Finch is five kids from Southern California who play a unique
brand of pop punk with slight hardcore influences. This could
be any of the hundreds of bands that come from the punk rock
assembly line known only as So Cal. One small aspect helps separate
Finch from the rest: the small amount of time it took them to
gain the same amount of success it takes most bands years to
achieve. While music may be something that these guys have down,
interviews, on the other hand, are a different story. Thanks
to Alex Linares, without him the following interview would have
made even less sense then it already does. Don’t worry
guys just listen to Alex, he knows what’s up. Oh, and one
more thing: DON’T FUCK WITH THE MINI RECORDER!!!
You guys all look pretty young. Have all of you finished
high school? AL-
Pretty much yeah.
AP- Good enough, diploma.
AL- Yeah, we're good enough.
Are you guys going to concentrate on music instead of college
right now?
AL- Yeah, I basically quit life for this.
AP- We all kind of dropped everything for this.
You guys have a full length coming out?
AL- It’s called What is the Burden. It'll be out on March
12th. It was produced by Mark Trombino (Blink 182, Jimmy Eat
World, Drive Like Jehu)
How would you guys describe your style of music…
(Enter Randy Strohmeyer yelling something that no one can completely
comprehend)
AL- This is when the interview goes bad.
RS- I would describe us as…(While grabbing the recorder
from my hands) Missouri-core I guess. I don't know how about
just plain old Ska?
Ska?
AL- Yeah??? I don't think so!
RS- Yeah well, we're a Ska band, get over it. We have horns
and everything,
Ska/Swing sorta…hey fuck this shit.
Do you guys have an American flag on your van?
AL- No
AL- We have a pirate flag.
What would it take for you guys to get in a fight with someone
in the audience?
AL- That would be easy…
AP- If you’re having a bad day and they say something wrong.
So getting spit on is an automatic brawl?
AL- No, if they looked at me I would fuck them up right on the
spot, I’ll dive right in the audience and do it.
(Laughs)
Major labels Good/Bad?
AL- A label’s a label.
RS- We like Drive-thru a lot,… what's your name?
Uhhh it's Dustin.
RS- My name is R2K!
…?
AL- His real name is Randle William Strohmeyer Jr.
RS- SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Somehow from this we end up talking about the band Fairweather,
who Finch had a few tour dates with this past fall. They tell
me the tale of how their drummer Gabe was so hard up for money
that he stuck the neck of a beer bottle up his ass for $15.
At that point Randy thinks that it would be funny to walk off
with the mini recorder. He ends up talking to Ben, from the
band Sugar Cult, about how drunk he is. After 10 minutes we
decide that it is pointless to continue the interview, with
there being no mini recorder and the fact that, yes, the interview
has fallen completely apart.
AL-
Pretty much yeah.