Interview: Fink

Welcome to Reading For New Times Radio. Hello again from R4NT magazine.

Back in May of 2006 we first instituted not only this radio series, but a brilliant new artist by the name of Fink. In the past year or so since then, Fink has been touring around the world, playing some of the most prestigious venues and regularly selling out wherever he goes. Having also toured with Zero 7 only after their fourth ever booked gig — to add to Fink's ever-growing fame, he has recently had a track showcased as the soundtrack to a new MasterCard commercial.

It has been with great anticipation to hear how Fink has progressed in such a short measure into something that holds such acumen. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with Fink and spend a few minutes getting to know him while talking about his adventures in Distance and Time.

Hey Fink, how's it going?

Yeah, going good man, how are you?

Not too bad, not too bad. How's Canada today? Nice?

Yeah, it's pretty nice.

Yay! How's the UK today?

Yeah, it's okay man, sunshine and showers, sunshine and showers.

So pretty typical then?

You've got me in a very good mood today.

Oh yeah, right on, how come?

I've got a friend over who's been teaching me — well, I say teaching me, more like cooking for me. Baking. So I've been baking some great stuff today. It's been great. I'm full and happy.

Right on, right on. I just wanted to start off with the fact that it sounds like you've been having a whirlwind of a year since your first acoustic album Biscuits for Breakfast dropped. I was just wondering how that's been treating you since then.

It's been a non-stop whirlwind, my friend. As soon as we finished touring Biscuits we were in the studio to record Distance and Time, and as soon as we finished Distance and Time we were back out on the road for an American tour of Biscuits for Breakfast. Then as soon as we got back from the American tour we kind of got straight into rehearsing for European dates, and I just did the Proms on Friday at the Albert Hall, which was a big gig — we've been working on it for quite a while. And just mooching around, man. We took a break from the live thing for a couple of months, which was great, really needed it after touring so much, and we're just starting to get back into the rehearsal rooms again and do a few gigs and starting to get back into it.

It's a real pleasure to be back. You don't really appreciate something until you leave it for a while. I think a lot of musicians might just tour themselves into the ground, but a month holiday here and there really helps you appreciate how cool it is to tour your record.

No doubt, no doubt. So in terms of all the touring, you're taking a break and the new album Distance and Time is supposed to come out in October, right?

Yeah, that's right. We're back out on the road in the next month.

So are you pretty much done producing the album so far?

Yeah, the album's done, dusted, in the can. We're just finishing the artwork on it now, but the sound — all done, mate, all done.

Sounding really nice as well, really, really sweet — loving the record, man, definitely.

It's a very different record from Biscuits for Breakfast, but it's definitely a step forward and a new benchmark that we're trying to set for ourselves on this record. Hopefully on the next one we'll set another one. But this one is definitely kind of what it sounds like when a band's been on the road for a year, and the lessons they've learned on that trip — bringing it into the songwriting and into the studio. We wrote most of these tracks while we were actually on the road, and yeah, we definitely think it's a step forward in the sound, and a more confident record. Less apologetic, much more confident in what we're doing and who we are, because we've learned a lot in the past year. We think as a band you should be able to put an album out a year. I know people tour a lot and everybody's busy, but ten tracks a year — it's got to be done, surely. You know what I mean?

Yeah, for sure. Well, I must say, from what I've heard so far from the new release single, it does sound like you are more confident even in just the lyrics, and the sound is a bit more mature. That's my own personal comment on it, at least.

Well, what have you heard so far?

Just the one single, the radio edit of "This Is The Thing," right?

"This Is The Thing"? Well, "This Is The Thing" and "Make It Good" — that's the single.

Yeah.

So two tracks on there. If you don't listen to the radio edit, listen to the album versions.

Yeah, definitely. "Make It Good" came out sounding really cool, man, I think.

Yeah, I'm really excited. The album version, not the radio edit — I hate the radio edit. But the album version, man, I think it sounds nice and subtle and good, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far. We're looking forward to hearing the rest of the album, hopefully.

Well, I think Ninja probably went for the two most commercial tracks first.

Absolutely.

So maybe the rest of the album might be a little bit more challenging, you know?

Maybe. So, a pretty generic question for you here regarding this — I'm just curious, what do you think is the driving force behind your music?

I'd probably argue that it was, you know, life itself, man. Life is material. It's all about having an emotional range and just wanting to talk about it. If you can write a song about it, you can kind of have a conversation with yourself. That's good — free therapy, and other people too, I think. One thing I learned from the Biscuits campaign is that a lot of people relate to your stuff because they're at different points in their life, and they hear the song and it touches them because of where they are, and it's really nice to be part of it. So I think a lot of this material just stems from the fact that we're interesting people, maybe, hopefully, and we're doing interesting things with our life, and that throws up a lot of material along the way. It doesn't make for an easy love life, that's for sure.

Well, it's really interesting to hear your kind of music coming out of the Ninja Tune label. That must have been an interesting departure for them, let alone yourself coming from the DJ culture prior to it.

Yeah, true, but I think, you know, like a lot of DJs from that period in dance music, I'm just lucky enough to have another gear to go into. I didn't have it naturally — I've had to work on it a lot, obviously, as you can well imagine. But I think a lot of DJs from that era would love to go on and do something else, do some other music, but maybe they can't play the guitar or afford to sing, or don't think they could write a song. It was only like 18 months ago that I'd never done a gig, you know what I mean? And now I've played the Albert Hall — it's like, wow, you can learn things when you really need to. And I think a lot of Ninja Tune is the same. Ninja Tune used to be a DJ-based, turntablist label, and it's not anymore, and I just fit very neatly into that, I think — just by luck, just by chance. They were looking for a singer-songwriter, and one of their artists decided to turn into one. So they don't have to find one anymore — they'll just do Fink's records.

