from our last record, parts of it sound like a return to things that happened a long time ago. We always hoped not to fit into a niche or try to appease a certain aesthetic.”

The mood was tense during the recording of The Silver Lining due to the illness of bassist and founding member Karl Mueller, diagnosed with throat cancer in May 2004. Mueller, Pirner, Murphy, and drummer Michael Bland entered the studio determined to finish. “There was a real urgency to make it happen and a lot of that had to do with this looming fear about Karl’s health,” Pirner remembers. “At the same time, there was a never a moment where I actually thought he wasn’t going to make it. So there’s a real strong element of hope and faith going on there where you just have to believe he was going to pull through. It never had crossed my mind that he wouldn’t survive.”

The following October, a massive benefit concert was planned to pay for Mueller’s medical treatment. A celebration of both Mueller and Minneapolis, the concert featured Soul Asylum and such Twin Cities favorites as the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, the reunited Gear Daddies, and, together for the first time in 16 years, Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould and Grant Hart. “To see people come out like that for Karl was stunning,” Pirner remembers. “It had a lot of positive emotion. And everybody sounded so good, too. It seemed almost like time was standing still or hadn’t passed as much as it had. Suddenly, for one night, everybody was united.”

Sadly, Mueller passed away at his home on June 17, 2005. Much of the recording already finished, The Silver Lining was completed with the only person who could ever suitably fill in for Mueller: Tommy Stinson, ex-Replacements bassist and the band’s longtime friend. “It was very important to [Mueller] that the record came out,” Pirner reminisces. “He was elated when the band got the record deal that we have. Those things were his life. He lived to rock; he loved being in a band. He was such a big spirit of the whole thing. It affected the project in all the right ways when he was there, because he was there. I don’t have a day that passes when I don’t think about him.”

Despite the hardships, Pirner is confident that the band will be sticking around. “The attitude is that it appears like it’s some sort of return. We didn’t really go anywhere,” Pirner concludes. “We’ve always said once it stops being fun, we’re not going to do it anymore, and I think for a minute there that it stopped being fun. I think that continuing without Karl is still very daunting. Adversity has always been a part of the game. It’s never been easy, it’s always been a struggle, but it’s been a struggle we’ve come to embrace and we’ll keep making music as long as people let us.”

See the next page for our complete interview with Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner!