13th Floor Interview: Lockdown With Harper Finn

With New Zealand Music Month doing its best to thrive during these tough times, the 13th Floor’s Marty Duda has been talking to some of NZ’s finest talents.

We first checked in with Harper Finn last year as he was just about to release his first single. Harper…son of Tim Finn…has since been keeping busy playing shows and releasing new music. Of course all of that came to a screeching halt thanks to the lockdown.

Marty rang up in Harper to see how he has been spending his down time.

Click here to listen to the interview with Harper Finn:

Read a transcription of the interview here:

M: So we last spoke, when was it, last July wasn’t it I think? Something like that.

H: Yeah, it must’ve been like ten months ago or something.

M: And then you did your show at the Ding Dong Lounge, I remember that.

H: Yes.

M: And you’ve put out a couple of singles I think.

H: Yup, I’ve put out two more singles since then. Put out a song called Good For Me at the end of last year and I put out a song called Sun Down at the beginning of this year. So yeah, there’s been a few things popping up since we last spoke, a few more shows and all that kind of thing just slowly building, slowly chipping away.

M: And how are you feeling about these shows and stuff I mean, It’s one thing to sit around and talk about your new song but it’s another thing to be out there on stage doing it.

H: Oh absolutely. I mean obviously with the situation we’ve found ourselves in the possibility of playing live shows seems like a distant memory now. I mean I was trying to, just before the start I was trying to organize the show to coincide with the release of new music and all that but plans have changed and still don’t know what the plans are but I really miss it cause I guess, I performed last year, or I guess the last day of last year, at Rhythm and Vines down in Gisborne, I played a new year slot which was like probably one of the best shows I’ve ever done and then a few more in January.

M: Oh great.

H: Yeah that was just….

M: What made it a great show for you?

H: I just think, the first .thing was the fact that it was on New Years Eve.

M: That’s always a great start.

H: Buzzing energy you can’t contain it really but it’s kind of weird as well cause you’re just spending the whole day anticipating a show and I was hanging out with people who were just partying and celebrating all day so it was like this weird feeling of kind of waiting to start where as everyone else had. But the fact was on New Years Eve, it was probably the biggest crowd I’d ever played to and yeah just being able to play as Rhythm and Vines which I’ve gone to before also was pretty amazing. I think it was just all those combined really.

M: Are people kind of getting familiar with your music? Do they know who you are and what you’re doing?

H: I think so. I think more and more I think it’ll also come with just putting out more music I mean I’m still fairly new on the scene, I haven’t put out that much music so I think people know the music but they might not necessarily know who I am. So I guess I’m hoping that with more music, people will start to join the dots and go oh, this is the same artist or this is this person cause I think it’s pretty hard for people to sort of, a lot of the time a lot of people don’t know what they’re listening to, they just hear and they like it so you kind of need to bombard people with lots of music for people to go, ‘oh ok, I know who this’….

M: Well there is a danger kind of getting lost in the noise, I mean everybody has stuff going on all the time and there’s always music everywhere these days.

H: Yeah.

M: Do you think about what you have to do to stand out?

H: I think you do. But I think if you keep thinking you’ll try anything it might become a bit contrived.

M: That’s true.

H: You’ll be like, what can I do to stand out opposed to just sort of doing your own thing. I think it’s quite easy to think that you’re not doing something that isn’t gonna be exciting or people aren’t gonna stop to take a look at. But I think the more you keep doing your own sting, the more people will realise. I think it’s very rare for artists to just put something out and be this amazing, exciting version of themselves and pretty much get it straight away like you don’t take time and you need to kind of showcase a bit more of yourself and show there’s substance there I think anyway personally.

M: Right. So, when was the last time you did a show? Cause we’ve been in lockdown for a while now.

H: Yeah, I think the last show, I’ll go to my calendar right now, God it would’ve been, I think it might have even been early February?

M: Right, right.

H: Early February perhaps. And you know, it was a show which I was going oh I can’t wait to do the next one like it was sort of we felt, my band who I play with, we sort of felt like ok this is this, this will be a touring year, we’ll really make sure we play lots of shows, we’ll get out there and get in front of as many people as possible. How wrong we were.

M: You and everybody else.

