10 Things We Love About: Finn Foxell

Finn Foxell is deeply embedded within the arising UK music scene. Hailing all the way from Shepherd's Bush, West London, Finn has placed music as his focus for some time now, and with hit tracks like Buddha, Calm. Bless. Safe, and Ericsson, Finn has started to make a serious name for himself. Only recently has Finn released his sophomore EP, Talk Is Cheap, an 8 track project consisting of a variety of well-orchestrated tunes.

We caught up with Finn to discuss some aspects of his journey so far...

We Love Your New EP ‘Talk Is Cheap’ – Talk to me a little more about making the album, what it means to you and how you were feeling when recording it.

It’s reminiscent of a lot of things of the past few years, and I think lockdown and how I refined it and finished it off encapsulates such a long time. There’s a good two year stretch between when all the songs were made, so I feel like the EP defines the last couple years well. I feel like following this I’m going into quite a different place of music.

We Love Your Lyrics – Obviously what you record is very deep and personal to you, what's your process behind writing your lyrics?

Writing is weird, I’ve gone through quite a lot of phases. I used to write most of my lyrics on public transport because of the visual stimulation going on around me, it was easier to get into a hyper-focus. If there’s a lot going on around me, I’m in my own little world, it helps me get into the flow. There’s also a lot of session work, where like me and a producer have just clicked at that moment, a there-and-then type thing. I feel like these songs bang the best.

We Love Your Beat selection – How do you pick out the best beat for your songs, and what kind of chemistry goes on between you and the producer?

Usually now, I’ll write most of my stuff off the back of hearing the beat. If the beat hits my ear and it gets me right, that’s when I jump at it. It can be quite frustrating sometimes because it can often be a hit-and-miss if I acknowledge a beat but it doesn’t click right for me. Writing can often be a thing you overthink so it’s the songs that just come out of nowhere that hit most for me.

We Love Your Music Videos – Having seen how crazy the visuals for your songs are, most notably 'Pressure' (directed by Delphino Productions), I was wondering if making music videos is something you'd like to do more of in the future?

Of course! I had a weird vision for the Pressure video as soon as I made the song - I wanted to make it a bit sinister, a little bit dark. Delphino was really good at helping that idea come to life, I gave him what I was thinking and he knew what to do. The video itself took about a year of going back and forth, just tinkering and adding new ideas. I also really liked how the Make It Count video turned out, giving Figaro the ideas and watching them work with it and manifest it into something, then execute it was sick. Videos are something I really need more of.

We Love How Versatile You Are – I feel like in every track you're trying to switch it up or try something new, is this on purpose or just how you feel when you hit the studio?

Mostly feeling. It’s great, being in the studio and collaborating with different people will always put you in a different place. I wanna try and make everything, I don’t want to give myself any restrictions. Only thing I’d say I’ve stayed away from is like heavy metal, mostly because I haven’t really been in that zone. Any other pockets though I’d love to be able to explore, and if I can do them well then that’s just a big plus.

We Love Your Voice – Having such an identifiable voice has really made you stand out in the UK scene. Tell us a bit more about how you found the right style of vocals over the years, having been involved with music from such a young age.

To be honest, I’ve been smoking so much I’ve made it a bit more gravelly. I knew when I started rapping again properly when I was about 15-16 that I did have that sort of monotone thing, and I enjoyed writing that way, a lot of rappers I liked at the time did that same sort of thing. I think it's my singing that has really helped push me out the box and develop my voice, learning how to use it in different ways.

We Love Elevation/Meditation – How has the pandemic affected you guys as a collective and is there anything new on the way?

The group’s healthy, the collective is wonderful. We’re all in really good places and have taken a big leap within our own solo journeys. We’re gonna link back up and make some new music but it’s just about timing. In terms of seeing each other, Apex has just moved to East from West, so I’ve been doing the journey to see him a bit. I’m excited to start getting into more sessions with everyone, people need to look out for that for sure! Elevation Music.

We Love Your Humbleness – I see on Instagram that you're running 5k a day throughout September for Uyghur Muslims fleeing China (Learn more about the charity here). How did you first get the idea and how has it been going?

It’s going good, man. It’s for a better cause, so I thought, "why not?" with all my followers. I can’t lie right now I’m a bit behind, lost out on a few days but I’m starting to catch up. I hadn’t been running that much before but it’s feeling good. Hopefully we can get a few more donations and help hit our target.

We Love Your Shows – Just before COVID hit you sold out Peckham Audio and it felt like things were just about to kick-off. Once things calm down, what are your plans for upcoming shows?

We’re hoping to announce some dates soon that people can get tickets for, definitely keep your eyes peeled for that - there’s gonna be a wicked headline in London. Following on from that, if things go well, we’ll have shows all over the UK, we'll try and do like a mini-tour. We just wanna get around to all the cities and show some love. There’s some places I really wanna get back to, like Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol as well. We'll just have to see how it all goes.

We Love Shepherd's Bush! – How has growing up there shaped you as a person?

I’d like to say a good person *laughs*. I think it’s a lovely place with a very mixed environment, people from all sorts of backgrounds - and that's nothing but a good thing growing up. Obviously, there’s parts where there’s a lot of fuckerys going on, like most places, but West is slept on 100%, it's got some of the best markets in London.

Stream Talk Is Cheap below:

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