When we catch up with Fin from Fink he has just finished touring with Gomez. Strangely enough I’ve just finished eating Guzman and Gomez, so in some way we’re both in the same place.
Fin is ready to chill, something he became very familiar with during his youth, listening to The Orb.
“I had a totally different journey to most of my mates, they were intro grunge and Nirvana, but I was buying different stuff, trip hop, electronic. I have always been up for new, interesting music. But the Orb has always been the bullocks for me, they’re the best.”
And when did he enjoy their music the most?
“When I was a student, everyone listened to Orb. Just smoke weed and do nothing, chill out.”
Fin speaks with the kind of English accent that instantly makes him cool, like every character created by Guy Ritchie. It is this inherent cool that allowed Fin to make the transition from trip hop producer/DJ to singer songwriter, seamlessly. Although he admits it wasn’t that easy.
“It was tough transition, I didn’t want to do it at the start. Being a producer is good, your faceless, nameless and you make money but being a musician is good for you soul.”
At Music Feeds we’re all about the soul, so Fin’s preaching to the converted. But won’t he miss those days/nights of pills for breakfast and beats for dinner? Fin was very much immersed in the club scene, so the shift is major.
“I think what really made me want to change was that clubland had changed, I don’t really want to go clubbing anymore. Also I really wanted to play live, so in order to play live I needed to do something. That kind of forced me into it really, become more a live performer, more of a musician.”
Speed has always been a part of Fin’s life, in one form or another, so it’s no surprise his current record, Sort of Revolution, has been finished at astonishing pace. And it seems to be the tip of the iceberg.
“We finished touring in October last year, in November we got into studio started mucking around, getting high. We wrote the record in November, recorded in December. In January everyone left me alone and I produced it, and in March it was done, and we were off, came out in May.”
I need to take a breath after that, but Fin is still ready to go, telling me he plans to release material every eighteen months, giving himself a year and a half to get shit done.
“It’s physically impossible to do a record quicker then 18 months, but we’re going to try and do it every 18 months.”
As if this wasn’t enough Fin still produces music for bands, and his own side project, Sideshow, a dub step reggae act.
Talking about the dub step scene it’s obvious Fin is passionate about the music; he’s excitable and bubbly.
“A lot of good stuff is coming out of Bristol, and Sideshow is into that. The heavy revved up bass stuff, I’m not really up for, but the deep side, the Bristol side of it, bands like Scuba. The deep musical side, the reggae as opposed to hard-core acid stuff, that’s more what I am into.”
Fin’s skillz as a producer have landed him gigs with Amy Winehouse, Zero7 and Martin Taylor, but it is clear that he has fallen in love with the music lifestyle, talking about guitars, amps and equipment with unbridled passion.
In between our formal interview Q&A type thing, Fin tells me of crazy discos he saw in Berlin, some intense shit. Fink would be way out of place there he says, so where is there place on the musical landscape I ask?
“To me it kind of suits late night driving, or Sunday afternoon with the papers. Or if you are in a pretty emotional place, I tend to connect with those people. If you’re feeling intense, then just chill and listen.”
I get the feeling by ‘papers’ he means the ones you can roll, not the Guardian. Which is ok by us.
Before Fin leaves us, (off the phone, he isn’t terminally ill) we need to know where he stands on the big issues. Analog or digital when it comes to recording?
“I’m still an analog man. Doing it digital is quick and easy, and can do amazing stuff, but with analog you can’t make mistakes, it forces you to play better. In the album, Sort of Revolution you can hear the mistakes, because we did it in one take. That captures the energy, when you get overly digital you lose that.”
Speaking of losing things, Fin may just well lose his mind this year with his hectic schedule. We’ll leave it up to the man himself to break it down for you, because simply it’s exhausting to even read.
“Well, May 26th the album came out. Then big European tour. Album out in USA in June, then tour US, then back to UK. Release second single, then doing some random Swiss stuff, maybe Canada, Japan. Then another British tour, then chill the fuck out in November.”
Sounds good to us.
Photo By Will Cooper Mitchell
