Finnlay K is a Rhyl-based musician and producer for The Have a Word Podcast. I caught up with him about his start in music and what he’s got coming up.
I can’t imagine that there’s a huge music scene in Rhyl. How did that look for you as a musician growing up there?
There really wasn’t a huge music scene. I did film studies at college and I actually did a documentary on the lack of a North Wales music scene, where I interviewed people I’d met through doing gigs. There’s only really one promoter around the coast where I live, the scene sort of sat on his shoulders and he was the only one putting nights on.
I know it’s a cheesy line, but I’ve always said that this is where music comes to die. There’s very little original music. There wasn’t even an option for me to do it at college because the interest in the course was so low.
Did you have to travel in order to perform?
Not really. I ended up doing a lot of cover gigs. I still do them now and I have for the past eight years because its a great way to improve your stage presence. The band that support me are all Liverpool-based and all the original gigs are that way really. Although there is a festival starting up in Llandudno, Red Rum Club are headlining that. It’s a really decent lineup. I’m really hoping that goes well because it would be great for the area.
What was it that inspired you to get into music?
I think it was an intrinsic desire to show off, that’s pretty much been my whole life. There’s videos of me at the age of 3 just writing songs that were frankly inappropriate looking back. There’s one that was called “Come and Do It baby I’m Waiting For You”. I was performing it to every family member that came round.
There wasn’t much music in the house really and my parents weren’t huge fans. I always loved music though. It went away for a little bit and I got more into football and drama. It came back eventually though and I learned to play guitar at about 15. I had about 6 months of lessons and then decided I could teach myself. That might have been a bad idea though as I’ve got no better at guitar since I stopped. My first instinct was to write though. As soon as I got a few chords down I started to make my own music.
I remember one Sunday when I was about 16 and I saw that Supersonic was on TV. I didn’t like the Gallagher brothers at the time. In fact, I imagined them as the Sacha Baron Cohen character from Grimsby with the sideburns and the annoying voice. Something about that film changed my life though and I’ve been obsessed with them since. Up until then I only really listened to chart music, that just opened up the door to loads of new music for me. I could lie and say I was one of those kids that was listening to the fucking Beach Boys at age 10 but I wasn’t. It was more Katy Perry and Tinie Tempah.
What’s your process look like when it comes to writing music?
It’s different every time. I’m very much a melody guy. I’m not great on the guitar, I don’t know any theory. So I’m just blagging it and playing what sounds good to my ear. As good as great instrumentation is I just want to get a good catchy chorus and a great melody. Paul McCartney is the king of melody, that’s the benchmark and anything around that is the goal.
I went through a period last year where I was trying to write all the time and it just wasn’t happening. I think if you try too hard it just doesn’t come. When I was younger I used to treat it as therapy which looking back wasn’t the best, I should probably have been talking to a therapist. I was putting all the sadness into my songs and they don’t really see the light of day anymore. I’m finding the good songs have usually come quick and taken me twenty minutes to write or something.
Do you do any writing with the band? How does that differ from your usual process?
I still write the songs on my own and then I take it to the band. They’re much better musicians. I’ll demo something or play it on acoustic and show them how it sounds in my head, then we work on it and jam around until it sounds good. We haven’t written together as a band yet but we will soon, it’s going to be interesting to see what that looks like.
I have written with a few other people before. I did something with Blue Dolphin Wranglers who are two good mates of mine. Their way of doing it blows my mind, I can’t do it like that. They just turn up, write together on the day and figure it out as they go along. I’m more meticulous. I like to have it all done before I even show it to anybody.
I also worked with a lad from Manchester called Kaiden Nolan who’s doing really well at the moment. That was a different process again. We hadn’t met before. He’d sent his song into the podcast and I got in touch and said I’d like to work with him. I’ve done that twice when someone has sent something in and I thought they were class. I had a chorus that I thought was in line with what he was doing. Within two hours we had the song kind of finished.
Are there any plans to release anything in the near future?
