Liam Finn - Fear of Standing Still
Author: Lydia Jenkin
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‘FOMO’, the title of Liam Finn’s new album, stands for ‘fear of missing out’ – a common enough sensibility, but not something you’d perhaps expect to trouble one of NZ’s most internationally successful musicians – one who gets to travel the world, hang with other celebrated musicians and perform to thousands of fans. Yet it’s a sentiment that Finn admits to experiencing with not being able to share in the daily lives of friends and family while on yet another tour, or having to prioritise recording over summertime fun with mates. Don’t misunderstand, the life of touring and recording is one he’s exceptionally happy with and grateful for, but we’re all allowed a FOMO moment from time to time. Liam spoke to Lydia Jenkin about overcoming that by forming a band, recording in a more collaborative manner, and how the thrill of performing live still makes it all worthwhile.
When I speak to Liam Finn in early May, he has not long been in London, having just spent six weeks on the road in the US and Canada, reconnecting with fans and breaking in his new songs and band. After spending 10 months intently working on his sophomore album ‘FOMO’ in Auckland, being back on tour has proven a welcome change of pace.
“It’s awesome, I think I’d forgotten how much it was a part of who I am basically, because as soon as I started doing shows again, I felt myself. I dunno, there’s something about the adrenalin that is very addictive I think. It’s also refreshing to have new songs to play. I think the reason why I was so desperate to get back in the studio and so desperate to live in NZ again was because I’d had so much of the touring side that I’d almost forgotten what the creative side was like. I really craved it, so it was good to come back and exhaust that, and then want to tour again.”
Following a series of low-key gigs in Auckland, Liam, his drummer brother Elroy, Jol Mulholland (guitars and keys) and Jeremy Toy (bass) flew to the US to shake down both the band and the album, with a tour that began with four shows at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Toy subsequently left the tour party and headed to Europe to spend some time travelling at the beginning of May.
“It was purely just to get our chops up as a band and to figure things out, and I’m glad that was the tour that Jeremy decided to leave, not in the middle of an album tour when there’s a lot riding on it. I wanted to make sure we got to know each other as a band, and see what worked and see what didn’t work. I spent so long in betchadupa, becoming a good band, that it was quite an unfathomable idea to become a good band during three weeks of rehearsals. I knew that one show was probably worth 10 rehearsals and getting to do a 16-date tour of the States was a really good way to cut our teeth.”
Having recorded two albums with his schoolmate band in the early 2000s, Liam’s debut solo album ‘I’ll Be Lightning’ was released in 2008 to genuine international acclaim. Critics and fans alike were captivated by the raw honesty, poignant melodies and fiery energy of songs that Liam had initially written without any intention of releasing them to the public.
The album was promoted with months of touring as a solo act, the intimate magic of those gigs centred around live-built loops, manic drumming, chiming guitars and Liam’s open-hearted vocals. Friend EJ Barnes later came on board to add extra vocals, percussion and the occasional turn on auto-harp. There were performances on David Letterman and Jools Holland shows, support tours with bands like The Black Keys, Wilco and Pearl Jam, and the album found dedicated fan bases in Australia, America and Europe. Sales for ‘I’ll Be Lightning’ stand at around 50,000 albums worldwide, released through Liberation in Australia and NZ, Yep Rock Records in the US and Transgressive in the UK. It was success won through relentless touring and hard work.
Liam was thus quite ready to again turn hermit-like when he arrived back home to record a second solo album last year, but says he was also in a more collaborative headspace than he had been ahead of ‘I’ll Be Lightning’. Rather than going it fully alone, he chose to team up with Australian producer Burke Reid.
“I met him actually about eight or nine years ago when his old band Gerling were signed to Flying Nun and betchadupa were too. I remember him being quite wild, but when I met him again seven or eight years later he was the most sweet, polite and wonderful man, and seemed to have taken on a whole different life since he’d stopped making music, and started producing and engineering and stuff.
“My manager had met him a few times and thought that he’d get along with me, and also knew that I was looking for someone to collaborate with, so he put us in touch. Burke came over to NZ for a couple of weekends to make some music and I think I just got that gut feeling. It was the first time I’d had a gut feeling in a long time, and it was something that was knitted to that year of disillusionment, that loss of the gut feeling that made me so wayward, and meeting Burke gave me that feeling again so I followed it.”
Liam says Reid challenged him, pushing him beyond simply being satisfied with an idea and shaking his vision up a little, even affecting song choice.
