Finneas: Sing It Loud

Opening the album with the classic-sounding, piano-led ballad ‘Starfucker’, Finneas sets out the two records’ differences from the start. “I was such an optimist,” he sings, slyly namechecking his own debut, “but you’re a fuckin’ narcissist.” Exploring the pain of a past, clout-chasing relationship, it’s the only song on ‘For Cryin’ Out Loud!’ with a sole writing credit for the musician. Everything else – from the jangly, ‘90s-flavoured indie-pop of ‘Cleats’, to the bright horn parps of the title track – was written collaboratively with a tight-knit circle of friends.

While his production work, particularly with Billie but also alongside other collaborators such as girl in red, Tove Lo and Tate McRae, skews towards the widescreen and cinematic, ‘For Cryin’ Out Loud!’ zooms right in. The pared-back ‘Little Window’ recalls the stuff of early Coldplay, and the skipping, funk-tinged ‘2001’ and ‘Sweet Cherries’ wouldn’t sound all that out of place on a Harry Styles album.

Though many people might know Finneas best for the groundbreaking stamp he’s put on pop alongside his sibling, his heart – early on, at least – always lay with live bands. Hearing Arctic Monkeys’ gnarled, ‘70s-shaped juggernaut ‘R U Mine?’ for the first time, he explains, was a major lightbulb moment. “Man, what a great lyricist and songwriter,” he says of Alex Turner. “I was 14 when that came out and I remember thinking, ‘This is so tough; very badass’.”

Inspired by the Sheffield lads - as well as, perhaps more surprisingly, My Chemical Romance - a teenage Finneas began recruiting his mates for jam sessions. “I was always sort of begging friends of mine to come and play music in garages with me,” he says. There was only one issue with this particular approach. “We sucked!” he laughs. “We were all terrible at playing our instruments.”

He’s perhaps selling himself short here; Finneas’ former band The Slightlys had their own brief moment in the sun. However, though it’s commonly reported that they played Vans’ prestigious Warped Tour, the reality was a bit less glamorous. “We actually played a Battle of the Bands HOSTED by the Warped Tour,” he admits, “and as a prize, you got to play one Warped Tour show.”

After scooping victory at the initial battle, hosted at a local county fair, The Slightlys played exactly four songs on the tour itself, before getting cut off by the sound guy. “We’d taken too much time setting up that day. It was pretty funny.” Surely, this must rank as his proudest achievement to date - all those Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys (10 of the latter and counting) be damned? “I mean I will say, as goofy as it sounds, it’s hard to beat the feeling of playing a Battle of the Bands as a 16-year-old and being like, ‘We killed that’,” he grins.

The Slightlys, in their own unique way, are also responsible for the success of Billie. Finneas originally wrote her eventual debut single ‘Ocean Eyes’ for the band, before realising something was off. “I was like, ‘This isn’t right, this isn’t how this song is supposed to sound. I’d love to hear a woman’s voice on it. I think that would be really powerful’. And, you know, I asked Billie if she’d be interested in seeing it, and she crushed it.”

The rest is the stuff of pop lore: the song went viral overnight, Eilish landed a major label deal with Interscope, and three of this century’s most interesting pop albums – each one crafted by the sibling collaborators – followed. Still, does any part of Finneas wish that he’d hung onto ‘Ocean Eyes’ for himself, in light of what followed?

“I think there might be this misconception, especially because Billie and I have gotten so lucky in our careers and had these super lucky things [happen], that I want to go and do them on my own or something,” he says. “[But] whether it’s accepting an award, or accepting criticism, or performing, I felt so lucky to be up there with my sister. I’ve never had a feeling of like, you know, give me the spotlight. I’ve always been so lucky to be up here with my favourite person. It’s been awesome.”

Four years after ‘Ocean Eyes’, Eilish’s twisted and gnarled debut album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ changed the course of pop - and both siblings’ lives along the way. Suddenly, Finneas found himself in all manner of surreal places, such as being forced by a harried publicist to queue-jump one of his favourite film stars on the Oscars red carpet. “Everybody you’re in line with is, like, the most famous person that you’ve ever seen,” he says. “You’re like, ‘Oh my god, that’s Javier Bardem!’ You feel bad for cutting in line [anyway], let alone in front of a person you’ve been a fan of forever!”