I’m actually in the studio with the band for the first time next week. We’ve done a lot of gigs together but it will be the first time recording as a band. We want to get the next single finished and if we have time then a B-side as well. Thats a tune I’ve had since 2021, same as my latest single Dead Time. Lockdown was great for me creatively and I wrote loads of songs. This one we’re recording is called Outskirts. We’ve been playing it live and it’s been getting a good reaction so I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be interesting going in with them. I’ve always just been in the studio with me and one other producer. The lads are all class, it’s going to be fun having such good musicians working on it.
You mentioned you’ve been gigging a lot with the band recently. Are there any highlight gigs? Anything that stands out?
The first show we ever did will always be special. That was an amazing night for me personally. It was at Jimmy’s in Liverpool, the first gig I’d ever done where it was just my tunes. There were 250 people, all there to see me. I don’t normally get nervous on stage but this one I was shitting it. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I really loved that gig though. I’m hoping we can replicate that with our gig in October at Jacaranda. That’s a bigger gig so I’m gonna have to whore myself out for the next few month trying to sell some tickets.
Then there was obviously the arena show with the podcast. I actually didn’t enjoy that at the time for multiple reasons. I wasn’t in a great way mentally at that point. I just came offstage afterwards and couldn’t understand why I didn’t feel anything. It’s the thing I’d been dreaming of for years, playing a song I wrote and thousands of people singing it back to me. Hopefully we’ll get to do that again someday and I can appreciate it, my head just wasn’t in a good way at that point.
You mentioned the podcast. You’ve been doing that for a few years now. It must be time-consuming. Do you find it distracts from your music at all or does it help you as an artist?
I mean other than having to listen to way more country music than I’d like to I don’t think it distracts any more than another job would to be honest. I think if anything I have more time because we aren’t in the office every day. It’s more my own laziness that gets in the way. Recording Laura’s Gone made me realise that I hadn’t been doing any of it right. I felt like all of my recordings had been shite. It’s the sad truth about music that you do pay for quality and it’s so expensive. Such a small percentage of people who make it have done it through luck and talent. So much of it is money and it’s soul-destroying at times. Going to The Motor Museum Recording Studio to record with the podcast made me realise I just had to save up to get stuff recorded well, otherwise there’s no point and you’re just shouting into a void. I have a little leg up with the podcast in terms of social media and I know I just need to try and use that platform as much as I can. Once the pod’s over and the dust settles I don’t want to regret not using that opportunity.
You did the HAW sounds podcast for a little bit. Are there any plans to bring that back or to do more music related things with the podcast?
Yeah I did a few of them and I was really enjoying it but then I was just seeing the number of likes and comments diminish every week. It started to feel like it wasn’t worth my time. Maybe I’ll bring it back if we get a musical guest on the pod. I’m really passionate about music and I’d love to see it have more of a place within HAW. It’s difficult though, people aren’t there for the music, they’re there to watch comedy. I’d love to have a radio show one day. I did the student radio when I was at uni and all my work experience was at Capital. Podcasting is a bit of a sidestep from that but it isn’t too far from what I was doing then.
What’s your highlight of the podcast?
I’ve thought for a couple of years that I won’t really be able to appreciate this properly until it’s over. It’s one go those that when you’re in it it’s a bit of a tornado that you get swept up in. It’s busy and you’re doing so much mental stuff. I think the arena special will be something I look back on fondly because who gets to do that. The Amsterdam special was great as well. Nashville was a lot of fun but it was a lot. You’re mic’ed up from the minute you wake up until the minute you go to bed. I was 22 when we did our first thank you show and that felt pretty insane. I’d never really experienced something like that and people were asking for selfies.
What does the future look like for you in terms of the podcast? Will your involvement be less if your music takes off?
The lads are so supportive. Obviously music is the dream and if anything goes off with that then they know it will be my focus. I’d love to do music full time and then just go in to do the podcast records. Being in the room is the best bit. I’m by no means a comedian, I’ve got a bit better at chipping in over the years but seeing how fast they all are to crack a joke is great. I’d love to do more with music. I bang on about it enough and I have 80 tunes or so that I’d love to record.
Finnlay K will be playing a headline gig at the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool on the 26th of October.