Randy Strohmeyer - Finch (31/01/2014)
Finch's last stop in to Australia was way back in 2009 for the blistering album, in which quickly afterwards they threw in the towel. Now, five years later, Randy and co have taken the mantle of Finch again for anniversary shows of their pinnacle album What it is to Burn. I asked Randy just what it was like to revive the legendary post-hardcore trope.
"[Reformation] was sort of unspoken thing. People had approached us about it and asked us “what are you guys going to do after it’s done” and I’d just respond with a look, I don’t know right now. Everyone had different things going on that they had to navigate. But now Finch is sort of at the place it was when it begun, and while we had to make time for it, luckily we had some time to focus on just that and to extend our practices a little bit longer and to just fuck around. Eventually we just started writing and decided that yeah, this was something we wanted to do again."
Seeing as this last year has been filled with anniversary shows for What it is to Burn, the album that really put Finch at the forefront of the scene, I asked Randy just how aware he was of what he and co had crafted while creating it.
"We had no idea; we just did what was natural. The record was pretty much written in the back of someone’s garage, and we barely knew what we were doing. We didn’t really know how to write songs, and we weren’t really trying to do anything massive. Everything we were doing at the time was pretty much just whatever sounded like it’d work, you know? It was cool, we had no idea everyone would be so warm to it."
With a new lease on life, Finch have begun work on their brand new album. During this break in the tour, the band has used the time to craft a whole new group of songs, locking themselves up for hours at a time to create. Some are complete and polished, such as Back to Oblivion, revealed live just a few weeks ago, but most are still works in progress. Randy feels confident in these brand new works.
"We’ve been writing like crazy really, there hasn’t been much time off. We’ve been writing every day for the past couple of weeks, trying really hard to make an amazing record, so to speak. We’ve been locking ourselves in a room for about twelve hours a day, and when we get home we all just sleep. We’ve been writing for a while, but we thought we’d give it a shot and just focus on the process. We’ve got like forty songs right now, and we’re still writing, so we’ll see how it goes."
Unfortunately, we may not be hearing these tracks on our shores this time next month. However, there is still luck to hear them later, should they find another touring opportunity.
"I wish we could play some new songs, but I think we only have time at Soundwave to play What it is to Burn. I guess it’s just more of an incentive to get back to Australia as soon as possible. We’ve never been to Australia that wasn’t Soundwave, so it would be fantastic to do some proper shows down there as well."
Ben Spencer
"[Reformation] was sort of unspoken thing. People had approached us about it and asked us “what are you guys going to do after it’s done” and I’d just respond with a look, I don’t know right now. Everyone had different things going on that they had to navigate. But now Finch is sort of at the place it was when it begun, and while we had to make time for it, luckily we had some time to focus on just that and to extend our practices a little bit longer and to just fuck around. Eventually we just started writing and decided that yeah, this was something we wanted to do again."
Seeing as this last year has been filled with anniversary shows for What it is to Burn, the album that really put Finch at the forefront of the scene, I asked Randy just how aware he was of what he and co had crafted while creating it.
"We had no idea; we just did what was natural. The record was pretty much written in the back of someone’s garage, and we barely knew what we were doing. We didn’t really know how to write songs, and we weren’t really trying to do anything massive. Everything we were doing at the time was pretty much just whatever sounded like it’d work, you know? It was cool, we had no idea everyone would be so warm to it."
With a new lease on life, Finch have begun work on their brand new album. During this break in the tour, the band has used the time to craft a whole new group of songs, locking themselves up for hours at a time to create. Some are complete and polished, such as Back to Oblivion, revealed live just a few weeks ago, but most are still works in progress. Randy feels confident in these brand new works.
"We’ve been writing like crazy really, there hasn’t been much time off. We’ve been writing every day for the past couple of weeks, trying really hard to make an amazing record, so to speak. We’ve been locking ourselves in a room for about twelve hours a day, and when we get home we all just sleep. We’ve been writing for a while, but we thought we’d give it a shot and just focus on the process. We’ve got like forty songs right now, and we’re still writing, so we’ll see how it goes."
Unfortunately, we may not be hearing these tracks on our shores this time next month. However, there is still luck to hear them later, should they find another touring opportunity.
"I wish we could play some new songs, but I think we only have time at Soundwave to play What it is to Burn. I guess it’s just more of an incentive to get back to Australia as soon as possible. We’ve never been to Australia that wasn’t Soundwave, so it would be fantastic to do some proper shows down there as well."
Ben Spencer