It can take years to become an overnight sensation. Just ask Dave Pirner, who formed the band Loud Fast Rules in Minneapolis in 1981. Soon renamed Soul Asylum, the group released its debut EP Say What You Will… in fall 1984.
Produced by Bob Mould (then of alternative rock heroes Hüsker Dü), that release enjoyed success in the band’s hometown, but went largely unheard elsewhere. The album did, however, attract the attention of Twin/Tone Records, a local outfit that would establish a reputation as the label of record for Minneapolis’ punk and alternative scene.
A decade later, in 1994, the band would win a Grammy award for Best Rock Song, for their alt rock hit “Runaway Train.” By then, it had reached #5 on Billboard’s Hot 100. This Saturday, nearly three decades after that, the band headlines the opening day of Metro-affiliated Music in the Park in San Jose’s Plaza de Cesar Chavez, sharing the bill with groundbreaking rockers Living Colour and founding Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, who had also been on Twin/Tone, back in those early days in Minneapolis.
While Pirner looks back fondly on that local scene, he believes it was somewhat insular, not greatly influenced by (or even taking much notice of) what was going on in music elsewhere.
“When one band would play, most of the 30 people in the audience were in bands,” he says with a laugh. “That was your group of friends, people you were meeting and hanging out with through the connection of music.”
Pirner notes that there was a collegiality, an “all for one and one for all” mentality among that Minneapolis community.
“When a band like Hüsker Dü got discovered and started to play bigger and bigger gigs, not only did they take us along as their opening band, but the scene in Minneapolis was 100% on their side,” he says. “‘Go on, fucking go for it, man. You’re representing our scene!’”
In contrast, Soul Asylum’s rise to fame would prove to be a very slow burn. But that didn’t bother Pirner.
“It was kind of important to not think about the future,” he says. “That was not only sort of a punk rock credo, but there was a kind of [thinking that] ‘if you’re making plans for the future, you’re wasting your time.’”
Twin/Tone reissued an expanded version of the band’s first LP, following up with two more albums (Made to Be Broken and While You Were Out, both 1986). Positive critical notices would earn the band an offer from A&M Records. Signed to the nationally distributed label in 1988, Pirner’s group would release two albums, 1988’s Hang Time and the 1990 LP And the Horse they Rode In On. But when those records failed to sell in satisfying numbers, A&M dropped the group.
Yet Columbia Records A&R representative Benjie Gordon believed in what Soul Asylum was doing, and signed the band to the major label. Popular tastes had been changing, and the time seemed right for Soul Asylum’s particular brand of thoughtful, melodic yet ragged-edged alternarock.
With a solid clutch of new songs and a strong push from Columbia, the band recorded and released Grave Dancers Union. And where none of the band’s first five albums had even made an appearance on the national charts, album number six did, and then some. Debuting in October 1992—a full decade after the band played its first gigs as Soul Asylum—Grave Dancers Union rose to the #11 spot on the Billboard 200.
Meanwhile, Soul Asylum’s “overnight” success extended beyond American shores. The band’s runaway success included four singles from the album, led by the “Runaway Train.” The group toured widely.
“This is my opportunity to see the rest of the world, so I’m going to take it as far as I can go,” Pirner recalls thinking at the time.
The momentum of Grave Dancers Union helped propel its 1995 follow-up, Let Your Dim Light Shine, even higher on the U.S. album charts. Lead single “Misery” soared to the top spot on the alternative chart. But overall sales figures were less impressive than before and critical praise was muted.
The band would release one more album on Columbia (1998’s Candy from a Stranger), but it was a commercial disappointment. Though they continued to play gigs, to the wider public, it appeared that the group had disappeared.
Soul Asylum resurfaced in 2004, releasing a well-regarded live album (After the Flood) and a studio set, The Silver Lining. The albums signaled the return of a creatively rejuvenated group. Save for a revolving-door approach to drummers, the band’s founding trio of Pirner, bassist Karl Mueller and guitarist Dan Murphy stayed together until 2005. That year Mueller succumbed to cancer.
“When Karl died, those were some fucking dark times,” Pirner admits.
By then, he had moved to New Orleans. He became a father, “spent some time rethinking things” and made a solo record.
Others have sometimes characterized that period in the Soul Asylum timeline as a hiatus, but Pirner never thought of it that way.
“I just wanted to recharge and get a new grip on things,” he says.
He formed a group called the OGs, laying down his guitar in favor of a seat behind the drums. “I wouldn’t trade that time for anything,” he says.
It would be four years before another Soul Asylum album appeared, Delayed Reaction, in 2012. Shortly after its release, both Mueller’s replacement Tommy Stinson and Murphy quit the group, leaving Pirner as the sole remaining founding member.
Across this rocky road, Pirner—who has written the lion’s share of Soul Asylum’s songs—has inevitably matured as a songwriter. But his early songs still resonate with him.
“It’s pretty easy for me to sing a song that I wrote in high school,” he says. “I’ve still got that weird sense of…whatever it is. If it’s a good song, I’m like, ‘Hey, fucking 20 year old Dave, not too bad!’”
Delayed Reaction also marked the start of what would in retrospect look like an emerging pattern for the band: a new album every four years. Change of Fortune was released in 2016; Hurry Up and Wait (its title perhaps a wry commentary on the band’s pace of releasing new music) hit shelves in 2020. Critics have had good things to say about these releases.
Since then, no new music has emerged from Soul Asylum, but it appears the band’s 21st century pattern will hold.
“I just got done with four days of pre-production here in Minneapolis with Steve Jordan,” Pirner says. The choice of Jordan—who is Charlie Watts’ replacement in the Rolling Stones—brings things full circle for Soul Asylum: “He produced our second A&M record,” notes Pirner.
The straight-ahead, no-varnish attitude that earned the band its slow-burn success promises to be a defining characteristic of the upcoming album.
“We’re going for a no-bullshit approach,” Pirner says. “Get in the studio and play together, all at the same time.”
After being a gigging and recording musician for most of his 59 years, Pirner still loves what he does.
“I’m sure I fucked things up in a million different ways,” he says with a laugh. “But that I’m still doing it is pretty rewarding, I’ve got to say.”
Soul Asylum
With Living Colour, Tommy Stinson
Music in the Park
Fri, 5pm, $45
Cesar Chavez Park, San Jose
Tickets available at wklys.co/mitp_jul
