FINK’S new album leaving nothing but BEAUTY IN ITS WAKE
THE waiting is over and via R’COUP’D, the reformed, revived, meditative alt-folk trio, FINK present the deeply moving, intimate album, ‘Beauty In Your Wake.’
Almost three-decades since his emergence as a ‘Ninja Tune’ electronic artist, FINK’s eighth album comprises ten songs of honesty, patience, intimacy, and faith.
The bar sets itself high with opener, ‘What Would You Call Yourself,’ and somehow, that bar rises with each following song.
“From the moment I penned this it was obvious to me and the band that this would open the record,” said Fin Greenall. “It’s a philosophical one, about identity, self-identity, without any outside forces pressuring you into any boxes. The third verse is a story from my own childhood, where I invented a whole army in my imagination under my house. I just found this topic somehow connecting with me on this song.”
‘The Only Thing That Matters’ and ‘Be Forever Like A Curse’ maintain the album’s soul-searching journey. The optimism of ‘The Only Thing,’ shines bright, a song advising the listener, whenever possible, to live life with grace, while the narrational delivery of ‘Be Forever Like A Curse’ was written for 2022’s documentary, ‘All You See.’
“On ‘It’s Like You Ain’t Mine No More,’ we were very eager to embrace the vibe of the original trio, and no-one else, locked in a Cornish chapel for a month,” adds Greenall. “Every idea we had with the music had to be generated by us, so if you want a cello part and you don’t have a cello, then what? Take some strings off an acoustic guitar, resin up that bow to within an inch of its life and go for it! This track is the DIY ethos in us at its peak.
‘Follow You Down’ marks the album’s midway point, a simple riff discovered while travelling in India, intertwined with a celestial, folky vibe, which dovetails divinely into, ‘I Don’t See You As The Others Do.’
“It’s a straight up worship song. When you find your Goddess, you don’t dig too deep into the negative sides, you just focus on the stuff you need in her. I think the true meaning of this one will reveal itself over the next few years.
“Guy [Whittaker] went to town with the bassline on this. He walks around this awesome descending chord structure that was originally all backing vocals, and then we blossom into a fractured kick at the end.
“And like with all of the recordings for this album, I really didn’t want to think too hard about ‘One Last Gift.’ This didn’t get re-written or re-edited or overworked. I wrote this beautiful song, sent it to the boys, and then we recorded it in the chapel, as simple as it should be. Just write what is inside you and not what you think you need to.”
Introspection, hindsight and maturity make for easy bedfellows as they form the basis for ‘Don’t Forget To Leave,’ before the album’s end begins to drift into focus with penultimate track, ‘So We Find Ourselves In Love With You.’
“This song is so personal. I am the first to pour hate on other writers when they have kids and end up writing the ‘baby song’ record afterwards, but this is my ‘New Dad’ song and that’s that! When mine grows up I hope she hears this and knows what it’s like to fall in love together. Aside from parenthood, it’s about nothing ever being the wrong thing, it’s about optimism, it’s about rags to riches to riches to rags. In the end, we get it right either way.”
Regretfully, the Dylan-esque ‘When I Turn This Corner,’ signals the end of our chill-fest, musical journey.
“Every FINK record has a track on it that we try and write whilst we are in the studio, trying to capture the vibe of the place. Our place on ‘Beauty In Your Wake’ is an isolated chapel in West Cornwall in October. The seasons were changing outside, we had a wood burner fully stocked and crackling away and the windows blocked out with bedding.
“We wrote this during rehearsals in the first week, coming back to it after the days sessions to just push it further along. I think “our dreams lie in wait for us” is a great line because they do. It’s never what you think it’s going to be. This song is about everything in my life right now.”
From the wilds of intercontinental DJ-sets as a Ninja Tune original to nurturing the songwriting gifts of Amy Winehouse, to becoming a teacher, producer, partner and father, Fin Greenall’s exploration of life and music brings he and FINK to a place of grounded self-assurance on ‘Beauty In Your Wake.’
Together with bandmates, Tim Thornton (drums/guitar) and Guy Whittaker (bass), Greenall arrived back on England’s scenic south-west coast from his Berlin home with a guitar case full of brutally honest and hopeful post-writing-hiatus songs. Returning from a creative stasis set in by pandemic distractions, the final ten songs on ‘Beauty In Your Wake’ make up an album of concise laments, sonnets, and meditations on personal growth, breaking up, making up, and on songwriting itself.
FINK have so far confirmed three UK dates for October:
Friday 25th London, EartH Theatre
Sunday 27th Bristol, Thekla
Monday 28th Manchester, Band on the Wall
Booking links/further info: www.finkmusic.net
(Photo (c) Tom Young)