McLean's Country - broadcast Saturday 8 October 2005
(this interview is still online.  Use the link at the bottom of this article to listen)

> Better than This <

RM: That’s Jeff Finlin, great track, Better Than This, taken from the album Epinonymous.  I’m very pleased to say that Jeff Finlin rejoins us in the McLean’s Country studio;  you’ve been here before, Jeff, you’re very welcome.
JF:  Thank you.  Thanks for having me.

RM:  I have to ask you, “Epinonymous”, did I say it right?
JF:  Yes you did… you’re one of the few.

RM:  The chaos you have caused the DJs across the globe.  I think I told you this when I met you at the gig last night:  I had a terrible problem with it, in that the album came through – you sent it through yourself, I thought ‘Great, new album by Jeff, I’ll play that on Saturday night”.  Then, in my utmost professionalism, I hadn’t actually really looked at the title too much… so I played a track off it, turned the CD over, as you do, when you’re talking… “Jeff Finlin there, great track, Better Than This, from … Epin… nony..  “ … and I was live, there was nothing I could do…  So you’re confusing people.   What does it mean?
JF:  Oh it’s just kind of a word I made up on my own.  I’m always interested in the real picture of people and what makes them whole, and I think anonymity is a part of that, and it’s kind of a word that means “the greatness of anonymity”. 

RM:  Well it is memorable.  Once you learn it, it’s memorable.  Epinonymous.
JF:  There’s always something – even on my first record, I always put something in there; a little thing to let me know if people are paying attention.

RM:  It’s a great album.  I think it’s a superb album.  I’ve been playing tracks from it in recent months as well.  You’ve a great love of words, and a great love of literature as well.  It comes out through all your albums, I think, and particularly through this as well:  it’s very strong lyrically.   Are you very happy with the album?  Do you feel it’s a progression from Somewhere South of Wonder?
JF:  Oh, I think so.  At first, when I finish a record, I really don’t know.  But I’m really happy with it because people seem to be happy with it.   I get to the point now where I don’t try to judge my work, because I’m always wrong.   I’ll hold back stuff and release it later and people are weeping over it or something.

RM:  How long did it take you to come to that conclusion? 
JF:  Oh, a long time.  So  just kind of put it together the best I can, and try not to judge it, and just put it out there, and people seem to be responding to it really well.   Then I’m happy with it.

RM:  It’s been out for a while for yourself, I suppose, hasn’t it?   But you’re still promoting it, you’re still on the road playing these songs.  So how long are we talking?   Last year?   Longer for the songs themselves, I suppose..
JF:  Well some of the songs are very old, you know, that have been kicking around for a while, and then some of them I just wrote while I was recording the thing.  That’s kind of how it works.  It came out in the States in February, so I’ll be working it for another year or so.

RM:  What’s the reaction initially, in terms of press coverage…?
JF:  Really good, you know.  As much as I can get, I’m doing the whole thing by myself… Uncut gave it a four-star review, and have asked to put a track from it on the next compilation CD…

RM:  Uncut have been a good supporter, haven’t they, over the last few years they’ve certainly plugged away?
JF:  Oh they’re great.  And they really get a lot of people to listen to those samplers.  I’ve reached a lot of people by that. 

RM:  One of your tracks is about to be used in the new Cameron Crowe movie.  What can you tell us about that?
JF:  Yeah.  I went ski-ing one day and got home and Paramount Pictures was on the voicemail – who knows how they came across it, or how he came across it – so that movie’s called Elizabethtown and it’s coming out in October, and I get to be on the soundtrack with people like Elton John and Tom Petty, and Ryan Adams, and so I’m very happy with that.

RM:  Is that your first appearance on a soundtrack album?
JF:  Yeah it is, actually.

RM:  So it’ll be interesting to see how that kicks on, then, in terms of coverage, and in terms perhaps of offers and interest;  it’s going to bring you to a new audience, in a way…
JF:  I hope so.  I’m trying to get prepared for it, but then not try to do too much, you know…  That’s my MO, I try to do too much, you end up throwing a monkey wrench in the spokes.

RM:  Shall we hear the track now;  Sugar Blue, isn’t it?   This is from Somewhere South of Wonder, let’s hear it now:  Jeff Finlin.

  >  Sugar Blue  <

RM:  Ralph McLean here on McLean’s Country, on BBC Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster.   Great to have your company this evening;  and great to have the company, in the studio, of Jeff Finlin.  You’ve just heard Sugar Blue, it’s about to be used on the soundtrack of Elizabethtown, the title of Cameron Crowe’s new movie.  We’ll look forward to that, that’s going to be great.  You’ve no idea how he heard it?  Do you reckon he just picked up an album?
JF:  I have no idea.

RM:  He’s a big music fan, isn’t he, Cameron Crowe?  He likes his music.
JF:  Yeah, I know.   Springsteen’s been playing this song in his walk-up music too, for his Devils and Dust tour, and he hand-picks all that stuff…

RM:  That’s quite cool, isn’t it?
JF:  Oh, it’s great.   How did he get hold of it?  Who knows?

RM:  Now, if Bruce were to cover it?
JF:  Oh that would be great!

RM:  That would be pretty good.
JF:  I’ll put that out right now that that’s ok.

RM:  Yeah, Bruce, work away, Bruce… if you’re listening on the web, by any strange chance, backstage somewhere, and you fancy throwing a cover in at the end of the set, make it Sugar Blue. 
JF:  That one would be good.

RM:  I think the last time I spoke to you Jeff, you were based in Nashville and you’d been there for a long time.  But you’re not based in Nashville now – Colorado? 
JF:  Colorado, yeah.

