Interview: BUSINESS. Discuss Their Latest EP, ‘A Weekend At Finn’s’

Gold Coast indie-pop trio BUSINESS. are known for their easy-going professionalism and humble charm, their decision to choose coastal melodies and honest lyricism over office chairs and water-cooler chat reaffirmed once again with the release of sophomore EP ‘a weekend at finn’s’. We recently sat down with the boys to find out more about them.

Hey guys, congrats on the release of your second EP ‘a weekend at finn’s’! Can you dive into the themes in this EP and what it means to you?

Hey, thanks so much! Thematically, this EP sort of strings together varying ideals of self-reflection from different perspectives. It touches a lot on relationships, whether they be romantic or friends – there’s an infinite number of ways you can treat the lyrics. Some of the lines are quite personal to our own experiences so the EP as a whole means a lot to us in that way. It was also the first time we had been away on a trip together so realising the EP this year has meant a lot of those memories will be associated with the music itself.

How did the title ‘a weekend at finn’s’ come about?

The title came from the name of the place we stayed at while writing/recording the EP, Finn’s Beach House. It’s a beautiful beach house in a quiet town on the central NSW coast. I guess you could also say it’s a bit of a spin on “A Weekend At Bernie’s”?

What was it like recording the whole EP in a retreat-like location?

Recording the EP somewhere quiet and somewhat isolated was a great vibe. We’d basically wake up and have guitars in our hands and start jamming ideas. We set up the recording space in the downstairs garage and would be going throughout the house all day. For us, a lot of the writing happens as we’re recording. There’s a line in one song that we tried to go over just as we were finishing the EP because we’d completely missed a word, but it just wouldn’t fit the rest of the music, no matter what we tried. We ended up redoing the drums with our good friend Dylan Smithers once we came back.

What’s your approach/ method when conceptualizing ideas for a song and then the artistic direction (artwork/ images/ music videos) around the release?

We definitely put the music first. With something like this EP, we felt it was really important to not lose the meaning in the name – we wanted to make sure it holds the vibe of the weekend we spent there. The cover is a photo from the last morning we were there. We didn’t think much away from the music for this project, but we made a video with some short clips of what we got up to – the music underneath it is the original idea for the last track ‘home’.

If there was one thing you’d want people to know about the band, what would it be and why?

We want people to know that our music is always honest; whatever we put out is an honest reflection of our experiences, whether they be together as friends or in our own lives. We’re only young ourselves and still working everything out but we’re doing it together and having fun so that’s all that matters.

We understand that you have run into some difficulty booking shows as you have such a large under 18 following. How have you dealt with that?

A lot of our friends and people who want to come to our gigs are still finishing school, so it definitely poses an issue sometimes. We’re lucky that there are still a few venues around our area who are happy to bring in under 18s. The best way to deal with it is to communicate with a venue and make sure that things are clear from the outset, otherwise it makes things impossible.

Do you have any tips for those still in school looking at starting up a band?

Just grab some musical people you love spending time with and mess around. Getting started with gigs can be the hardest part but just start going to whatever gigs you can to meet people in your area and messaging bands, the more you play live the better you’ll get and the more you’ll start being asked to play. There’s no better feeling than finishing a show with your best mates.

Do you have anything else planned for the end of the year? 

We’ll be starting to get things in order for a pretty big 2022. We’re definitely looking to kick things up a notch next year and are excited to share what that is when the time is right.