Finn Andrews has put his band aside for an intimate solo album and tour.
A year or so ago, Finn Andrews stepped on to a Netherlands stage and sat at a beautiful Steinway grand piano. But he wasn’t sure it was quite him.
The frontman of dark indie NZ-UK band The Veils usually played guitar. But he had a new song, One Piece at a Time, a deceptively gentle piano waltz of grand themes (“There’s no shortage of brutish ambition/In this furnace of stars”), with a touch of Bob Dylan’s Where Teardrops Fall about it.
Now, the song has gone from being the odd one out on The Veils’ setlist to title track of Andrews’ first solo album. The record turns his simple, sympathetic piano playing into a virtue, and that turns the push and pull of family relationships into the inspiration for beautiful songwriting.
The elegant Steinway, he remembers, made him feel scruffy. He worried he might sully it with his playing. It also reminded him that there were far better ivory-ticklers in his family.
His father, Barry, played frenetic keyboards in the early incarnation of XTC and in art-guitarist Robert Fripp’s shortlived League of Gentlemen, then fronted his own band, Shriekback, in the 1980s.
Even Barry’s mother, Minnie, loved to play the piano at his grandad’s Brixton pub in South London, but never took her talent further than the lounge bar.
London-born Andrews started out in music as a teenager living with his mother, Vivienne Kent, in Devonport. Having spent his early childhood swapping between the two hemispheres, he quit Takapuna Grammar School and moved to London to start his band after sending his Auckland-recorded demos to British labels.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 16-22, 2019-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 16-22, 2019-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The rest is history
Rest - both sleep and non-sleep - is essential to help our overstressed bodies and minds repair themselves. But many of us remain in a constant state of 'fight, flight or freeze'.
Right and power
Israel is profiting financially and extending its global technological influence in response to the October 7 massacre, says investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein.
Dolphins be damned
Is SailGP's future in this country really under threat because of an at-risk marine mammal?
Orwellian irony
Our thinking about one of the 20th century's best-known writers is being challenged by the 'smelly little truths' Anna Funder uncovered about George Orwell's marriage.
The alchemist
Talent and a little magic have taken state-house kid Moses Mackay to the heights of Italian opera. He's coming back to sprinkle some of his gold dust around.
Good Lord, he was scandalous
Lord Byron still fascinates 200 years after his death, but more for his bohemian lifestyle than his poetry.
Stars in their eyes
Debut novel a heady mix of grief, astronomy and love.
Dark matter
Ngaio Marsh-style whodunnit set among academia attached to the Mt John Observatory.
Mirren's mirror on Meir
Dame Helen talks about playing Golda Meir, Israel's iron lady, during a pivotal chapter in the controversial politician's long career.
Game, set and match
Love, sex and great tennis take centre court in this highly charged drama.