Finn Swingley | Interview | New Album, ‘Pet Hates’
Dinner at an exuberant restaurant can be a bit perplexing, though when Finn, almost off the cuff, mentioned that he had a new album in the works, I leaned in intently, anxious to find out what was going on.
Several months later, his breezy outing ‘Pet Hates’ arrived at my door, delivered by a courier who had me sign, swearing me to secrecy. While Finn suggested that the record was drawn and woven from musical themes spanning several decades, it was Big Star that instantly came to mind—though with a more refined, low-keyed swagger emanating delight.
The album’s filled with delicious, solid harmonies, leaving me at this very moment feeling gobsmacked, wondering if the album title ‘Pet Hates’ is a nod to ‘Pet Sounds’ by The Beach Boys. When ‘Caught in the Rain’ filtered from my speakers, the ghosts of both Tom Petty and The Lovin’ Spoonful drifted across the room, waved with a knowing smile, and floated out the back door. Yet it’s how Finn has purposefully worked his influences into his songs that’s so remarkable and rewarding—a collage of hazy memories, nearly forgotten emotions, and pockets filled with wanderlust; where one needs to look no further than ‘Remember How It Used to Feel’ to catch his romantic take on Flo & Eddie.
There’s a sophisticated, evenhanded indie pop bounce and depth to each number that will keep you coming back, listening to unravel the lyrics along with the musical chords—an interplay of sound and vision that never fails to stretch a mile-wide smile across my face. Vinyl is limited to 120 copies.
“I am much more comfortable as a creature of the studio”
Jenell Kesler: Thanks for holding down the other side of the console, Finn. Clue the listeners and readers in on the new album, if you would, please.
Finn Swingley: Thanks for having me. Well, I’m here today to promote my new solo album ‘Pet Hates.’ I guess it’s my third “official” solo album, with my first being released on CD only back in 1999 and my last being a digital release only (‘The Wild Hunt,’ 2020). Although, in actuality, I’ve been doing solo recordings since the early ’90s—first on old 4-track cassette recorders, and for the last couple of decades mainly in the digital realm. To describe the record, it’s a mellow and sometimes melancholy pop record with a focus on layered sounds and vocal harmonies.
When I heard ‘Pet Hates’ for the first time, I wondered if you were making a sly nod to ‘Pet Sounds’ by the Beach Boys, as your harmonies and airiness are entirely reminiscent.
I definitely love the Beach Boys and wish that had occurred to me! In all honesty, when I wrote what ended up being the title track, I came up with the phrase ‘Pet Hates,’ which I likened to something like pet peeves, but worse. The song itself is basically a song about complaining, sort of about the existential situation we find ourselves in. I toyed with a number of different titles for the album—none of which I remember now—but I had this idea for a sort of “psychedelic button” with the words “Pet Hates” inside, which is what you see on the album cover. That kind of sealed it as the title.
Your vocals are so different than those found on the Pink Eagles album. Were you aware of that? Was it a concerted effort?
I suppose the answer is that I’m not really the primary vocalist in Pink Eagles. It’s a collective songwriting/recording effort, but I guess we’d probably consider Andy Fry (ex-Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, The Academy) as the primary vocalist—he’s got a very pure and pleasant voice. I do sing some of the songs and do a lot of the harmonies, but on this LP, the focus is very much on my vocals, which I’ve grown more comfortable with over the years.
Along those same lines, your playing is much more open and linear here. Your songs aren’t necessarily confined, though they do sit pleasantly within a defined space with an unexpected bounce to them.
In some ways, that’s the point of making a solo album—all the decisions are my own, with no need to compromise with other people’s ideas. Of course, compromise and collaboration are a great joy to me, which is why I have two active groups: the Embyros (who put out a CD earlier this year, ‘Selling What You Want To Buy’) and Pink Eagles, who are sitting on an unreleased trove of at least 60 songs, which we’ve been releasing one by one every few months until we eventually compile an LP (or two). But, yeah, I made a solo album because I write a lot of songs that aren’t really suitable for either band, more reflective of my particular tastes. Of course, everybody from both bands makes appearances on the LP, and they’re all great and totally supportive.
(laughing) I’m sure you know I’m gonna dive into ‘Caught in the Rain,’ with your stunning embrace of Tom Petty’s ‘Wildflowers’—and as if that weren’t enough, you open the door and let The Lovin’ Spoonful stroll in.
Well, yeah, to be honest, the similarity to ‘Wildflowers’ didn’t make itself apparent to me until after I’d finished the song. To be fair, it’s in a different key. An unintentional homage, I suppose? The song itself was inspired by a very rainy late spring day in Chicago, and I had this notion of it being sort of an apocalyptic thing. If you listen closely to the album, you’ll find some lyrical references pulled in from a lot of places, including the Lovin’ Spoonful with a little quote in that song. I don’t know the legal basis for this, but I often choose a lyric or two from other artists that I find interesting and sort of tuck them in. I remember learning about this concept called intertextuality, where artistic works reference other works—a famous example being Apocalypse Now as a loose retelling of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. But if you look closely at that movie, there are other references in there, like T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock being quoted directly. Anyway, yes, if you listen closely, there are definite references to other works in there.
