ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Liam Finn

Monday , 04 Jul 2011

After globetrotting around the planet with bands like Pearl Jam, Wilco and the Black Keys, Liam Finn has fashioned a new album that explores a new sound - and recording process.

Liam Finn knew what he wanted to accomplish with FOMO, the soon to be released follow up to the New Zealand creative powerhouse's 2008 breakout solo album I'll Be Lighting. He wanted to be challenged and to challenge his audience, and, clocking in at just 36 minutes, the raw and exuberant FOMO does just that.

At home in London and feeling much better after an early morning coffee run, he says that he’s in a, “late cycle at the moment after doing a bunch of touring and recording over the last few months and trying desperately just to catch up on some sleep.” Regardless, he’s still excited to talk about his music, which really is his reason for being.

The album title FOMO, as in ‘Fear Of Missing Out’, is the first thing we discuss, and it turns out that it was a catchphrase that he and his mates used a little too often over the past year and it just stuck. “It seemed like one of us was always missing out on something,” he laughs, “and someone was always feeling a bit FOMO. All you have to do is look at Facebook and you realise the whole world is essentially feeling FOMO."

“It's a very natural way to be,” he continues, “but it's also a slightly tragic term, because you should never wish you were somewhere else." And since Finn made the album at the tail end of 2010, at the height of summer in New Zealand, it often lived up to its title during the recording process. "Every day that I went into the studio it was gorgeous outside. Friends and family would be calling, saying, 'come to this great party… come out and play.'"

Finn enlisted Canadian born guitarist and songwriter Burke Reid (formerly of arty Australian combo Gerling), to produce the record with him - a process that turned out to be as satisfying as it was confrontational. What he didn't anticipate was that his new right hand man would hold very different ideas about what constitutes a great record - and how to go about making one.

When Finn presented him with a myriad of songs, in various stages of readiness, Reid was most enthusiastic about the ones that were furthest from completion. "He didn't respond to the finished songs as much as he did to the little snippets of ideas,” explains Finn. “Things as simple as just a beat, a melody, or a little keyboard riff. He picked up on those and said, 'Let's try to expand on these.'" Finn had begun the recording process alone but realised he really needed, “a wall to bounce off, someone who can lend a bit of objectivity when you’ve lost your way. He really came along at the right time and shook me up for the better.”

The pair originally met around 10 years ago, and Finn says that he was a Gerling fan from way back as they were the only Australian band on Flying Nun when he was with his old band Betchadupa. “They came over to New Zealand a few times and we got to hang out with them,” he explains, “and they were always in party mode. All of my early memories of Burke are of this totally wide-eyed, mad guy.”

Finn’s manager put the two back in contact last year after hanging out in Sydney with him, explaining that Reid had moved into full time production over the past few years and could be exactly what he was looking for. He says that when they met again he realised that Reid and he were, “totally on the same wavelength when it came to what kind of sound I was trying to achieve, and he was just made everything seem fresh and exciting again.”

He explains that the end result became more of an artistic collaboration between the two than just a co-production job, with Reid acting almost as an unofficial band member. “He steered me in directions I never would have taken,” says Finn, “and took my sound to a whole other level that is very different from what I’ve done before.”

In the three years since his solo debut, Finn has crisscrossed the globe as a headline artist and support act with Pearl Jam, the Black Keys and Wilco, playing to crowds bigger than many of his New Zealand peers will ever witness, let alone perform to.

What does he think makes him such a good support act to have onboard? “I think the fact that we [he and tour-mate Eliza-Jane Barnes] are a two-piece makes us pretty desirable,” he says, “especially because we haven’t got much mess to clear off the stage. And if you haven’t seen us before - our act is pretty impactful.”

Given its dynamic range of sound and instrumentation, you'd never guess FOMO was written and played by one man - unless you've witnessed one of Finn's gigs, which feature him bouncing between instruments, piling on loops and layers, and working up the sweat of several men. “It’s the place I feel most free,” he says honestly, “and I find it so easy to lose myself when I’m in front of an international audience that doesn’t know me. People in the UK and Europe seem to love to be ‘entertained’ by something new, and I guess that makes us work harder at warming the crowd up.”

Watch the video for Liam Finn's latest single 'Cold Feet' below.

Liam Finn - Cold Feet