RM:  What was the reason for the change?
JF:  I don’t know.  Life’s short.  I’ve been there for a long time, and you get to a point when you realise ‘We’ve done this, let’s do something different’.   So we moved out to a little town north of Denver, butted right up against the foothills of the Rockies, and we like it out there;  it’s really nice.

RM:  Was that a big wrench for yourself, given that Nashville is Music City?   For a musician and for a songwriter, regardless of the pressures of Nashville, it is a good place to be if you’re writing songs, isn’t it?
JF:  Yeah, it is.  Just using it as a resource, for all the studios and the musicians.   You know, those are my people too.  It’s like they think about the same things I think about.. I do miss it.  I don’t miss the heat, the hot weather.  Living in the city, all that stuff.   But I get to go back… I just produced a woman called Emma Foxhall, who’s just a brilliant singer from Liverpool.   So I got to go back and work with my mates:  worked with Doug Lancio, who plays with Patty Griffin;  and Dave Jacques, who plays with John Prine;  and it was great.  So I get to go there and do the fun part and go live where I would love to live.  So it’s good.

RM:  So let’s talk about a few of the influences on the album, and the kind of artists that have inspired you down the years.  I think I’ve mentioned before when I’ve spoken to yourself Jeff, there’s a strong Randy Newman feel to some of it, in terms of the lyricism and the an Americana feel to it.  Is Randy Newman a touchstone for yourself?
JF:  Oh yeah, I think so.  Because Randy says things that nobody would normally say.  And I like that in a songwriter:  I like Warren Zevon in that way.  He just says whatever he wants to say.

RM:  It can be quite shocking, can’t it?  If you’re not used to it… when you first hear “Rednecks” by Randy, it was quite shocking, wasn’t it?
JF:  That’s what I love about him.  So when I start writing, I turn to those people to say “ok what would he do?”   But then if you’re looking for a chorus, you go “what would Elton John do?”  He’s the master of that.   I use those people as touchstones and tools, as examples of where to go to for different moods and things like that.

RM:  In terms of your writing process, is it lyrics first, or is it a bit of both, is it tune first…?  What way do you work?
JF:  It kind of comes… it just depends, it’s all different.  I usually try to avoid writing, unless I have a purpose for it, if I’m putting together a record.

RM:  You’re not one these guys who carries a little notebook, back pocket, scribbles down every thing that comes to him? 
JF:  No.  I used to be that way.  I used to be obsessive, and now it’s very Zen, it’s all action.  Because the minute I put it in my noggin it’s just over, so I try to set myself up to get the message and then just write it down and move on.  It works better for me that way.  I can have a life.

RM:  That sounds good.  Having a life is always a good idea, isn’t it?   Too many musicians forget that.
JF:  I know…

RM:  Let’s hear another song from the album.  We’ll be speaking to you again in a second, Jeff, so sit your ground.   This is Bringing My Love.

  > Bringing My Love < 

RM:  Bringing My Love, great song, from what I think is a great album, Epinonymous.  Self-released, Jeff.  Is that right, is everything through yourself?
JF:  Pretty much, yeah.  I have a distributor in the US and that’s about it right now.

RM:  So how do people get hold of it then, the obvious question in terms of availability:  is it the website?
JF:  The website, yeah, or it’s through a distributor in the US, so you can get it at Amazon and all the internet distributors and stuff like that. 

RM:  Give us the website address:
JF:  It’s www.jefffinlin.com

RM:   Perfect.  Nice and simple, that’s what we like.  Nothing too complicated with too many forward slashes… Keep it simple.
JF:  Nice and easy.

RM:  What’s next for yourself, Jeff?  Obviously the soundtrack album’s going to be exciting, and hopefully that’ll move you to a different kind of audience.   But have you anything else planned?  Or are you just taking it as it comes?
JF:  I’m taking it as it comes.  I’m doing some dates in the States.   From Ireland, I go to England, and then I have a date in France, a couple in Holland, then go home.  I’m looking at starting another record:  that usually takes a month or two.  So it might be a good time to start looking at that.

RM:  Well home life is good, you’re enjoying your new life in Colorado.
JF:  Oh yeah, it’s nice.  Ski-ing season’s coming up, and we get to go ski-ing.  I don’t know, it’s nice.

RM:  Things you can’t do in Nashville…
JF:  Exactly!   Because it’s too bloody hot.

RM:  Too much pressure.   Now, you see, you’re out of the pressure zone, which is an important development too.   You’re going to play a live song for us, from the album.  I think it’s one of the stand-out tracks from the album, I’m really pleased you’re going to play it live in the studio for us now.   Tell us a wee bit about the song before you start…
JF:  This song came… I actually started writing it in Dundalk.  I was at this little club there, it’s kind of next to the harbour, the sea…

RM:  The Spirit Store?
JF:  Yeah, The Spirit Store.   I was really tired and really wrung out, and sitting looking at the boats sitting on the muddy bottom when the tide was out, and thinking about how powerless they were to float, and I felt the same way.  So that’s kind of where it started, anyway.

RM:  Give us the title…
JF:  It’s called The Long Lonesome Death of the Traveling Man.

RM:  Jeff, take it away…

  > The Long Lonesome Death of the Traveling Man, live in the studio.  < 

RM:  Jeff Finlin, live in the McLean’s Country studio.  Great to hear it – The Long Lonesome Death of the Traveling Man.  Jeff, every time I hear that now, it’ll be Dundalk in the back of my mind.   Great to speak to you, wish you all the best.
JF:  Thanks very much.

RM:  Listen, we’ll speak to you the next time you’re in Ireland.
JF:  All right, thanks Ralph.

presented by Ralph McLean, Saturdays, 20:00-22:00

BBC Northern Ireland.   Listen to this interview online by clicking on the McLean's Country logo.