LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: FINN FORSTER

Words: Darci Jackson

Credit: Adam Marsden

Finn Forster can’t be put into just one box. His artistry spans a wealth of different genres whilst still staying true to his Teesside roots to create music that has an infinite depth of pure soul.  Forster has a busy summer ahead of him, and that’s all kicking off with Sound City!

Q: What’s your favourite thing about Liverpool?

F: I think the people and the history of it. But I played there in December at the M&S Bank Arena, the Echo Arena. And it was a good day off there. And then ended up going to like the Cavern Club and stuff. Just doing all the touristy stuff, and where I’m from, Middlesbrough, [the people] are down to Earth and I get that vibe from Liverpool as well. I think it’s just a great place and I just love the history of it as well. The musical history of the city is mad.

Q: Who else will you be watching on the lineup?

F: I’m a massive Jalen Ngonda fan. And I played with Keo at Reading and Leeds [Festival] last year. Great band, they’re smashing it at the moment, so I’m a big fan of both the headliners. To be honest, it’s an unbelievable lineup. I’m a massive fan of Brooke Combe as well, she’s smashing it. MT Jones, he’s got a great voice. I love The Lilacs lads, they’re cool. And Keyside I’ve seen pop up on socials, they’re just absolute grafters, I really admire what they’ve done.

Q: You’ve got some massive shows coming up, are you looking forward to that?

F: Yeah can’t wait, it’s always my favourite time of year, festival season, you know, when the weather starts to get a little bit better and especially ones I'm playing for the first time, like Sound City, because you can only, you know, you can only do a festival for the first time once and it's really exciting when you get there and you kind of just check out the vibe, find some mad food stalls, maybe get a pint, have a bit of a wander about, maybe see some other bands. And then if you get a great turnout and great crowd for your set as well, it’s just even better.

I’ve got a May UK tour for like 12 dates in May that goes into the start of June, I think it’s Sound City that kicks it off, and then I’ll be fully into festival season after that until about September so it’ll be good.

Q: I wanted to ask about the headline tour because you did a lot of shows supporting Stereophonics last year, so are you looking forward to going from those massive arenas back down to smaller grassroots venues?

F: It’s kind of clarification really that I got through to Phonics fans I guess because I enjoyed those gigs so much and got such a good response.

Q: And how was touring with Stereophonics?

F: Really, really nice guys, I couldn’t have, like, asked for better people to be on tour with. Last year we started, went all around Europe with them and then went into the summer dates and did like Finsbury Park, Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Principality Stadium twice and stuff and then we ended up doing the December Winter Arena Tour and we did all of that just because it was kind of just, it was like a bit of a chain reaction because we all just got on so well. Above all, I learned so much from them as it was my first kind of major scale tour. I’d seen them seven times before going out on tour with them.

Q: What can people expect if they come and see you?

F: I would say powerful, soulful vocals. I always aim for storytelling within my songs and then I guess hopefully sort of high energy, maybe like emotionally impactful music as well. Something that you can kind of go to and just feel something at, usually feel good at.

Q: Who are your main musical inspirations.

F: Paolo Nutini, Chris Stapleton, obviously a big Stereophonics fan, definitely influenced by Kelly Jones, how he performs and stuff. Who else? Been like lately, it's been a lot of like Marcus Mumford and stuff from Mumford and Sons, just watching a lot of podcasts and stuff, just love the way he operates and really like his mentality and things and what he talks about. So I think, yeah, would have to say Mumford and Sons as well, Marcus Mumford and Ed Sheeran as well.

I’ve got some new music coming very soon as well so people can expect that at my live sets, especially at Sound City.

Q: You had such a massive year last year, what are you looking ahead to this year?

F: At the moment I'm in the middle of writing and stuff, got a load of writing sessions, just getting as much new music sorted as possible.  April time, I'm heading to LA and then I'm heading to Nashville for pretty much the whole of April, then I'm back and, you know, we're into May when we do Sound City.

And then into the UK tour. I've got [Radio 1’s] Big Weekend after that, and then into a lot of festivals across the summer months, and then hopefully out around Europe again, we'll see. By then I'll be releasing, you know, hopefully releasing another single, if not looking at the next sort of bulk body of work that'll be coming out as well before the end of the year, and who knows what, you know, July, August onwards could bring, because it could be anything,

Q: I saw you speak a bit of Persian, do you have any other hidden talents that people don’t know about?

F: I used to dance, I used to go to ballet when I was younger. I went to drama school, I think what a lot of people don't know about me is I come from an acting background. I did a short film last year, it's not really like a hidden one, guess, but yeah, acting probably.

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