HEART-TO-HEART: Mr Finn
“It gives me a lot of pride to play in this city, and I look forward to contributing to and improving the culture here.”
Drenched in the goodness of psychedelic-rock, Mr Finn’s debut EP, Love From, Mr Finn, takes listeners through a trip of swirling melodies, groovy rhythms and unexpected influences.
Published: 10/12/2024
FHR (Flaming Heart Records): I am stoked to be chatting with four-piece psychedelia band, Mr Finn! Can you tell us how you all met and formed the band?
Aysha (Swanson, vocals/guitar): Sacha, Finn and I went to college together because we are all from outside Brisbane and we were in the college band together. After we became friends, we all realised we loved psych rock and decided to jam it together, playing lots of King Gizzard originally. I met Luca through some mutual friends, and he soon joined playing bass after hearing a recording of Rainsticks.
FHR: Your sound is not only quintessential psychedelic rock, but it is full of reflective lyrics and catchy hooks. Where did you derive your inspiration and influences from for your self-released debut EP, Love From, Mr Finn?
Sacha (Zarew, guitar): There’s a lot of influences we have which you can hear straight away, since they really influence the kind of tones we use, which are your classic psychedelic bands like early Tame Impala and Pond. We definitely have a lot of Australian psych influence! But for me, the kind of catchy hooks and guitar lines were influenced by other bands not from the psych genre. I love Wolf Alice a lot and I think you can definitely hear that sound coming through in some of the melodies and arrangements, especially For Now – even though tonally we go for a very different sound. Lyrically, I think we diverge a lot from the classic psychedelia, which comes from Aysha who wrote almost all of the lyrics on this EP. I know she would consider Mazzy Star one of her biggest influences lyrically and I think that shows in the melancholic and reflective lyricism on the EP.
Finn (Easson, drums): It was also really cool to see some other unexpected influences come through during the recording process. I remember Juniper wasn’t quite finished, so we played around a bit with the second half of the chorus and the drumming ended up sounding similar to Led Zeppelin, which makes sense because I looove John Bonham. Luca’s bass lines also bring a funk vibe to the rhythm section, definitely derived from his Talking Heads obsession. It was really cool to see our non-psych influences come through subconsciously.
FHR: Tell us more about your debut EP! What were each of your roles in creating and releasing this project? Is there any advice you can give to other DIY musicians?
Luca (Cotroneo, bass): Yeah, for sure. The whole writing process was very collaborative. Aysha or Sacha would bring to the band a basic song structure and then we would all kinda fill in the rest. It’s awesome because a little part of us all resides within each song bringing dynamic influences and styles, which I think makes for an engaging listen. Also being able to experiment with new parts during the recording process in the spur of the moment was really fun and exciting. Some of my favourite moments came from improvisation, for example the little bass solo at the end of For Now.
Aysha: In terms of advice for other DIY musicians, I think the main thing I would say is to persist (because it is a slog, unfortunately) and really try to promote/back yourself through social media. I think also producing with someone who you really get along with is important, someone whose opinion you value and want to learn from – ‘cause that third party input is crucial to taking your songs to the next level. Something I struggle with is comparison to myself or previous releases. It’s important to try and not focus on the stats and more on making music that you feel proud of.
FHR: What was the inspiration behind the cover art? How did that come together? Not to mention, I absolutely love the graphics for all of your merchandise.
Finn: For our EP cover, we never really had a clear-cut idea of what it was going to be. We just knew we wanted us to be in it, since our single covers were either artwork or of someone else. Luca came up with the idea of him dressing up as a postman, because of the reference to a letter in the EP title. And also maybe because he’d always wanted to dress up like that. Our good friend took a bunch of film photos just at my rental and a lot of them were quite posey, so the one that we ended up choosing felt the most natural and also just was a cool angle with us all in it! It sort of just felt like ‘the one’.
FHR: What processes do you look forward to experimenting with when you’re in the recording studio? Are there any particular tricks or effects you almost always use?
Sacha: Because we’re a 4-piece band, when we’re jamming new music, we’re pretty limited in the kind of layering we can play around with. It’s really fun to get into the studio and get to try out different arrangements and add layers of harmonies and new guitar lines we can’t necessarily play live. On this EP, we had heaps of fun adding some glockenspiel to a couple songs and even some synth. We definitely look forward to experimenting with this kind of layering to really flesh out our songs.
I don’t think we necessarily have any effects we used across the whole EP. It was important to us to make sure all of our songs still sound distinct while trying to create a cohesive sound. It was pretty tricky trying to create cohesiveness across the EP without making it boring and repetitive, but I think using those classic psych effects more sparingly definitely helped and also brought to the front the melodies and beautiful vocal lines and lyrics.
FHR: Kind of a big question…but… what made you want to become a musician? Are there any specific memories that triggered a passion for music?
Luca: I’ve been involved with music ever since high school with some albeit persistent encouragement from my parents. But playing 3rd trumpet in a jazz band didn’t really allow me to engage with the kind of music I really resonated with. It took the first few weeks of Covid lockdown to give me the motivation to buy a Yamaha P-bass and start my journey on the bass guitar. My dad’s obsession with the 80s has drastically shaped me. While on my lonesome, I fell in love with new wave and Peter Hook’s melodic bass lines throughout Joy Division and New Order completely captivated me. I now strive to deliver the same excitement in my parts.
FHR: Tell us some fun facts about the band! What are some things fans mightn’t expect to know?
Finn: It’s probably unexpected that 3/4 of us aren’t actually from Brisbane! We met at an all-girls college and just had musical chemistry as soon as we started playing together. We actually met Luca there too, because one of his friends worked in the dish pit, so I guess we owe it all to that place!
Aysha: I think something interesting is that Sacha, Luca and I all started as classical musicians at school. Sacha started on cello, Luca on trumpet and I played baritone/euphonium. The string practice from cello is really evident in Sacha’s guitar skills and the rigid rhythm of concert band shows in Luca’s bass playing; he’s like a walking metronome. Finn was always loyal to percussion; she’s been playing drums her whole life (which is why she’s so beast at it).
FHR: Who are some local bands that you have been loving lately? We’re so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing talent! Have you become friends with any other artists?
Sacha: We’re so lucky that Brisbane has such an awesome supportive music scene, and so many awesome bands have released great music this year! We have been loving the new EP from Special Features, of course, and Vinted Vineer’s new album, Tobi Yume, was great. We’ve also been loving some sick singles this year from Mt. Nadir, RENO ltd. and Tomorrow’s Forecast. It’s so awesome to be part of such a lovely music community, we’ve all definitely made some really great friends with other artists since we started playing. We’re so grateful for the support of these awesome bands and it’s great to watch them grow and flourish too!
Luca: I’ve been loving Arugula and blue diner. lately, they are such incredible bands with so much passion behind their music. Also Alison Road is killing it right now, their new single, Dog in a Hot Car, is banging. The Brisbane music scene is such a tight knit community with welcoming and supportive people that makes it feel like home. I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with such amazing artists here. It gives me a lot of pride to play in this city, and I look forward to contributing to and improving the culture here.
FHR: After a pretty epic 2024, what does 2025 look like for Mr Finn? I cannot wait to see how far you guys are gonna go.
Finn: 2025 is looking a bit different for Mr Finn – the EP consisted of a lot of our early tracks, so we’re planning on recording a few new ones that we’ve written throughout 2024. We also have a few gigs lined up at the start of the year from Brissy through to the Gold Coast and further south, which we haven’t done much, so really keen to spread the Mr Finn sound down there!
