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Dead Finks are back for their third album, Eve of Ascension, and their chilling vision is as clear as ever. Having started in New Zealand, the band made a pit stop in Sydney before settling in Berlin, where they finally released the music they had been working on for years. Now with their first album fully written and recorded in Berlin, we spoke to bassist-vocalist Erin Violet and guitarist-vocalist Joseph Thomas to learn more about the release, their songwriting inspirations, and the varied joys of touring Europe.
Dead Finks was started way before you put out recorded music so I’m curious to know what’s the origin story of this group?
There isn't much of an origin story! We have played music together in some shape or form since shortly after meeting and quickly realized we have a very complimentary mix of style and attitude. Very quickly, we'd amassed a kind of catalog of songs that we could start releasing, and many of which that will likely never see the light of day!
Your latest album Eve of Ascension came out in late April of this year, what's your view on it now a couple of months removed from its release?
Joseph Thomas: I actually listened to it in full today for the first time in a while and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it, to be honest. There are a few lyrics I would probably change, and not all the performances are super tight, but overall I think it has a nice energy, the songwriting is pretty strong and my voice sounds pretty good on it, I think.
Erin Violet: I haven't listened to it since we were last in the mixing studio, but I was happy with it then! Once we release something it's rare for me to go back and listen to it, my mind has already well moved on to what we're writing next.
You only started releasing music after your move from Sydney to Berlin in 2019, but Eve of Ascension is your first fully Berlin-written record. Do you think the city has influenced your music?
This is going to sound catty but moving to Europe exposed us to a lot of conformity and we were struck by how little personality a lot of underground bands had here compared to New Zealand and Australia. Having the potential for a bigger audience maybe makes people here a little self-conscious sometimes, and that has motivated us to try not to fall into that trap. We'd rather risk being kind of cringe and fail at being great, rather than play it safe for the sake of being another okay band.
What can you tell us about the album's closing track, "Answer"?
It was written a long time ago, either early in the pandemic or maybe even prior to it. We played it so many times, teaching it to so many different people around various rehearsal spaces in Berlin while we were looking for other people to join the band. We don't really remember how or when it came together in the end. Lyrically, our songs usually fall into one of two themes; total uncertainty to the point of near-dissociation, or total certainty to the point of near-delusion. "Answer" falls into the first category.
The instrumental interlude of "Birth" comes as a refreshing surprise in the album's final stretch. What exactly brought about this song?
Originally the album was going to include a cover that still might see the light someday (til then, it's a surprise!) We really liked some aspects of it but thought it still needed work. "Birth" is basically some of the overdubs we did for that cover, stitched together into a new song.
Speaking of "Birth," a lot of this album has a fascination with the human body, the surgery nightmare of "Anaesthetised," amputation on "Baton," etc. Is there anything here you can expand upon for us?
Singing about our bodies is a way to highlight how fragile and how temporary and ultimately insignificant we are. Which sounds a bit gloomy but it can be kind of nice to think about sometimes, we think.
The cover art by Gabrielle K. Brown is really stunning, can you tell us more about it and how you came to work with her?
JT: Erin found her work. She has an interest in underground comix and visual artists, especially painters. We just got in touch online and asked if we could use one of her pieces!
There was a European tour supporting this album with assistance from Stuck and Folly Group. How did that go? Any good stories from the road?
It was cool! The shows were all super different from each other, one night we'd be in a fancy art space, the next night we'd be in a French basement that smelled overwhelmingly of piss.
What are some future plans for Dead Finks?
We are mixing another record at the moment but we don't know when it will be done. As you mentioned it takes us a while to get around to releasing stuff so ideas and riffs for the record after that are starting to pile up too. Not really sure exactly what it will sound like. We're trying to tour Europe a little bit again before the end of the year but we're not sure if it'll come together... Wait and see, I guess!
Eve of Ascension is out now on Urge Records.