Interview with Finn Pearson: ‘People like Springsteen inspire me a lot’

Perth-based singer-songwriter Finn Pearson is working on his solo debut EP ‘Sweat & Vermouth’, which will likely come out early next year.

Last month, he released the first single from the EP, ‘Hard to Find’, which is rockier than his previously more folk-leaning releases, and which draws influences from both traditional folk music and Australian bands such as Hollow Coves, Xavier Rudd and Sons of the East: ‘All of my music stems from an emotional place but ‘Hard To Find’ is a bit of an outlier because it draws on a place of desensitisation to vulnerability rather than from the feeling of vulnerability itself,’ Pearson said. ‘Sometimes, being emotionally honest all the time can take its own toll, and it can be easier to be hard to find. It took a while to drill down to what it was about, I sat on it for about six months. The embryo of the song was pre-COVID when I was playing in six or seven bands across Perth. I played around 200 gigs in 2019 and I struggled to find the time to hang out and to make new connections with people. The song’s also about people being frustrated at where you’re coming from. When I stopped playing gigs, it was incredibly hard mentally. I was incredibly burnt out and I didn’t realise it.’

‘Hard to Find’ is a tender track, wrapped up in caged emotions and feelings of isolation, undergoing significant tweaking to become the version we know today: ‘The producer Timothy Nelson and I went back and forth a lot about the direction that the song could go stylistically and sonically,’ Pearson said. ”Hard To Find’ has always been a bit of an enigma for me and the band; I feel as though we never played it exactly the same way twice live, so untangling it was a bit of a process. We tried a few different arrangements and tempos, and in the end we arrived at something more akin to The Go-Betweens and other jangly classic Australian indie-rock than my previously folky sound. We really went to town on the acoustic guitar layers, and the backing vocals of Claudia (Claudia Tero, who also played strings on the rest of the EP) are obviously a really special part of the track, but the entire band arrangement just feels so alive and organic to me.’

As the chorus goes: “You know that it’s not easy being this hard to reach. And I don’t need them to tell me how to feel. You know that it’s not easy being this hard to find. Being this hard to find makes it easier to heal.”

‘The title song is a murder ballad, it’s a bit darker’

‘Sweat & Vermouth’ will comprise five tracks and when I tell him what a great name it is, he grins: ‘If I heard an EP with that name, I’d listen to it!,’ he quipped. ‘I’m hoping to do a big solo tour to support it. The title song is a murder ballad, so it’s a bit darker (laughs). Do you know The Kill Devil Hills? They’re a legendary indie country band from WA, vaguely in that era (early 2000’s). I’d say it’s alt-country with a bit of indie rock. It’s a sad one, a reflection of the worst parts of domestic violence.’

As the track kicks off: “This house isn’t where you thought your life would come to an end. But now that it’s ebbing from your body, it all makes sense. The dog is scratching at the door, she wants to come in. Although your mind is slowing, you’re glad she doesn’t have to see you like this.”

Another track on the EP, ‘The Gathering Dark’, was something of a last minute addition: ‘At the end, my bass player Jake, who moved to England after the project was completed, asked me to put this song on the record. I wasn’t sure at first, it meant another day in the studio, but we did it.’ I ask him if his bass player features on it: ‘Nooo, he doesn’t even play on it (laughs)! The song is more sentimental than the title suggests, it’s very stream of consciousness. It’s about being happy with the more sentimental parts of humanity. It also reflects how I’ve changed my set over the last eight to nine months, I tend to do more sit down shows now. I don’t play with the band at the moment. For a long time I think we were a folk band who tried to act like a rock band (laughs) but now the shows are more quiet and introspective, which I think we all found quite freeing in a lot of ways.’ Where a lot of the other songs on the record have quite complex arrangements and lots of different sections and instrumental layers, ‘The Gathering Dark’ is really just a simple folk song, according to Pearson: ‘I tracked the acoustic guitar and vocals together live in the control room to really nail down that live magic,’ he said. ‘All we did after that was bring in Claudia to put down some strings and backing vocals, so it really is the most stripped-back song on the EP.’

As it kicks off: “As the hum of the petrol engine settles in for the night and the crowds are thinning out down by the reservoir. Where the water fairies dance, high on MDMA and life, I’m turning my back on the gathering dark.”

‘Cold Chisel is a seminal band, a lot of their storytelling is incredible’

It is evident from the storytelling in the tracks we know that the lyrics drive all of his songs: ‘I don’t have a set process but the lyrics are the last and most important part,’ he said. ‘The embryo of the song could be a hook, a drum beat or a lyric. People like Springsteen inspire me a lot, everything he does is great. Bob Dylan, Paul Kelly, I love them. The National is a big influence of mine, they’ve been my favourite band for a while. Cold Chisel is a seminal band, a lot of their storytelling is incredible. I think my favourite Chisel song is probably ‘Four Walls’, it’s incredibly evocative and emotional whilst still remaining quite understated, description-wise. Don Walker’s lyricism is a masterclass in saying what needs to be said to draw the emotions out of a song, nothing more and nothing less. It’s a very Australian songwriting trait, I think.’

