Longtime faves Ich bin Finn released their new alum ‘Breakfast Pizza’ on Friday (Aug 11th) through Roadkill Records. and it is a banging collection of Americana inflected grungy punk; “It’s about freedom. It’s about loneliness. It’s about pizza.” say the band themselves. Clocking in at under half an hour for its 8 tracks, it’s short, sharp & punchy.
We thought it would be the perfect time to pick their brains as to what has influenced their sound.
New Long Leg by Dry Cleaning inspired our bassist Kim’s approach to using a few bass harmonics and octave jumps along with high contrast of top and low end riffs in most songs on the album, but in particular on Ocean, Fire, 5th November and Summer Girlfriend.
Aupairs – Playing With a Different Sex also influenced this style of play and Talking Heads’s 77 inspired the pre chorus bass parts on Fire – the short-scale Mustang bass being the common link.
On the softer songs like Miss Me and New Years Eve she drew inspiration from the plodding country rundowns like Breeders Driving on 9 and slides and slurs akin to some Smith’s ballads.
For Finn (vocals & guitar), probably the most influential band is The Band. Although it might not often sound it, there’s nothing like that chugging intimacy and bare-chested lyrical intimacy.
When Finn first asked me (Mike) to drum with her in Ich Bin Finn it was as a two piece. I love playing as a two piece, there’s nowhere to hide I was playing in another two piece band at the time and was learning to play more musically to fill the space and build the songs. Under the watchful eye of the untouchable Tom Elstob of the “Idol Rich”.
Pat Carney of the Black Keys on their album “The Big Come Up” plays really tastefully, he really carries the songs and goes hard at the same time. He was a big influence of mine.
Our very own Kim is an awesome bass player and it was pure joy when she joined and we could lock in together and take the IBF songs to another level. As a youngster (like many drummers) I played a lot of fills and was too busy a drummer. As I’ve grown musically and in my trust of my band members I’ve learnt to simplify what I play. Kims bass playing is melodically & rhythmically interesting and needs a solid, simple yet musical touch on the skins.
Fab Moretti of The Strokes is a beautifully simple yet musical drummer. Gordon Raphael the producer and engineer on “Is This It” worked with him to get his drumming locked in. If you listen to The Strokes at Arlene’s Grocery live, he plays more complicated fills and speeds up and slows down. They worked on ironing this out to give the record that metronome precision that is one of its hallmarks.
“Is This It” was a huge influence on all of us when writing and arranging songs for “Breakfast Pizza”
Ich bin Finn are launching the album on Wednesday (Aug 16th) at The Windmill in Brixton. Support from Dead Horse, The Ondines & Ruby Hillcoat. More details here.