And then there’s ‘The Only Living Boy in Chicago’… please share that backstory with us.
Oh, boy! OK, this one actually began life at a Pink Eagles writing/recording session. We record in this lovely house by a lake in Indiana, which has a great baby grand piano that I feel really comfortable playing on. We just started tooling around with chords, creating this sequence with Jeb Banner on bass and Andy Fry providing textured electric guitar. We ran through that cycle over and over until it really settled in. The basic track is probably over eight minutes long, but we start in the middle where everything is really locked in, so it’s basically a live first take. For the vocal, like many writers, I tend to record phrases and ideas in my phone or notebook. I had this phrase, ‘The Only Living Boy in Chicago.’ I’m sure it’s not lost on you that the title harkens back to the great Simon & Garfunkel song ‘The Only Living Boy in New York.’ Just kind of a dumb joke, but also a real feeling. I recorded the vocal, and Jeb and Andy agreed it was kind of “my song,” so they let me put it out on this album. The car sound effects at the end were something the song just suggested, I guess. The funny part is, I had trouble finding good car sound effects readily available, so I raided the BBC archives. The only issue was that most of their recordings are decades old, so the cars you hear don’t quite sound like modern vehicles. I had to trim out a few suitable bits and layer them together.
Word is that you did a residency in August at a small club. That must have been fun?
Well, that was with my band The Embryos, and we did a six-month residency at a small club in Chicago called Montrose Saloon. Shout out to those guys—it’s a great little club and really supportive. They have a lovely outdoor space, and it’s really become our musical home base. One thing I can definitively say it provided for us was an opportunity to become a lot tighter as a band and as vocalists. I’m actually not that into playing live and am much more comfortable as a creature of the studio, so it’s good to get out of my element.
The gear-heads would never speak to me again if I didn’t ask you about your guitars and effects. Would you impress us, please… and was this a totally solo outing for you?
OK, sure. There are pretty extensive credits included on the insert along with the lyrics. But to put it simply, it was not entirely solo, of course. I had a lot of support from The Embryos’ rhythm section, Joe and Brian Daley, on drums and bass for a lot of the songs. Andy, Jeb, and even Simon (Hanstad) from Pink Eagles show up on a few songs as well. And, of course, Paul Foreman, who is a good friend and an incredibly active musician, also played a bit of guitar and synth, as well as an inspired saxophone solo.
As for the actual gear involved, I’m not much of a gear head, but I can say that a lot of the material was inspired by the instruments I had in front of me. For a while, I was really into playing Nashville-strung guitar, which was instrumental to the writing of the first two songs. Nashville or high-strung guitar is basically when you use only the octave strings from a 12-string, so you get a much clearer, higher sound.
In other cases, I acquired new instruments during the album’s recording, which contributed as well. For example, I got a Suzuki Omnichord, on which I wrote the first draft of ‘Apology Tour,’ using the little chord buttons and automatic rhythm. At some point, I got a 1950s Kay Lap Steel—nothing special, but I’ve always loved slide and steel guitars, so it makes a lot of appearances. Finally, pretty late in the game, I found a 1978 Martin acoustic 12-string while on vacation, and it’s really special. Great tone and very easy to play more complex stuff on, which you can’t really say for a lot of 12-strings. That one inspired perhaps my favorite song on the record, “Remember How It Used to Feel.”
I should also add that limitations play a role—for example, we have a piano in our studio that is really out of tune, but I found that if I played only the highest two octaves, it was mostly in tune. So, aside from the piano on “Only Living Boy,” the rest of the piano parts were essentially dictated by the in-tune section!
Before you go, the album artwork for this release, and for Pink Eagles, is pretty cool. Who’s responsible for that?
Oh, thanks for asking about that. It’s really striking, isn’t it? This was actually done by my daughter, Veronica, who is 13. She brought it home from school—I think it may have just been a collage exercise, but it really caught my eye. I asked her why they looked so sad, and she said, “I don’t know.” In any case, I decided to use it and then collaborated with Andy Fry on the graphic design. Well, I should say I made requests, and he delivered. All else aside, I think it’s a really great, artistic cover. Veronica, incidentally, also drew the “eagle in space” that we used for the last Pink Eagles record. She’s always had a knack for expressive drawings.
I sincerely want to thank you for taking some time to sit with me. Lastly, would you tell the folks where you can be found on the World Wide Web?
Well, if you want to order the LP, that’s available exclusively on my Bandcamp page. It will also be available on most streaming services… very soon.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Musical Family Tree, which is a website a friend of mine started to document the music coming out of the Bloomington, Indiana scene in the ’90s. It’s grown a lot since then, but you can certainly find a cross-section of various projects I’ve been involved with over the years, as well as other great music from that scene. Check it out.
Jenell Kesler
Finn Swingley Instagram / Bandcamp
Finn Swingley – ‘The Wild Hunt’ (2020)
Pink Eagles – ‘Pink Eagles’ (2019)
