{"id":10217,"date":"2014-02-27T06:11:54","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T06:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.modernfix.com.php72-4.lan3-1.websitetestlink.com\/uncategorized\/finch\/"},"modified":"2014-02-27T06:11:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T06:11:54","slug":"finch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/interviews-2\/finch\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Finch"},"content":{"rendered":"

(this interview originally appeared in issue #21 of Modern Fix Magazine in 2003).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n– interview by skye<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever been inspired, in awe of, or fascinated by the musicianship, passion and heart behind a single group or artist? Coming from a place like Temecula, California, not exactly being known for it’s huge venue or music scene, Finch came out fighting, breaking down the walls of silence with their blend of emotional hardcore. Front man Nate Barcalow, guitarists Randy Strohmeyer and Alex Linares, bassist Derek Doherty and drummer Alex Pappas got their act together, tightened up their sound and made it their own. Since Randy had been persistent with his contact with Richard Reines, owner of Drive-Thru Records, the band was granted the opportunity to play for the brother-sister duo of Drive-Thru. After playing for Richard, he called upon his sister and partner, Stefanie. Impressed by the sound and personalities of this young band, they were offered a recording contract on the spot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After releasing their first EP, “Falling Into Place” in October of 2001, their release left fans and critics hungry for more of their unique sound. With tracks like “Letters To You”, and “Perfection Through Silence” demonstrating the outpour of thought provoking lyrical content and a sound tweaked to perfection to make it all the more desirable, the EP was just a tease of what was to come. The EP featured a track titled “New Kid” which had listeners tipped off to the bands major musical influence, The Deftones.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In March of 2002, Finch released their debut full-length, “What It is to Burn”. With 11 new tracks featured, along with the EP’s “Letters To You” and “Perfection Through Silence”, the band started their tour with a sold-out CD release party. This would mark the start of Finch’s sold-out dates and bring them to May 17, their first show back home in a little over a month. They played the show with their friends and label mates, The Starting Line. A homecoming for royalty it proved to be as the Glasshouse in Pomona overflowed with eager fans there to support their new-favorite band. And why shouldn’t they? The “What It is to Burn” album has sold more copies than the band can fathom, and managed to hit 192 on the Billboard’s Top 200 list, and at 13 on Billboard’s New Artist chart. With all of this new found fame, it’s hard to swallow the truth that Finch has only been together a couple of years and is composed of five young friends who started out as a Deftones cover band called Numb.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a new album out and sold-out shows nearly every night, Finch will be joining their Drive-Thru label on this year’s Vans Warped Tour, playing every date on the Drive-Thru side stage. The Warped Tour is a dream long out of reach for a majority of new bands, but with Finch attracting so much positive attention, they’re ready for the grueling challenge of playing the tour through it’s course.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the band out meeting and greeting with fans and The Starting Line tearing up the stage, it was difficult to round up the crew to talk to, but circling backstage proved to be the smart thing on my part as I ran into Finch guitarist, Alex Linares. Finding a cozy nook hidden upstairs in the venue, we found comfort in a beat up leather couch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you guys really excited about playing the entire Warped Tour?<\/b>
\nAlex: Yes! I’m so excited, but I’m nervous too.<\/p>\n

Nervous? Why are you nervous?<\/b>
\nBecause it’s like the longest tour ever, it’s about two and a half months of straight playing. Usually we get like eight or nine days off and even now when we play like five shows in a row my body is just like, ahhhh! Because we started off doing like half our sets and the past month we knew we were going to be headlining so we play every day and we play like hour long sets so we’re killing our bodies. My ankles and my back are like killing me.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it worth it though?<\/b>
\nYes, definitely. The first time we ever played a really long show was our release at the House of Blues and we played 14 songs; our entire record plus one extra song. I thought I was going to die then. It’s been getting easier and easier as we go though because we play like 12 songs now.<\/p>\n

Gearing you guys up for the big tour huh?<\/b>
\nGawd, the Warped Tour is going to be fucking awesome because there are so many amazing bands playing and to see those guys every day and hang out with them every day is going to be insane. We’re just going to be hanging around with a bunch of our friends, so it’ll be fun. It’s going to be a two and a half month party.<\/p>\n

Do you freak out when you meet other bands that you like? <\/b>
\nChino [from the Deftones] is my fucking hero. He has such an influence on my music and things that I write. I met Stephen [also from the Deftones] one time over the summer at Tower Records. I don’t freak out; I just get really quiet and clench my jaw.<\/p>\n

