The era of MTV’s music video revolution may be long over, but its legacy still remains intact. Arguably, the cable network's greatest contribution to the industry is the series MTV Unplugged. Because, while most of its content featured theatrical, lip-synced performances to pre-recorded music, Unplugged showcased artists in their rawest, most “of themselves” form. It’s like today’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert, but with much fuller staging and production accompanying a full-length setlist. 

Minneapolis’s Soul Asylum are among a narrow range of legendary artists (e.g. Nirvana, Lauryn Hill, Eric Clapton) who’ve performed MTV’s coveted live series. Lead singer Dave Pirner and guitarist Ryan Smith recently came to The Current’s studio to perform three songs — unplugged — and then speak in detail about their ambitious effort to reimagine the rock ‘n’ roll band’s Unplugged performance that occurred 30 years ago. The show will happen at the State Theatre this April 20, accompanied by a special double-vinyl release for Record Store Day.

Interview transcript has been edited for clarity and length: 

Diane: Hi, David and Ryan of Soul Asylum. Thank you for being here in the studio with us today at MPR and The Current. My name is Diane, host of The Local Show. And you just rocked –

Dave Pirner: Why, thank you. It's good to be here, Diane. Good to be anywhere. Right, Ryan?

Ryan Smith: Absolutely. Especially here.

I know! On this beautiful sunny day that we have outside. 

DP: I don't know what to do. I have too many clothes on.

RS: We're wearing 20 layers.

DP: Pocket season is finally over. 

Right. And we're with Minnesota musicians, of course, because it's The Local Show and we're in Minneapolis, and we like to celebrate local music here. I'm with two rock and roll musicians — like, totally rock and roll, grunge, alternative. But you're gearing up for an acoustic performance.

DP: You got them all.

(Laughs) Got all the genres? But you're gearing up for a big acoustic performance at State Theatre celebrating the 30th anniversary of your MTV Unplugged performance, which is a huge deal.

DP: That is still correct, 4/20. We couldn't have planned it that way. But I still like saying it. It's easy to remember.

RS: I think we did plan it that way.

DP: We did plan it that way? 

Sounds about right for some rock 'n' rollers.

DP:  4/20. We'll be there with Ivan Neville, and about four string players, percussionists, four gospel singers. Am I missing anyone? And us. Us guys. 

DJ Jake Rudh is opening. 

DP: Yes.

Kick ass. Dave, you had mentioned earlier that Ryan did a lot of the arranging and orchestrating. I want to hear about what the preparation has been like for such an amazing feat. 

DP: See, I was giving you props. 

RS: Thanks, Dave. Appreciate that. 

DP: But the story kind of goes — that was a long time ago. So we were calling people at MTV and people at Columbia, and trying to find the string arrangements because we had them. That would have saved us a lot of time and effort. So we were trying to figure out how to do it in lieu of not having it. And du-du-du-dah! To the rescue! Ryan Smith, why don't you tell us about your experience so far?

RS: So far, I started with the six songs that had strings from the MTV Unplugged, listen to it. I got stems from management so I could hear each string part. Hand-wrote it out, and then started to do a little demo of the string parts, and then put a score, individual parts. And then kind of turned into doing it for a lot of the songs. I think there's 16 songs that have string arrangements. So a lot of them were starting from the ground up. And that was kind of cool, too. So there were no existing string parts for those. That was even more fun. But it was fun going through and trying to — there was one part that somebody was playing some funky note and Dave heard it. And he's like, hey, what's that? And I’m like, I don't know. Somebody played that on the original recording. 

DP: Yeah, that's pretty impressive to me. I don't have the patience or the wherewithal to do that.

Yeah, I know, I would marvel at that, too. Because it takes a lot of attention to detail, time, energy, focus.

DP: He works miracles every day. 

So it's not just a recreation of the MTV Unplugged performance back then. But you're of course doing a similar set up.

DP: Somebody called it a reenactment, and I'm like, well, that doesn't seem right either. So I came up with — we're reimagining it ... So the goal was never to do the exact same show. The goal, for me anyways, was there's been a lot of songs that I've written between then and now, and we're going to be featuring things that we have not tried with strings and whatnot. And it will be a setlist that is taken from the last — Lord knows how many years I've been doing this — but, I guess, 30 years. Plus some of this stuff — the old standards from the MTV thing that we played called those fan favorites that we don't f*** up.

I have to bring up MTV because I was a massive MTV junkie when I was a little kid. I felt like it dictated my love for music or what I actually listened to. 

