Artist of the Week #200 - NOAHFINNCE
This week’s Artist of the Week is rising pop-punk star NOAHFINNCE - who has just released his new EP ‘My Brain After Therapy’ via Hopeless Records.
The EP showcases the rising pop-punk star’s most mature body of work yet - with songs that explore the important topic of mental health and how he felt after he started therapy. The EP release follows fresh on the heels of NOAHFINNCE’S show-stopping performance at the 2022 SO WHAT?! Music Festival in Dallas and his current sold-out tour across the USA. Last month he performed at Great Escape Festival in Brighton. Presented by Gay Times, the show marked the first Great Escape stage made up solely of openly LGBTQ+ artists and saw Noah perform alongside Rebecca Black and Claudia Valentina. Later in the year, Noah will continue his domination when he tours the UK in September with dates selling out fast.
He took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
So your new EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Insane! I held my first physical CD EVER a few days ago which was indescribable… I’ve been working on these songs for a long time so to hold them in my hands is like.. WOAH. It’s always terrifying releasing music because I never really know what peoples reaction will be but it’s been great so far, had a lot of support from Spotify and Amazon which was completely unexpected. People seem to be really digging it so major stress over.
It is titled ‘My Brain After Therapy’ - does that have a certain meaning behind it?
Yeah for sure! I wrote all these songs about stuff I talked about in my therapy sessions. It’s definitely in stark contrast to the first EP where I think it was quite obvious that my brain was all over the place. Therapy has really helped me to explore and understand stuff that was flying aimlessly around my head so the title felt fitting.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
So I recorded the songs in a few different places. I did a few with St£fan in London, a few with Thomas Mitchener in Broadfields studio and Chasing Daylight with Sam Duckworth down south. I guess a funny story is that during one of the guitar gaps in Better Days, you can hear a sneeze. I couldn’t find any videos or recordings of me doing a sneeze so I had to go into the bathroom and record myself shoving pepper up my nose.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
The sole themes and influences are my therapy sessions and childhood trauma. I’d bring up a new topic revolving my childhood/ my coping mechanisms/ the way I interact with the world in my sessions and gain a new understanding of it. I’d then write down how the therapy sessions went and how I felt about them and then come back to them when I was writing.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
I’d probably say my favourite lyric from the EP is during the second verse of Worms:
I said to the doctor “take a look at my head” cos it’s been ten long years since it’s even been checked, he told me “come over here”, took a look in my ear and said “Fuck! You’ve got worms in your brain”.
It’s my favourite because not only is it fun as fuck to sing, it creates a little story in your head. It’s also exactly what happened in my first therapy session - I sat down and talked to my therapist for an hour about the stuff that had happened in my life and he kinda just sat there like “Oh… well, okay. That sounds very hard”. The worms in the song represent trauma!
If your EP could be the soundtrack to any film - which one and why?
Twilight, I just really like Twilight. The thought of Robert Pattinson thinking Bella is stinky while Worms plays is very funny to me.
Now the EP is out there - what next for you?
TOURING! I’m currently on my first ever American tour and then in September I’m doing a bunch of UK dates which I’m pumped for. New music too!!!!
