Finn Andrews
Image: Photo: Matt Holyoak
Since signing a record deal at just 16 years old, Finn Andrews and his band The Veils have released five albums together, appeared in David Lynch’s reboot of Twin Peaks, as well as on soundtracks by luminary film directors Tim Burton and Paolo Sorrentino. Yet that still didn’t exhaust all of Andrews’ creative juices. While writing 2016’s Total Depravity the New Zealand-raised musician realised a different streak was beginning to emerge in his writing. This new streak led to him returning from London to begin working on his first solo album, One Piece At A Time.
Speaking with City Hub ahead of his performance at The Lansdowne Hotel next week Andrews explained that there was some hesitation before following this solo path.
“I resisted this whole going solo thing for a while because I never really saw myself doing that. I was trying to cram these songs into The Veils world for a while but after trying a few times that didn’t last too long.”
Despite the hesitation towards becoming a solo artists Andrews eventually reached a point where he had so many songs that the jump became inevitable.
“I had written 10 or so songs, then suddenly there was 15 and 20, so I realised this had gone down a whole other rabbit hole that I wasn’t expecting… In the end, there were so many songs that I couldn’t resist it anymore and had to make my own little word fro them that was separate from The Veils.”
During this time Andrews was also feeling a “magnetic pull” back to his native New Zealand. A place which came to be a great source of both belonging and inspiration, something which Andrews says he never felt in London.
“This was the first time that I felt part of a scene. The scene [in London] is so transitory that I never felt much of a connection to what was happening in town musically.”
With this record being his first outing as a solo artist Andrews says he has noticed that “something seems to profoundly change when you put your own name on the marquee rather than it being a band to hide behind.” This has meant that he has had to for all intents and purposes relearn how to be a performer on stage, “it feels more direct and I have nothing to hide behind anymore, which can only be an improvement.”
For the upcoming live show Andrews says, “I’ve never felt so confident with a live show. Anything that has come out of my head in the last 25 years is fair game. There’s a really dynamic mix of songs from the solo album and some reimagined songs from The Veils as well, so the show gets pretty rowdy by the end.”
May 2. The Lansdowne Hotel, 2-6 City Rd, Chippendale. $39.77+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.thelansdownepub.com.au
