Finch may have thought our publication was called ‘Hitler Floor’, but the lovely Nate Barcalow (Vocals) and Alex Pappas (Guitar) took the time to have a chat with us at this year’s Hevy Festival. Read on to learn more about their Summer highlights and what their new album (Back To Oblivion) holds…
HTF: So, Finch has had a very busy summer. What would you say your highlight has been?
A: That’s a good question. There’s been a couple of highlights and a couple of lowlights I suppose.
N: Finishing the record?
A: Yeah that was the fucking biggest one. I’m secretly a bit of a pessimist, so every day in the studio I thought the ball’s gonna drop and it would be done. Sometimes I thought it would be on my head because I wanted to punch the producer in the face some days, but other days I wanted to hug him, like “Good job, man”. But the day that it was finished, mastered and we turned it into a record, when I knew it was like done and gone, I was like “What the fuck, that’s amazing”.
HTF: And while we’re on the new record, you started what would have been your 3rd album back in 2008, yet it didn’t happen because of differences amongst the band. How do you’ve feel overcome that with ‘Back To Oblivion’?
A: I think we just couldn’t get on the same page for whatever reason.
N: I think we hit a creative wall that we couldn’t break through. We wrote some really interesting stuff: some good, some not so good. But it hit a wall and we could not get past that. We kind of gave up. It didn’t work out.
A: But this record was different because we started writing, we weren’t sure really I think. We wrote the first song ‘Back To Oblivion’ and I think that was the first big push, big inspiration, like yeah, we can still write a good song – so we can do ten more.
HTF: Do feel like ‘Back To Oblivion’ still is Finch, or is it something that’s developed from your time apart?
A: No I think it’s very much Finch.
N: If it’s us playing and writing it, it’s Finch. Whether the music sounds like it used to or sounds different, I think it’s always going to be Finch.
A: There’s a funny sort of thing about Finch. All of us as individuals I think are really strong writers, but if you listen to something that Nate writes by himself, it’ll sound like a Nate song. I think as long as we’re all together, I think it’s always going to be a Finch record.
N: No matter who who writes the song, everybody puts their own taste and flare into it and that essentially becomes Finch.
HTF: Talking about your debut What It Is To Burn, do you ever listen back to it?
A: Yeah, actually before this trip me and my girlfriend listened to What It Is To Burn from start to end and then immediately after, Back To Oblivion – it was an interesting experiment. I really like our first record. For eighteen year old kids I think we did an exceptional job. But I could hear the maturity in age. And I like it, I mean I’m 32 now, I think our songs sound like we’re older, but wiser and a bit smarter.
HTF: So do you think you could have written Back To Oblivion back in the day, or do you feel like you’ve needed that time apart?
N: Probably not.
A: I think all three of our records really kinda show where we were. We wanted to show that we could write a challenging record, ‘cos we were a bit older and wanted to prove ourselves. With like friends’ bands, we wanted to prove that we could fucking shred like they did. But I think now this record might be more like we’re not trying to prove anything. I think that is one fact that will always be true about Finch, that we will do exactly what we want, whether it’s for the best or for the worst.
HTF: So do you feel that bands who don’t do what they want, and try to cater to their fans are doing it wrong?
A: I think that’s playing with fire, because if you read your Facebook posts, you’ll have 150 different opinions, so you can’t really cater to the fans, you have to serve yourself first. I think most bands have success on their first record, when they’re writing and they’re unknown. Then they’re just serving themselves.
N: A lot of bands fall off after their first record or their first successful record. I think we’re just fortunate enough to have made a third record.
HTF: And did you worry about your survival too?
N: Kind of, because the second record wasn’t very popular. Nobody really liked it.
A: People hated it.
N: So I was kind of hurt by that. We really invested a lot of ourselves into it and very deeply at least for me. The first sold out better, but the second kind of fell by the wayside. It was kind of nerve-racking to start a third record. We kept it simple and played really nice music that made sense; it wasn’t that technical. I really like it.
HTF: Do you have any regrets at all?
N: Someone asked me this the other day, and I’ll say it again. I think the only regret I have is the first time we broke up after Say Hello To Sunshine and not staying together, because now I’m not going to know how life would have been if we’d just kept going with that momentum right into a third album. But who knows, that could have fallen apart too. But I always kind of did wonder where our band would be now if we didn’t break up and just kept going regardless. I guess it’s a regret for me, but in the same sense, it kind of had to happen and I think that we came out better for it.
HTF: And finally, if you could perform as Finch, to anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
N: Ok, I would say Kurt Cobain. I would imagine if he was standing on the side of the stage when I played, that would make my life. I’d be very happy.