H: Yeah exactly but it would have been about February. I mean, it just feels like another world, playing at Rhythm and Vines, playing at a festival just feels like another planet really in terms of the reality now like you know, seeing ten people in one spot.

M: So since then, what have you been doing music wise? Have you been writing, have you been thinking about it?

H: Yeah I mean, I’m always writing so that really hasn’t changed but I think for me, I think I’ve sort of understood how important, I’m understanding how important, just being able to leave my house and go talk to my friends and even just driving and travelling, how important that is too in the creative process. Because you don’t really, you take it for granted, sort of like it’s quite mundane, day to day activities a lot of the time but when you can’t do them and you’re forced to stay at home, you kind of realise that without that it’s quite hard to feel really inspired I think. Cause at home, I’m spending a lot of the time on the computer trying to read more, watch a lot of films, listen to a lot of music to sort of keep the inspiration going in cause you constantly want to be stimulating your mind a lot of the time you know, hear stories, hear sounds see something crazy. So I think over the past month and a half or two months I guess it’s been writing but it’s very different I think like I’m not doing it in the same way and I don’t think as well. Like I’m more focused on just kind of doing lots of little things as opposed to trying start this big project or anything so it’s just kind of been trying to keep myself busy with little things whether that be little instrumental piece of music or work on somebody else’s song, I think it’s been quite nice to just sort of feel like you don’t have to do anything super significant or super big like you can just bide your time and stay creative as possible.

M: I think one of the things that I’ve noticed, and maybe you have too, is what social beings we are that we really do need to interact with people and like I said, I was going to work but there’s hardly anybody there, but when I do run into somebody, we have these long, extended conversations where normally we would just be going hey, how ya doing in the hallway.

H: Yeah and that’s what really is like, before this you never would have like, if someone said oh what does it take to write a song, I would have given you this long list and I never would have said just going out and walking down the street and getting into a bus. I mean, It’s not that those things that really like I think music lives, you want it to live outside of yourself a lot of the time and you want to go out to the world and take stuff in and you don’t even know, it’s like osmosis you’re sort of not really conscious of it but it all reflects in the music. Yeah, I mean not to say as well that I haven’t like, I still feel like the stuff I’m writing now and the stuff I’m working on, I’m still really excited about and I think it’s really great but it’s just definitely different.

M: So is the music sounding different? Are you feeling like you’re moving in a particular direction with what you’re writing and what you’re coming up with?

H: I mean I guess, to answer that question would probably best explain that yeah, for the past year I’ve been writing so I guess as well as starting to do things during this lockdown, I’ve also been just finishing off things that I started pre-lockdown so I think the material that I’ll be putting out very, very soon, is actually stuff that I started before this so it’s kind of I guess back to my point of February, January the past summer feeling like a different world away. I think the music I wrote then and I’m planning to put out to me sounds like an escape. To me it’s like a three minute escape to another world because I feel like there’s only so many songs you can write about being in lockdown. I feel like for me, I’m craving songs that for three minutes, four minutes make you feel like you’re in another place and another time. I think I’m looking for escape opposed to looking for, to be consoled or just to feel like I need someone to explain what’s happening. Like I don’t really need that for me musically I think I want someone that’s gonna make me feel like this isn’t happening, this is where he can pretend we’re at a festival or we can pretend we’re at a concert or with our friends again. For me, that’s more moving.

M: I think a lot of people who have been sitting in their houses or apartments for the last couple of months want to be transported you know? And music is an easy way to do it.

H: Yeah exactly, watching lots of films, watching lots of T.V, listening to lots of music. Yeah, for me it’s like, when you’ve got a great song on and you’re in the house and you’re dancing with somebody, it doesn’t matter what’s happening, it’s just that you know special moments that music can provide. That can take you out of any situation.

M: And`now of course, you’re a member of a very musical family, has that played any part in what you’ve done in lockdown? Have you guys kind of talked about it and interacted?

