Welcome to our latest conversation in the series for 2026! I was thrilled beyond belief when Franz Nicolay agreed to chat with me about his writing, music, and teaching practices!
To say Franz is accomplished in these areas would be a gross understatement! A prolific performer and recording artist with more than 165 credits and counting as per his Discogs page, he has toured the world for more than 25 years with the Hold Steady, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, as a solo artist, and with a wide range of other performers and groups. He has contributed to such high-profile media outlets as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, among others, and he is active on Substack where every two weeks he shares essays, stories, music, and other types of writing! He is also the author of three books including the travel memoir The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar (2016), the novel Someone Should Pay for Your Pain (2021), and most recently a work of academic non-fiction Band People: Life and Work in Popular Music (2024), all three of which have been received to highly positive reviews! In addition to all this, Franz has, in recent years, begun teaching college and university courses in music and the written arts and he is currently a faculty member at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
I will confess to being a little over-awed while preparing for this interview, and a bit star-struck while in conversation, in no small part due to the sheer multitude, depth, and quality of Franz’s various creative endeavors! I’ve been a fan of The Hold Steady since they released Separation Sunday back in 2005, and I have “Stay Positive” and the stylized infinity sign from the 2008 album by that name’s cover tattooed on my right shoulder! I’ve followed his solo career with interest, I’m a regular reader of his Substack newsletter, and I recently read Band People in just over a single day, and I’m currently deep into the Humorless Ladies of Border Control. Band People especially resonates, maybe because of how it removes some of the romance of the working lives of musicians and lays bare the tensions, challenges and joys of how a wide range of artists across the worlds of indie, punk, and other kinds of music manage to stay creative while also making ends meet in the early decades of the twenty-first century.
Franz was extremely generous in making time for me earlier this week for a conversation, and kindly humored some of my more esoteric questions. I’m deeply grateful, and I’m also highly stoked to share this chat with you! Be sure to check out anything by the Hold Steady, Franz’s solo records, his deeper and wider discography, as well as his books, newsletter, and other writing!
Matt Stranach