DP: What do you remember most? Like, Michael Jackson's video or like -

Um, I remember a lot of Puff Daddy — P. Diddy. 

DP: Ah yes!

No, he was Puff Daddy at the time. Puff Daddy and Ma$e.

DP: Driving around in boats and stuff. 

No Doubt. Of course, I remember you.

DP: No doubt.

No Doubt was huge. Alanis Morissette. 

DP: Ah yes! It's amazing how prominent it was, and how now it's like, does anybody miss it?

No.

DP: (Laughs)

Were you also kind of upset around the time when they started not playing music videos anymore? Did you have feelings about that?

DP: Well, yeah. Cuz you saw it creeping up. Okay, well, what is this? And the next thing you're dealing with Snooki and The Situation. Is that what it's called? It was quite a situation. Yeah, so it was a little disappointing when it started to move away from music. And it looked like it was going to be game shows and stuff. But they kind of fostered in the reality show in a way that they should be blamed for it (laughs). Not credited for. Blamed for.

Well, thinking back to your album Grave Dancers Union, when that album was so huge and massive, even as you were writing it — I know you started in the 80s. And we're hustling hard. And then you wrote this incredible album, did you foresee what would happen, happen?

DP: No. I mean, I think at the time that we did the Unplugged thing, we still didn't really understand how big the record would become. And that was kind of the way it was ... because we just kept getting more and more gigs and traveling more and more. And okay, now we're going to Japan and Australia and et cetera. So there's not a lot of time to sit around and pat each other on the back or whatever. It was very busy times, and doing a lot of stuff that is not musical. It's like you got a full day of photo shoots and stuff today. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure I didn't sign up for that. But so you go along, and you do it. And then here we are!

(Laughs) Here you are, still holding it down. Legends in the Minneapolis music scene. So I definitely would want to ask, what do you feel like needs to continue in order for us to keep the Minneapolis music scene world class? Because it has been for so many years, and I think so many of us covet it so much and want to see it continue to thrive the way it does and continues to do so. But there's a lot of ebb and flow in the music scene. What do you think will help us keep it world class the way it has been?

DP: Well, I think the club scene has stabilized a little bit. And I can't remember if we talked about this last time we talked, but I was watching and thinking about Lizzo. And she was talking to her manager-type person. And she said, well, I want to try to have a go at this music thing. And she goes, so of course we moved to Minneapolis, which was just saying something to me. I was like, God, I didn't really know even in Houston. I mean ... she ain't going to Nashville. And it's a good stop on the way to L.A., which I believe is where she lives now. I'm not positive. 

But yeah, it continues to grow, and I continue to be sort of surprised as far as — well, I've never really had an answer. Is it the winters that we are so cloistered that all we can do is go down to the basement and make music; and by the time that tight situation gets out on a stage somewhere it's a big cathartic kind of release. I don't know. I mean, 20 years of New Orleans, everyone's playing horns and stuff. There ain't no horns up here. So somewhere between the — in fact I kind of recall that people were saying the "Minneapolis sound," and I still wasn't sure if that was the Husker Du/Replacements thing, or the Prince thing. Is it all? Preferably, for me, it's all the Minneapolis sound. 

What do you say about that, Ryan? Actually, Ryan has 60 guitar students. So he probably knows more about the future of the scene than I do.

RS: Well, I think that one of the cool things about the Minnesota and Minneapolis music scene is that there's always been bands that help the next generation of bands and the next generation of bands. Because we had people like Chris Osgood from The Suicide Commandos and Chan Poling from The Suburbs. And the list goes on and on of these musicians that kind of helped foster in the next bands. I think that's a cool thing about the scene is that does happen. And there's always new bands popping up. And the bands that already exist seem to help them out ... I think it's kind of a cool, unique thing.

DP: You're not in proximity to an office where they're gonna give you a record deal. So I think that changes the dynamic. There isn't this kind of weird competition to get a contract or whatever. You're not passing someplace on your way to practice that's Warner Brothers or something. A&M or whatever. And you're just like, I think my goal is to get in that building. Nope. It's kind of like once I start playing out of town, then I'm going to keep going until somebody wants me somewhere.

I think about how when you started, you were called Loud Fast Rules. And that was in the '80s. And then you ended up changing your name to Soul Asylum. I think of the name literally, in terms of “soul asylum,” and how music is almost a sanctuary for the soul. And I would love to hear you talk about the meaning.