Locally, he is a fan of Noah Dillon: ‘He’s indie rock//folk with a very unique sound,’ he said. ‘Noah writes incredible lyrics, he’s a marriage of all the good stuff about the Perth music scene, which is a slightly introspective brand of jangly rock.’ He also cites local rock band Ghost Care as being brilliant: ‘They’re an amazing band of lovely people,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I was over at Big Sound (an Australian music festival and conference) in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago and I was looking at the cool Perth bands. I also discovered some insanely talented bands from all around the country there, including Grace Cummings and her band from Melbourne who I then caught a couple of weeks later at a festival in Hyden (regional WA) and a country artist called Bud Rokesky from Brisbane.’

Last year, he released the single ‘No Apologies’, which features some stellar harmonica playing from him: ‘I’ve always been a harmonica fan, ever since high school,’ he said. ‘I play it in C, E and A. I’ve got one in D that I’ve never played because I realised the key doesn’t suit my voice that well. I try to use the harmonica for distinctive melody parts, although I don’t consider myself to be a very advanced harmonica player (laughs). If you listen to Bill Lawrie, an older blues harmonica player from Perth, he’s in a different league. I love playing the harmonica live on my tracks; unless you’re advanced, you’re just bending notes (laughs). On the draw in, it makes a different note to when you draw out. It takes a bit of breath control!’

One of his most beautiful tracks is ‘Keep The Light Alive’, featuring Tero on the violin and cello, which is evocative, haunting and melancholic: ‘Claudia in my band, she plays the violin and cello on that. She doesn’t even call herself a cello player, she just had a go! It’s sort of a COVID song about mental health and not knowing when you’ll return to normal life.’

‘If anyone COULD play the piano with spoons, it probably would be Bill Bailey’

Pearson got into music at a young age, thanks to his mother, an opera singer by the name of Penny Shaw: ‘I grew up with opera and classical music,’ he said. ‘My mum sings with WA Opera in Perth and does her own shows, too. I wasn’t funnelled into any contemporary music as a little kid; I was a soprano until I was 11 and my voice broke and put the end to that (laughs). Tonight, she’s singing with Bill Bailey, a couple of duets and comedy, too, I think. She wouldn’t tell me the joke in advance, she wanted me to laugh on the night! He’s an absolute genius, the real deal.’

I ask if he saw the English sitcom Black Books, in which Bailey plays bookshop assistant Manny and brilliant pianist to Dylan Moran’s grumpy and eccentric bookshop owner, Bernard Black. ‘That’s my favourite show!,’ he said excitedly. I say that it’s one of mine, too, and we chat for a bit about how brilliant Bailey is in it, particularly in the one scene where he plays the piano from inside the piano body with spoons, so that Bernard Black and his friend Fran can sit at the piano and pretend that that they’re actually playing it. The comic timing throughout the scene is exceptional: ‘He’s probably not really playing with spoons,’ Pearson mused and I agree that it’s unlikely. ‘But if anyone COULD play the piano with spoons, it probably would be Bill Bailey,’ he said. ‘I’m very excited to see him tonight, I’m going right after this interview!’

‘To watch him work his magic from the side of the stage could be mind blowing’

If he could go for a drink with anyone, he is quick to say The National’s frontman Matt Berninger: ‘I’m religiously dedicated to his music, I think he’d be very funny,’ he said. ‘I think he’d want to have a drink with me (laughs). Springsteen would be great, too!’

His dream-line up would encompass a range of genres:‘I’d love to share the stage with Phoebe Bridgers, her music gets me in a special way and she hangs out with awesome people,’ he said. ‘Bruce, he’d be great company. To watch him work his magic from the side of the stage could be mind blowing. Maybe Nick Cave, I think he’d be interesting, whatever you think of him, he’s got a lot going on. I’ve got to have my favourite, The National, they’ve earned a spot!’

Pearson loves his job and says he’s been fortunate to play alongside some hilarious people: ‘There was a memorable gig with a band I was playing guitar for, where the drummer had double-booked himself and pulled out of a fairly major festival slot at a few hours’ notice,’ he said. ‘We ended up chucking the bass player onto the drums – definitely not his primary instrument – and bringing in another friend to play bass, who had never even heard the songs before! The artist was up front holding it down like a champion whilst I was yelling the chords, rhythm parts and arrangements to the bass player as they came up in real-time. To this day, I’m still not sure how much we got away with it, but it was exhilarating and we definitely laughed about it afterwards!’