Finch

BEN – You’ve been coming over here to the UK quite a fair bit recently…
ALEX – Yeah, it seems like we tour the US, then come over here, then back.
BEN – How do you find the audiences and shows differ?
ALEX – Kids here are a little more mad and crazy, they really go nuts when they see us! In America they’re a bit more spoiled when it comes to seeing bands because there’s so many bands touring you can probably go to a show every night.
BEN – We don’t get as many US bands over here, I mean look at the massive Warped Tour which we don’t have…
ALEX – But you do have the Reading Festival, which is pretty cool!
BEN – Are you playing Reading this year?
ALEX – Yeah, I think so. I can’t remember which day, but I’m pretty sure we’ll play.
BEN – When you play live, is there a routine you go through before you go onstage or is it more spontaneous?
ALEX – We’ll be sitting around and then someone will say “Let’s go” and then we’ll get changed into something nice…we don’t stretch or anything! I seem to always have to urinate a lot before I play!

BEN – Do you find that when you do play shows you get a lot of kids coming up to you, seeing as some may class Finch as a pretty important band on the emotional scale of things, as opposed to someone like Green Day?
ALEX – There are kids who come up to me and say really meaningful things, like how much the band has done for them personally but I don’t know if we’re the same as Green Day, who are pretty fucking huge….their setlist is like every song’s a hit!
BEN – How important is it having ‘the hit’ for Finch? I mean, Letters To You has been pretty big in the underground over here…
ALEX – It’s important in keeping your record label happy.
BEN – Are you bored of Letters To You yet?
ALEX – Yeah! But I don’t think singles are really that important.
BEN – Are you making a conscious effort to go in a new direction?
ALEX – Yeah, I’m excited because we’re playing two new songs. The old stuff…there are times when we can rehash it to make it look new and exciting. But it’s all still fun to play, even with like a million shows we all give 100% and catch ourselves in the moment and go nuts.
BEN – Can you reveal any new song titles to us?
ALEX – One’s called Worms Of The Earth, and the other new song is untitled at the moment.
BEN – I heard that Worms…sounds a bit like Incubus…?
ALEX – Really? I’ve heard Incubus, Glassjaw, Faith No More…
BEN – To be fair, Incubus, Glassjaw and Faith No More aren’t exactly bad!
ALEX – That’s true, but I’d agree with Faith No More more than anything. It’s the first song where I feel like it’s what I wanted to do with it.

BEN – Is there much tension within the band, musically?
ALEX – I think it’s almost like different trains hitting each other, we’ve all got such different musical tastes we can’t help but butt heads musically. But it’s just like different styles which make our music more interesting.
BEN – What have you been listening to while recording your new material?
ALEX – All my old stuff…Depeche Mode, Radiohead, Deftones, Glassjaw.
BEN – What’s your favourite Radiohead album?
ALEX – Probably OK Computer. It’s so awesome.
BEN – Have you ever considered ‘doing a Radiohead’, like total electronic stuff?
ALEX – I’ve considered it but we’ve had some electronic stuff o our old records…I wouldn’t mind expanding with more chilled out atmospheres.
BEN – What do you reckon the reaction would be from your army of fans?
ALEX – I thought about that before and I’m not worried about how the kids will react to new records…
BEN – Would you say you’d want to challenge audiences more?
ALEX – I think I’m more interested in challenging myself.
BEN – Is there much that goes into the new stuff that you’ve been really happy with, as far as challenging yourself goes?
ALEX – The two new songs I’m really happy with. I’m a better guitar player now and I’m enjoying it more. I think I could probably play the parts from the last record with my hand behind my back!
BEN – Is everyone as happy as you are with them?
ALEX – I think they’re more happy.
BEN – With the new Finch material, will you be definitely able to mark the differences?
ALEX – If you stick around tonight you’ll definitely hear the differences with the new songs. We’re more set on purposely not pleasing our record label!

BEN – How was it working with Drive Thru?
ALEX – Drive Thru was the shit, and if we’d stayed it would have been awesome. But on MCA we can afford to be on the bus and it helps with the relationships in the band and tolerating being on tour so long.
BEN – How would you descrive the Finch live show?
ALEX – I would say that…hmm…there’s Pappis, who’s a fucking awesome drummer but sometimes a little too stony! there’’ Derek who just wants to jam all the time. Randy wants to be the international superstar and we make fun of him, because usually when we do an encore with a song called Ender which is three minutes of Randy and Nate just going nuts. We stand on the side of the stage shouting “Randy! International superstar!” because it’s so cheesy. Then there’s Nate who’s a good showman but an anti rock star. His favourite rock stars are like Mike Patton and Thom Yorke, the whole anti rock thing…he looks up to them and admires them. As for me…erm, I just sweat a lot!