The Hold Steady recently spoke with Billboard about their forthcoming album and second for Vagrant Records. The record is titled Stay Positive and is due out July 15, 2008

The critically acclaimed band had this to say about the new album:

There's less party talk, don't think anything is a radical departure, but there are things that I wanted to talk about. I was influenced a lot [by] getting old, and attempting to age gracefully. The idea is to not wake up washed up. You want to keep progressing, intellectually.

I think four records in, you're thinking what have we done before?" What should we do here? You have these initial habits, but you're fighting those –– and that's healthy, to make things sound different. I think we've tackled the big huge rock riff and I think we wanted to extend what we're used to doing. Step out of our safety zone.