DP: That is the best explanation I've heard. Yeah, and it would be kind of strange if Grave Dancers Union was made by a band called Loud Fast Rules. But I think when we started out, it was right before the hardcore thing really kicked in. So everyone was trying to play louder and faster than the next band. So it seemed kind of appropriate. Then when we signed with Twin/Tone, I was like, man, I can already see that this is too limited of a name for us to sort of grow and experiment in different directions. So it was kind of hastened by putting a record out. And I don't know, I had a poem, actually, called “Soul Asylum” that was turned into a song. And the song was not very good. But the name was pretty good. That's kind of where it came from.

It's beautiful. It's a great band name, which is important to a band's – I don't know, I feel like a weird band name can give you minus points. 

DP: I’ve recently been hearing about people that hate the name of their band. And once that's how you're known, you're known that way – you put some work into the reputation of the band. It wasn't Hoobastank. But it was kind of something like that, where you're like, wow, how's that name working out for you? I hate it. That sucks. And you got to put it on a t-shirt. And you're just like ugh. We're glad that it still works. You know, it seems relatively timeless. 

Tell me a little bit about Ivan Neville, who's joining you. He's worked with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Rolling Stones. He's joining you.

DP: Love him. I love Ivan. He comes from the Neville family. And there's, oh, I don't know, 20 that I can think of off the top of my head. They're a musical family from New Orleans, much like the Batistes, or there's a few other families. So there's Art Neville, who is in The Meters. And, Ivan, we started hanging out when Soul Asylum was opening for Keith Richards. And that's kind of how we got to be friends. And then the MTV Unplugged thing came up and he was an obvious choice. Because they were very much like, I want a string section — OK! So I was like, Ivan Neville? And they were like, Okay! So it worked. And he sounds great on the recordings. And then I moved to New Orleans. And I was there for 20 years. And every time I needed an organ player, I'd pick up the phone and call Ivan. And he'd show up and kill it. 

I’m very pleased that he's going to be playing with us. And he's also opening. So he told me the band he's bringing up, and they're amazing, amazing musicians. So that should be good. I'm looking forward to playing with Ivan … he has a smaller combo. He used to have a little bit of a bigger combo called Dumpstaphunk. Really great band.

You have a special vinyl that's coming out for Record Store Day.

DP: We do indeed.

It's a double vinyl. And it's the MTV Unplugged performance. Can you talk about that a little bit?

DP: Well, we never put it out, which we could have. So it's kind of, as things go, things kind of leaked onto YouTube. And I'm like, how does that happen? Nirvana put out their Unplugged record, and it was really successful. We wanted to leave it as a live performance. We just remixed it and remastered it, and I listened to it and had to kind of evoke the situation that was like – we opened with "Runaway Train." Weird! What was going on that that would be a good idea. We went at it with the same sort of attitude that we, you know, it's just another day at the office. But this time the office has a string section and a lot of production that MTV was great with. As we were talking about, most of the music was lip-synced on MTV so the Unplugged thing was the first time that people were actually playing and making music for real. Yeah, so the record is excellent if I do say so myself. And it has some bonus tracks. That's where it got confusing, because they edited out a few songs for time. And so by the time the thing aired, there were outtakes, which I wasn't really paying attention to at the time. But somebody just told me what they are. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. We played those songs too. So here it is in its full -- what's that word? Manifestation. What were you gonna say?

RS: It's full majesty. 

DP: (Laughs) Yeah. I wasn't nervous, which seems like I would have been. But it seems like we just kind of – maybe I was. I probably was. I was probably rationalizing it in a away.

To be the front and center — like everything is based off of what you do. All the strings ... 

DP: You're right. I was probably scared to death. 

I'd be losing my mind. Well, how are you going to prepare for the show on 4/20 then, when you're doing the same thing?

DP: Oh, we do jumping jacks.

RS: Run in circles before the show.

Nice! The pre-show routine.

DP: Stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, hopefully we'll get ample time to rehearse with our strings and singers and all that. So, yes, preparation is key. But you don't want to over rehearse anything too much either. Right, Ryan?

RS: That's critical.

DP:  Things you learn, don't practice it into the ground, which hasn't been a problem, really (laughs).

Video Segments

00:00 Somebody to Shove
03:51 Lately
07:17 Crazy Mixed Up World
11:05 Interview with Diane

Credits

Guests – Ryan Smith (lead guitar and backup vocals) and Dave Pirner (guitar and lead vocals)
Host and Producer – Diane Miller
Video Director – Eric Xu Romani
Camera Operator – Peter Ecklund
Audio – Eric Xu Romani
Graphics – Natalia Toledo

External Link

Soul Asylum - official site