Jeff Finlin. Photo Credit: Aidan Finlin
'Somewhere South of Wonder' lies the music of Jeff Finlin. For well over two decades now he's been piercing hearts & souls with potent, one-of-a-kind snapshots of a life in motion, struggle and rebirth. He's a poet, yoga practitioner, a truth seeker, a survivor and an all around humble, street-world-wise spirit. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more unique and original voice in american music today. His most well known song 'Sugar Blue' was featured in Cameron Crowe's Americana laden film Elizabethtown. Now he has a new book of poems out, a book on recovery centered yoga, and is hard at work on a new studio album, as well as constantly touring and, as he describes it, sharing the small but penultimate pleasures of life like a home cooked meal after shows with his listeners and hosts in small Ireland B&B's, a sheep farmers home, 'talking about things on a really small level.' Jeff goes so far as to say that he considers those shared meals and conversations with good folks the main event. The music, to him, is sort of secondary. AHC: What has this journey, this life in music been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way? Jeff: The journey has been enlightening really--for me the work has been a success on an artistic level but the financial successes have been fleeting--so rejection and failure have been a big part of where I have cut my teeth spiritually--I'd be nothing without my failures-- and the ironic thing is that I've come to realize they carry more weight in terms of my humanity than success ever could--you walk into a room in a completely different way with failure as your mate...you carry on with what you were born to do in a completely different way--with a completely different spirit--you value your place in the cosmos in a completely different way. AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them? Jeff: I was just extremely sensitive to the power of sound and harmony--I was in a very large marching band at a young age and I remember just getting goose bumps when the baritones played the melody to "Taras Song" (the theme from Gone with the Wind)--little things like that--I was 11-- I heard rock and roll at a young age--there was so much good shit on the radio--the opening of ABC by the jackson 5--my camp counselors in the second grade blasting "hello I love you" by the Doors in 1968 or 9---going to band camp and line dancing to Mississippi Queen by Mountain and hearing that freaking cowbell--and of course the Beatles being everywhere--it was a powerful youth. AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote? Jeff: I remember what I considered the first decent song I ever wrote--it was called "Corner of My World " on my first record--only available on cassette--it actually had something to say and I was able to say it in a way that made sense to me. AHC: Who are some of your musical inspirations? Are there certain albums or songs you couldn't live without? Jeff: I grew up a Stones- Beatles- Dylan man really--Exile on main street--Get your ya yas out--Let it be--Dylan was great--Allman brothers--Derek and the dominoes---chuck berry--I was also influenced by writers as well probably just as much--Henry Miller-Kerouac-John Fante-- Bukowski---I just ate that stuff up. AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak? Jeff: Well it's just a feeling really--a feeling that you have hit a certain point--an ability and a feeling that you are suddenly able to communicate something special that has been brewing in your heart in a unique way that might be all your own--The cosmos gives us the gift of ourselves--and the gift of expressing ourselves--and when those two things come together in relationship to creativity it's magical--it's a beautiful thing really--we are able to take this muse, this feeling that seems to come out of the ether and make it solid--make it physical--and affect others with it--it's really the beginning of the realization of the miracle we live in. AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture, hope lost and regained? As a listener of music I have this impression, I wonder, as the artist, the creator, do you have this feeling about the transformative power of song? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener? Jeff: Sound always saves me somehow--creation always saves me somehow--it's the place where I lose track of time--when all resistance ceases to have an effect--the universe is expressed as sound--the vibration of existence itself is AUM---I chant Aum 21 times a day, everyday, to align myself with existence itself--something happens to you when you do that--and yes it heals--I listen to a lot of Indian music as that whole form was developed to draw one deeper into ones alignment with the divinity within--the whole language of Sanskrit is this--as you become more aware you realize the sonic can affect you in profound ways--you become aware that there is no separation to you and the sonic--you become aware that "you are it" AHC: In a world that is moving faster and faster, for better or worse, I think that really good, tried and true music helps orient us to our times, slows us down and brings us back to ourselves, I think your music is a great example of this, and we always need help along the way, as your song 'I killed myself last night' so poignantly points out. When you set out to write an album of songs, how much does 'where the world is' in its current moment, culturally, politically, otherwise, influence the kinds of stories you set out to tell? Jeff: The underlying theme to all my records really has been my own spiritual journey--"I killed myself" is nothing more than my own story--it's all true really--our story is all we have really--what happened--what it was like--and what it's like now--that's about it--the world is where it is --it's a sad state of affairs really--I am a firm believer that the journey within is the only journey--the accumulation of the outside world is not going to solve our core problem--our outer world is always a reflection of our inner world--that's just physics--it's science--it's reality--and what we see in the world is humanity trying to approach it the other way around...so that's why Yoga is so important to me as a spiritual practice--because only by changing and exploring our inner world will the outer world be affected AHC: What are your favorite on-tour, on-the-road memories? Jeff: Most of my road memories are of people and food--that chunk of lamb I had in Scotland--the honey and gorgonzola in Florence---the soda bread and that little lady at the B&B in Ireland--that sheep farmer that had us into his home for a meal--the kindness and affection and interest of people--I've had the gift of being very "Small Time"--so I get to go into peoples homes and visit with them over coffee and food--talk about things on a very small real level--I'm not sure Bono gets to do that--I don't really remember the shows--as most of the time when I'm performing it's like I'm I a different dimension entirely--its the most uninteresting part really--people and food---that's what I remember. AHC: Do you have any words of advice for young musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are trying to find their voice and their way in this world? Jeff: My advice to young people is to move to the music--move somewhere where there is music everywhere--cutting my teeth in Nashville is an experience I will never regret--move somewhere where everyone is better than you--that environment will always force you to fall back on what is unique about your particular gift-- the only fall back position is what is unique to you--I would go out and hear guitar players, drummer, and songwriters who were incredible--I realized I could never measure up to that--the only thing left was to be true to myself as best as I could--that's really special. AHC: Do you have any new projects in motion you'd like to tell people about? Jeff: I have a new record called "The Guru and the Girl" in the works-a new book of poems out called "The Seduction of Radha"-available at https://www.createspace.com/6260920 I have a book on yoga coming out called "365 days of Recoveryoga"--a daily reader of reflections on recovery and yoga--there's another yoga book in the pipeline--I'd also like to do a couple more books of poetry- one on the American West --and one in India To find out more visit www.jefffinlin.com/
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