What's Up! Magazine

Finn Riggins spends lots of time on the road, and lots of time in their Idaho cabin making music. Courtesy photo

Sept. 27, 2009. 1 p.m. Pacific time. I catch up with Finn Riggins while their van is speeding down the highway across Idaho, in the midst of yet another U.S. tour. They had a show last night near their hometown in Boise, and have another one tonight at a house party in the Hood River Valley. And then they’ll have another. And another.

Chatting with singer-keyboardist Eric Gilbert and singer-guitarist Lisa Simpson on the phone, it becomes readily apparent that this trio (with singer-drummer Cameron Bouiss) is like a family. And they have to be. Keeping a rigorous touring schedule that would break a lesser band (245 days a year in a small vehicle), and retreating the last third of the year to a small cabin in the mountainous Idaho wilderness to practice everyday, there’s definitely some passion in the proximity.

Finn Riggins met about three years ago in Moscow, Idaho in their university’s music department, and as of late, their hard work’s been paying off, earning recognition and praise nationwide in magazines, on blogs, and on radio coast to coast, due also in no small part to the fact that they write some damn good songs. Currently signed to Portland based indie-label, Tender Loving Empire, they’re playing prestigious venues with 90′s rock veterans like Built to Spill and alongside heroes like Mike Watt.

With their second, self-produced full-length album Vs. Wilderness due October 13, tracked mostly live during a three-week stint at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City, Finn Riggins are on the brink of breaking out with some of their most exciting material yet. Being the highly anticipated follow up to 2007′s A Soldier, A Saint, An Ocean Explorer, you can hear they’ve honed their sound on cuts like “Wake” and “Dali.” available online.

With every member singing and contributing different parts they’re taking a more collaborative approach to their songwriting. They play high energy, experimental indie-rock and their long van rides allow them to absorb a wide range of music, including but not limited to, raw talents like Bjork and Frank Zappa, Broken Social Scene, world music, tour mates like Church and Low Red Lamp, and the Do-It-Yourself esthetics of punk rock. But their unique song structures, fractured time signatures, and manic vocals set them aside from those influences and their contemporaries.

Each round of shows is earning them more fans and more acclaim, and luckily for Bellingham, they’ve got an all ages show in town on Oct. 15 at WhAAM/The Old Foundry with local favorites Rooftops, Council of Lions, and the Keaton Collective. If you’re out of town then, they’ll be back at The Nightlight on Nov. 17 with Built to Spill and fantastic Swiss rockers Disco Doom. With their sights set on taking Europe, Canada, and Australia by storm, see them in an intimate venue while you still can.