Funny thing, transcribing. Listening back to this recording, I can hear cars rush by outside the Lexington, the odd siren interrupting a Thursday evening conversation. In between, though, I can hear fiN. frontman Luke Joyce, words tumbling out as he tries to put his music, his art into some kind of coherent order.
“We’re not a band who are about being cool” he says at one point. “We’re about being a band who are great at what they do. That’s where we want to be. I’m not interested in that whole East London cool thing cos I’m not from East London, I don’t get it, I don’t live in that world”. Continuing, he reflects on the first music which ever really grabbed him. “I’ve always been the outcast kid – that’s what got me into Nirvana, I just felt like I belonged in that world” he muses. “I guess that’s what we try and be, we don’t try and follow the trends we just do what we do and hope that people like it”.
It’s a fairly simple proposition, but a difficult one to pull off. Fresh from a continental tour with Incubus, fiN are that rare thing: a British rock band. Take a look around, they’re an endangered breed. Starting life hammering away in teenage covers bands, the varied members of fiN quickly decided that they wanted more. “I love grunge and everything but it gets boring after a while, y’know what I mean? Especially seeing as there aren’t any grunge bands out there anymore. It kind of died, I guessed” he laughs. “You just grow up and your tastes change, and you start trying to make music which is not like the bands you listen to and more like naturally come out with. Especially when the four of us are together, because it’s all different influences then. I think that’s really what makes us who we are”.
Working with a shoestring budget, fiN. have been able to reach some incredible milestones. Touring across Europe, for one, before launching plans for their debut album. “It’s all DIY, we don’t have a record label – it’s tough” explained the frontman. “Every bit of money we make out of the band goes straight back into it. We’re fucking brassic at the moment!”
The material is in the bag already, they claim, but instead of a single disc the band are aiming to release 6 x seven inch singles. “I’m really happy with it and when people hear the whole record together it’ll make more sense. It’s a good listen” he muses. “The problem I always have with songwriting is that you’ll get a record which features three hit singles and then the rest of the album would sound exactly the same as those song except not as good. It’s like, let’s quickly bash out these songs so we can get a record out. For me, I wanted to do an album that wouldn’t get boring. Especially live. When you’re starting out, you see a lot of bands who are quite good but every songs sounds the same. We didn’t want to be like that. We tried to make it so that our songs didn’t repeat themselves”.
Maintaining a commitment to the physical format, fiN. have quite deliberately made things difficult for themselves. “I think the reason why we did it is because when we were kids we loved buying that CD or that vinyl, taking it home, looking at it, reading it cover to cover. You’d read all the lyrics, you’d read the thanks, you’d read all that stuff and I think now you’re losing that. With downloads you lose that, there’s all these kids sitting in their bedrooms pressing a button”.
The topic has clearly punched down on a raw nerve, with Luke Joyce becoming more and more agitated. “No wonder music is fucking dying out! The age of the album is dying out!” he shouts. “I’ve just got ridiculous with it. I’ve got a new vinyl player, I sold all my CDs and I just buy all my albums on vinyl. I’ve got the best of both worlds now. I guess that’s why we did it as a band because we wanted people to hold it in their hands, we wanted people to buy into it, to feel a part of something. There’s only 500 made of each, so it’s kind of limited edition. When we release the record it will come out on mp3, on itunes and all the major sites”.
Earmarking the rest of the year for writing and recording, fiN. are facing an uphill struggle. Yet it’s one they relish: the problems ahead might well constrain them, but they also fuel their determination. “We go out on the road and after the show we don’t do what normal bands do” he says, “which is like sit backstage, get pissed and be rock stars we actually go out to the front and sell our arses for the next two hours trying to sell our records to people”.
Photo Credit: Dana Hawley