And, you know, Bonobo — he's doing more songs now, he's out playing live with his band, he wants more songs. And Jason Swinscoe is the same thing. He kind of led the charge for a lot of Ninjas by being the first Ninja artist to sell out the Barbican in London, which is a very nice venue, a very posh venue. All the Ninjas went to the gig at the Barbican a couple of years ago and we were all blown away, because we were like, right, we want to be that guy. How do we do that? You do that by not making kind of club music — you make music to listen to and appreciate a bit more. So yeah, I remember going to that gig and just thinking, right, how on earth can I get Fink onto that stage? And the only option for me was songs. So I thought, right, let's try to get into songwriting and write some songs.

Yeah, for sure. Well, it's been impressive to see how you've departed and risen in the past while. I'm really excited to follow your career here in the next little while, especially with the MasterCard commercial — a bit more commercial than I guess you'd sort of expect from the label you're with.

Well, I mean, it's debatable, really. You know, Mr. Scruff or Bonobo — they make very ad-tastic, commercial music, and maybe it's actually more commercial than my stuff in a way. I guess it all depends when you listen to it and who listens to it. I definitely think the concept of singing a song and playing the guitar is more commercial than a DJ. But then again, I'm sure Mr. Scruff and Bonobo are going to make a lot more money than me in their journey, in their advance, TV ads and film ads and all that kind of stuff. If it is commercial, I'd like to think it was commercial through things like word of mouth, and because I'm on Ninja, it means we're not spending a lot of money. We're not doing big advertising campaigns. It's literally like, I'm going to tour the shit out of this record, and hopefully enough people will see it and like it to buy it. That's kind of the plot, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

We can't really shove it down people's throats, because one, we don't want to, and two, we can't afford to. So it's going to have to do it on its own two feet. We can't force it to happen. And in a way that's kind of why I really wanted to do another album very quickly after Biscuits for Breakfast — because I want to tour another record. I've just toured Biscuits for Breakfast for a whole year. I want another load of songs to play out, you know what I mean? And yeah, I'd like to repay Ninja a lot — the love they've shown me over the past couple of years. I'd like to sell them a lot of records, obviously, but I'd also like to sell a lot of gig tickets and I'd like to travel the world, which is what I've been doing for the past year. It's been great and I want to carry on, so we'll see how it goes.

But I'm glad to think that you think it's an exciting thing that I'm doing, because I think so too. A lot of journalists maybe don't really look at it in the same way — they see it as maybe a more contrived career move, which it genuinely isn't. I'm just in a different place now and lucky to have a label which is also in a different place. So it's a good fit, you know?

For sure. On that, I just wanted to share something briefly with you — some of my own experiences having people come over and play music for them and just get general opinions from my friends, family and whatnot. It's interesting to have noted: when your first album dropped I played it for some friends and they were like, "Wow, this is really different from what we're normally used to. How come we haven't heard this before? It's so compelling. This sounds like something we could possibly hear on the radio, but we definitely don't" — at least not in Canada. What would you have to say to those people that are looking to expand their musical taste, and how to open their ears to new music such as your own?

Well, you know, in the UK we're very lucky — we have a very healthy radio culture over here. So in the UK there's a lot of shows I would recommend to listen to if you want to get involved and get into new stuff. And an old mentor of mine sort of said, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand the music. If they're selling out big venues, it must be good somewhere, for somebody." So if a band is big live, you should go see them. There's a reason for it. And he's right. I think a lot of the love that we've gotten over the past year has been because we really make an effort with the live show. It's not necessarily a great show, but we're really trying to be good musicians and bring some good art to the stage. So I'd keep on the live scene, because for every Arcade Fire that tours, there'll be some kind of support that Arcade Fire really likes. So if you like Arcade Fire, you'll probably like the support bands. Go and see them, you know what I mean?

I really learn about new music a lot in my own life through going to gigs and seeing the other bands on the bills. Quite often I'm only there for the main bands, but I go a little early if I want to expand my time a little bit and hear some of the other bands and learn about something new. The live circuit, I think, is definitely where it's at right now. And if you can go out and check them out, then I think your horizons will be expanded, nice and easy.

I was just wondering — where are you kind of going from here for the rest of the year? What are you excited about, after Distance and Time comes out in October? What's Fink up to next?

September and October we're on the road in Europe — France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, all those places. Maybe back to the States for a few gigs, hopefully up to Canada for a few gigs. We were there in March, had a great time. So we really want to come back and do Montreal and Toronto and Quebec and all those places. Hopefully Vancouver this time too, and Japan and Australia. We've got a full UK tour in October, a headline tour. Then we'll probably start writing again over Christmas. It's a very quiet time in the UK for the music business — everyone's all about Christmas, obviously — so it's a good time to start writing. We'll probably start writing the next album over Christmas if we can.

Right on. Well, we're looking forward, hopefully you do come to Canada in the near future and we might get the chance to actually see you perform live. That'd be super interesting.

Yeah, man, where are you based?

We're based in Calgary, but we also have —

Okay, I've been there one time, absolutely.

But anyway, thanks so much for your time today. I know your time is —

You're welcome, mate. It's a real pleasure.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed listening to our chat. But seriously, if you haven't checked out Fink in the past, I'd highly recommend it. Closing out our show today is the remainder of the track titled "Under the Same Stars". Stay tuned and subscribe to us on iTunes — we'll be producing another show in the very near future. Until then, peace.

Thanks for tuning in to r4nt.com.