DMG- You’re a notoriously difficult man to find much information about online, so tell me a bit about yourself and what first got you into music.
FM- Well I was born in Aberdeen, yes that’s true! I’ve been living in London for over ten years and am 47 now. I had two older brothers who I was influenced by- I got into heavy rock and Deep Purple. But my main influences are people like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and American folk like Neil Young- one of the greatest ever songwriters.
DMG- So how did it all happen then?
FM- I’ve always been there, I was a sound engineer for ages but I had given up playing anything. One day in 2004 I went to a pub and I heard someone singing such embarrassing cover versions of The Eagles and I just thought- ‘Hey, I could do better than that!’
The next day I went out and got a guitar. I’d never thought of myself as a songwriter before but suddenly all this stuff started coming out- it was quite therapeutic actually! I met Pip Williams in a chance meeting at our studio and he showed me a way of working and the first album was finished in 10 months after that night at the pub.
For ‘Back to Basics’, Pip wasn’t available as he was working with Status Quo, so I used what Pip had taught me and I produced it myself- I very much believe in the punk-rock idea of just having a go and the second album was finished in 3 weeks.
DMG- So in regards to your music and influences, what do you think about the music some of the older guys are coming out with in comparison to some younger acts?
FM- People like Neil and Bob are still churning out good albums. The modern view seems to be that you lose the ability to write a good song once you reach your 35th birthday, yet there are guys like Leonard Cohen, 60+ who are still making amazing records. I like the Kaiser Chiefs, particularly their recent stuff, The Kooks and The Killers. I don’t like people who are pretending to be new but are recycling, like some of Radiohead's songs.
DMG- With regard to the drought of information around about you, what does your music offer the listener?
FM- You can approach it on several different levels, I’m very careful about lyric writing- all of my lyrics mean something. It’s up to people to pick up what they will from it, that was partly the inspiration for the tongue-in-cheek title of my first album, ‘Interpret This’. I’ve had people tell me after shows that songs remind them of times in their lives.
I don’t mind if people don’t get or like my music, it’s when they don’t know what they’re talking about. There’s a track on ‘Interpret This’ called ‘Billy Bird’ with some lovely Irish pipes called the Uilleann pipes and somebody wrote a review saying: ‘Why oh why do we have to put up with a synthesizer solo in the middle?’!
DMG- ‘Back to Basics’ was released this year, tell us what’s on the horizon for you.
FM-We’re looking at arranging some tour dates, possibly in December, about a dozen of select UK shows. This all depends on how much specialist radio play we receive. Bob Harris (legendary Radio 2 DJ) is looking into this and we’re hoping he does- it can be very difficult to get radio-play when your music is of a certain style. All of them have central playlists which can be hard to get onto- you don’t hear much Tom Petty on the radio!
We think there may be more of a market in America and currently I’m sending the album master-tapes to a producer in Los Angeles (who’s worked with the likes of Carlos Santana) who is looking at doing a remix for the American market. We’re excited about that and I also have about six songs already wrote for album #3.
DMG- Good luck with that then and all the best for the future, Finlay.
‘Back to Basics’ was released in September.