“Ultimately we had the same goal in mind but our ways of going about it were quite different. He definitely gravitated towards the slightly more obscure, and weirder, unrefined songs that I had lurking in the shadows. The songs that I thought were well written or really spoke my mind, he’d be like, ‘Yeah that’s cool, but I feel like that’s been said before and you know…’ He was brutally honest, and it’s like someone saying your child is ugly, you get a little bit like, ‘Awww, what do you mean? He’s beautiful’. But at the same time I appreciate people being straight up. You’ve got to get a record done at the end of the day, and he had that in mind. It was nice to let someone else take the reins at points, and not have to feel the burden of every decision.”
“It’s awesome, I think I’d forgotten how much it was a part of who I am basically, because as soon as I started doing shows again, I felt myself. I dunno, there’s something about the adrenalin that is very addictive I think. It’s also refreshing to have new songs to play. I think the reason why I was so desperate to get back in the studio and so desperate to live in NZ again was because I’d had so much of the touring side that I’d almost forgotten what the creative side was like. I really craved it, so it was good to come back and exhaust that, and then want to tour again.”
Following a series of low-key gigs in Auckland, Liam, his drummer brother Elroy, Jol Mulholland (guitars and keys) and Jeremy Toy (bass) flew to the US to shake down both the band and the album, with a tour that began with four shows at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Toy subsequently left the tour party and headed to Europe to spend some time travelling at the beginning of May.
“It was purely just to get our chops up as a band and to figure things out, and I’m glad that was the tour that Jeremy decided to leave, not in the middle of an album tour when there’s a lot riding on it. I wanted to make sure we got to know each other as a band, and see what worked and see what didn’t work. I spent so long in betchadupa, becoming a good band, that it was quite an unfathomable idea to become a good band during three weeks of rehearsals. I knew that one show was probably worth 10 rehearsals and getting to do a 16-date tour of the States was a really good way to cut our teeth.”
Having recorded two albums with his schoolmate band in the early 2000s, Liam’s debut solo album ‘I’ll Be Lightning’ was released in 2008 to genuine international acclaim. Critics and fans alike were captivated by the raw honesty, poignant melodies and fiery energy of songs that Liam had initially written without any intention of releasing them to the public.
The album was promoted with months of touring as a solo act, the intimate magic of those gigs centred around live-built loops, manic drumming, chiming guitars and Liam’s open-hearted vocals. Friend EJ Barnes later came on board to add extra vocals, percussion and the occasional turn on auto-harp. There were performances on David Letterman and Jools Holland shows, support tours with bands like The Black Keys, Wilco and Pearl Jam, and the album found dedicated fan bases in Australia, America and Europe. Sales for ‘I’ll Be Lightning’ stand at around 50,000 albums worldwide, released through Liberation in Australia and NZ, Yep Rock Records in the US and Transgressive in the UK. It was success won through relentless touring and hard work.
Liam was thus quite ready to again turn hermit-like when he arrived back home to record a second solo album last year, but says he was also in a more collaborative headspace than he had been ahead of ‘I’ll Be Lightning’. Rather than going it fully alone, he chose to team up with Australian producer Burke Reid.
“I met him actually about eight or nine years ago when his old band Gerling were signed to Flying Nun and betchadupa were too. I remember him being quite wild, but when I met him again seven or eight years later he was the most sweet, polite and wonderful man, and seemed to have taken on a whole different life since he’d stopped making music, and started producing and engineering and stuff.
“My manager had met him a few times and thought that he’d get along with me, and also knew that I was looking for someone to collaborate with, so he put us in touch. Burke came over to NZ for a couple of weekends to make some music and I think I just got that gut feeling. It was the first time I’d had a gut feeling in a long time, and it was something that was knitted to that year of disillusionment, that loss of the gut feeling that made me so wayward, and meeting Burke gave me that feeling again so I followed it.”
Liam says Reid challenged him, pushing him beyond simply being satisfied with an idea and shaking his vision up a little, even affecting song choice.
“Ultimately we had the same goal in mind but our ways of going about it were quite different. He definitely gravitated towards the slightly more obscure, and weirder, unrefined songs that I had lurking in the shadows. The songs that I thought were well written or really spoke my mind, he’d be like, ‘Yeah that’s cool, but I feel like that’s been said before and you know…’ He was brutally honest, and it’s like someone saying your child is ugly, you get a little bit like, ‘Awww, what do you mean? He’s beautiful’. But at the same time I appreciate people being straight up. You’ve got to get a record done at the end of the day, and he had that in mind. It was nice to let someone else take the reins at points, and not have to feel the burden of every decision.”