Most recently, the siblings collaborated on Eilish’s best record to date: this year’s third album, ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’. Springing out of a “creative rut” it was – to borrow their own terminology – much more of a fear record, at least to begin with. Both parties were aware that it was time to break out of their comfort zone. Pulling up familiar synth sounds or retreading old themes would likely have ended up sounding great, but would equally have come with the nagging feeling that “we’ve done this before”.

Finneas pinpoints the new wave-influenced ‘Birds of a Feather’, a huge hit that spent 12 weeks in the UK Top 10 over the summer as well as reaching Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100, as a crucial moment where they unearthed something together that felt entirely fresh. “In all respects, from production and vocal style to lyrical content, I think Billie was like, ‘Oh my god, this is what I’m making now?’” he recalls. “Ultimately, that’s become one of our favourite songs. While we were making it, it was thrilling, but we were like, ‘We don’t know how to do this… We don’t know if we’re doing a good job of doing this’. It was very challenging.”

In the closing moments of ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’, Eilish whispers: “So when can I hear the next one?” Inevitably, the choice led to speculation that the second half of a double album was imminent. However, given that we’re still waiting, what was the real meaning behind that playful skit? “I’m only one half of the entity that made this album, so Billie will have a different answer, I’m sure,” Finneas starts. “I think two things led us there. We were in a really prolific, creative time when we were making it, and so there was this kind of ‘more, more, more’ feeling. I also think that  – and I hold no grudges, because I am this way too with artists that I’m a fan of – there’s this insatiable thing with an artist where you’re like, ‘OK great, can I have more new music?’

“This album took forever. We worked on it for like, a year straight,” he continues. “[So] there was a kind of an amusing quality to that - you know, we just killed ourselves over this thing, and people are going to want the new thing right away. But also, I think we are excited about the next one, and thinking about it.”

The most troubling aspect of rapidly rising fame for Finneas has been watching his younger sister navigate the criticism and scrutiny that so often comes with the spotlight. From the horrible, double-edged sword of discourse that has always surrounded Eilish’s fashion to the more recent controversy around her guest verse on Charli XCX’s ‘Guess’ remix, where an online post branding it predatory quickly went viral, it has been difficult watching things unfold from his position slightly more behind the scenes.

On ‘Family Feud’ – by far the most personal song on ‘For Cryin’ Out Loud!’, even amidst the record’s explorations of love and the complications that come with it – Finneas plainly wades into these particular thorns. “And you’re only 22 / And the world is watching you / Judging everything you do,” he sings.

“That’s probably the hardest part about being public-facing,” Finneas says. “You say something and it’s misconstrued - it’s put in writing, and the writing frames it in a different way, and it’s a pull quote, and then the whole internet gets an opinion about something that never even happened.” He has worked hard to try and move past this fear, especially when it comes to speaking up about the causes that feel most important to him.

“I try to have a mantra - and I don’t live by this always - but I try to move like the comments are none of my business, you know?” he suggests. “Billie and I have just endorsed Kamala Harris publicly. I can guess what’s in those comments and….  that’s not worth NOT posting that to me. That’s a clear-cut issue that I care about, and want to weigh in on.”

How come? “I’m a single issue voter, about four different things. I’m a single issue voter about climate change. I’m a single issue voter about gun control in the United States. I’m a single issue voter about reproductive rights. I’m a single issue voter about trans rights,” he says. “Any one of those four things alone is enough to get me to endorse the candidate supporting this. In this case, it’s this laundry list… this side of the aisle doesn’t care about this, and this side of the aisle does. So to me, it was a very clear cut, easy decision to make.”

Increasingly, Finneas is also trying to bring the same fearlessness into his music. “There’s such a myriad of quotes saying, you know, if you’re scared, you know you’re doing something right, or whatever,” he says. “I definitely have made an effort, in my short but lucky career, to do the thing that makes me feel like I’m in over my head, or I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve really made an effort to go there.”

‘For Cryin’ Out Loud!’ is out now via OYOY/ Interscope.

Tags: Features, In Deep, Interviews, FINNEAS