H: Yeah I think so. I guess cause yeah my dad is, I think the thing that we’ve discussed and I get it incorporates music is just the fact that we’re going through this at such different times in our life. Like he’s going at it sort of, he’s my dad, he’s older now so he’s had his whole career, he’s had his youth and all that and he didn’t have this big disruption whereas someone like me, my age, it’s just interesting like how it’s impacting us differently in the sense that when you’re young, all you wanna do is be out, all you wanna do is be with your friends, whereas someone like my dad, he’s quite happy to be at home working on his own music, writing stuff for musicals, being on his computer. I guess we’re starting to see how we work I guess cause we don’t really spend this much time together but I guess we’re being able to observe a little bit more, observe our processes a little bit more.

M: I was thinking about that myself, because I’m probably about the same age as your dad, and you’re what, twenty one, twenty two something like that?

H: Twenty two yeah.

M: Yeah and I was wondering, I was like what would it have been like if this had happened when I was twenty one years old? How would I have reacted to that? I can’t even imagine it because nothing like that has happened in my lifetime where everybody is just coming to a grinding halt and sitting in their houses all day long. It’s crazy.

H: Yeah exactly. I mean, I was really excited for the Tame Impala show I think it was last month, and obviously that got cancelled and my friends and I, we’d been talking about it for months, we’d been excited and obviously with my shows so it really feels like yeah. Cause young people, we like to make plans, we like to sort of put things, we go, like this is gonna happen, we’re gonna go to this you kind of pin point moments in the year that you’re really looking forward to and you’re building up to these shows and festivals and when you get all that stripped away and taken back you kind of, there’s not much to look forward to at the moment I mean, I think my friends and I, those who I’ve spoken to, we’re all guardedly optimistic that we’ll all be able to see each other in level two or a version of that so I think there is some things looming on the horizon that is ready to look forward to but at the same time it sort of feels like the pinnacles of our year, a lot of that has been postponed or pushed aside.

M: That’s for sure. Like you say, hopefully it’ll all happen again. Everybody’s got their fingers crossed and hopefully all the clubs can come back and bounce back from this and you know.

H: Exactly. Cause I think music as a whole, artists, people with crew members, all that like we’re one of the hugely affected industries if you will. Without shows, without being able to go to concerts, that’s a lot of, that’s like fifty if not more percent of what we do and I guess I feel lucky that I’m able to be at home here writing, just fiddling away on things in my little home studio and I can still keep that connection to music but if you were a band and you couldn’t meet up with your bandmates and rehearse or you were a sound guy or a roadie, like without that…..

M:It’s gonna be tough for them, that’s for sure.

H: Yeah, your job doesn’t exist at the moment which is quite sad.

M: So have you got plans in the back of your head of what you’re gonna do once you’re allowed to do what you’re allowed to do?

H: Hopefully, I think it’ll just be a show. I was trying to do that around this time so I guess when this is all lifted, would be to try and do a show and I would love to be able to, cause I feel like I still haven’t done as many shows as I’d like to in Auckland and around New Zealand, I feel like it would be a great way to get my name out there and get more people onto my music. But I think as well, I’m releasing more music soon anyway so I think I’m excited to do that and I feel like to try and give it a positive spin to sort of feel like, well if I can out more music out so that by the time you play a show, maybe they’ll be more songs, more material and hopefully more people would have heard of it anyway.

M: Are you one of those people that can do recordings on your own at home or do you need to be in a studio with producers and engineers? How do you like to work?

H: I can pretty much do it all here. It probably would need a few finishing touches from somebody else cause my gear isn’t the best, I don’t have the fanciest microphone or anything, but it’s enough to sort of do, to put the bare bones of a song down I think. Like I was saying before, in terms of just doing lots of little things, I guess I’m sort of preparing all these little things to that when I can meet up with people again, I’ve got all these things that we can finish, opposed to sort of, you know, it’ll feel like we can get people, I can just send seventy five percent thing off to people to get that last twenty five then hopefully it’s all done like that.

M: Well, strange times we’re in that’s for sure.

H: Absolutely. I mean that’s a phrase I’ve heard everyday basically.

M: Really?

H: Yeah. The strangest of times.

M: Well, hopefully things will move along and we’ll be able to see everybody and hear everybody and hang out and have a few beers and do our thing.

H: Absolutely.

M: Cause that’s what we need. I’m tired of drinking alone.

H: Oh God same here, I mean I’m tired of doing it over video chat. I’ve had so many video chat hang outs.

M: It’s just not the same.

H: It’s not the same is it?

M: No it’s not.

H: Not the same.