Do they ever look at you funny?<\/b>
\nI got really nervous when I met the drummer from Orgy because I love new wave, like Depeche Mode. I fucking love Depeche Mode more than anything. Every time I hear them I get the chills. If I met Dave from Depeche Mode, I would pass out.
\n
\nThat band is so good, everything they do is good. <\/b>
\nTheir side projects are good. I love Dave Grohl. I love the Foo Fighters. I liked Nirvana. You know Courtney Love has all his assets that are like worth 500 billion dollars now. Kurt would shoot himself in the head again. It’s a lot of pressure having a lot of money. That’s why I want no money. As long as I can afford my apartment, I don’t care. I don’t want money, at all.
\n
\nOkay, so I suppose we should talk about your band now. Why did you change your band name from Numb to Finch? <\/b>
\nWe had evolved since high school when we were Numb. We all had different bands before we got together, and Numb was one of those bands. We changed to Finch when we graduated and realized we wanted to be serious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nSo you changed your name to prove you were serious musicians? <\/b>
\nWell, not really, we just fucking hated the name Numb. We learned to be a band by like covering Deftones songs so we were a Deftones rip-off. So we decided to write all our own songs and get our own sound. Sounding like other bands was bullshit so we locked ourselves in our houses and in our studio to be serious, write and practice. Finch was a conscious effort to write good songs and have our own sound and not be anyone else.<\/p>\n

Do you really think you accomplished that, when you said you didn’t want to be like anyone else or copy anyone else’s songs?<\/b>
\nPeople keep telling us that we’re horribly original. People review our CD and they say we’re coming out with something new, some kind of fresh sound. My opinion is that we’re doing something that I enjoy. I don’t think we’re ripping off anybody. I believe in what we’re doing and I’m comfortable with it. I wouldn’t say we’re the most original band ever. But I don’t think anyone can take our band and say that we’re a rip off of this or that band.<\/p>\n

When you read reviews about your music do you take it really hard, or not even think about it?<\/b>
\nSometimes I read them and if they’re good I get stoked on it because I like reading why they liked a certain song and stuff. If they’re bad, they’re usually pretty funny. Some of our band members take it hard if they’re bad, but I just let it roll off. I don’t take it to heart, I just let it go. If I took it seriously, I would cry every day.<\/p>\n

I read in an interview that Finch has some bathroom problems. What’s with you guys and the “violent shits”?<\/b>
\nThat must have been Randy. He would say something like that. He shits in twos, all the time. I have to pee like every two minutes. It runs in my family. My band gets so mad at me cos every 40 minutes I have to tell them to pull over. Literally I am stoked if I can make it like two hours without telling them to stop. I’ll tell them to stop and they’ll look at me evil and say “WHY!” I get so mad if they don’t stop so I have to say “Listen, I have a medical problem and I have to stop!” They don’t even care. We were outside of Sacramento and they made a comment about me needing to get that checked out. I asked them if the band would pay for me to go to the doctor, and they said “Uh, well I guess we’ll stop every 20 minutes and we’ll just make fun of you.” So they don’t care about me.
\n
\nAm I sensing some kind of inner band conflict?<\/b>
\nThis one time they wouldn’t stop and finally there was an off ramp and they acted like they were getting off and at the last second got back on the freeway. Then they stopped by a sign that said, “rest stop one mile” and made me pee by the sign where in one mile I could have peed in a bathroom.
\n
\nEnough bathroom talk, how was it forming a band in a place like Temecula? <\/b>
\nIt’s where we grew up but there’s nowhere to play. If we wanted to play we had to really drive. We didn’t have a van until a year ago, so we’d always borrow one of our parents’ cars and stuff.<\/p>\n

[Enter the Pomona Fire Marshal to check out the building. Why they were there, we don’t know. But we were interrupted for a short period of time while they checked out the small room. It was rumored the building exceeded capacity. I could see this being the truth as there were many sweaty kids on the floor and a large amount of friends backstage. So anyway, the fire guy finally went away and we continued our interview. ]
\n
\nSo what do you think about your album selling so well? <\/b>
\nI think Richard is paying people to buy our album because it’s actually selling a couple CDs. I think he really bought them to make us feel better.
\n
\nWhat a nice guy! So how’d you guys end up signed to Drive-Thru? <\/b>
\nThat was all Randy, he met Richard at the Warped Tour last year. He kept calling him and emailing him and stuff. Somehow Randy got the number so he would just keep calling, but Richard was always cool with them. Once we got the band together Randy called him and we were like together for two weeks and Richard wanted us to come down and play for them. We were in a band for only two weeks and we had a record contract. It was insane!
\n
\nWeren’t you guys nervous?<\/b>
\nTotally! We were totally nervous! As soon as we were done playing, Randy went and shit himself. He was so nervous.
\n
\nA lot of bands work a very long time to get something like that, would you say your process was a little rushed? <\/b>
\nNo, not really because from the actual signing took forever. Both our lawyers took forever. It took a long time to get us signed. It’s been almost a year since we recorded the CD. It came out March 12 and we recorded it in the beginning of summer while the Warped Tour was going on.<\/p>\n

So when it came out were you like, thank GOD!<\/b>
\nYes we were like FUCKING FINALLY! We had our EP released in October so we had a couple months on that before the album came out.<\/p>\n

How did you choose the songs for the album? How come only two songs of the EP are included on the album? <\/b>
\nWhen we first recorded the EP we only had four songs, so that’s all we had. When we did the record we wanted “Letters To You”. We re-recorded some stuff, but I hated “Waiting” and I hated “New Kid”. We had Mark Trombino doing the album so we made the stuff sound really good.<\/p>\n