Finlay Clark - Sicko (2023)

Finlay Clark presents their first solo release ‘Sicko’. Written and recorded in Summer 2022 using a 4-track and an iPhone as well as live ensemble recordings, the 9-track album is an attempt to transform a dark period into some joy.

"At the start of 2022 I was able to start articulating the breakdown that I’d had the previous year. Through writing, I was trying to engage with what had happened. I made a sketch and kept it in my notebook for months before deciding to digitally invert the same drawing for the cover of this album. I’ve been making work as though I were a child for years, using my non-dominant hand to make marks or finger-painting. The process of writing this album and the fun that I’ve had making it has truly helped me to be able to leave that bad dream behind.

Like the sketch, these tracks are not perfectly recorded. I bought a 4-track and a couple of mics and figured it out as I went along. I recorded between playing shows with Still House Plants and pushed to do as many tracks as I could each day, which I can hear in my voice. Sometimes you can hear other bands practicing in the building, which makes me laugh, but these conditions have ultimately made the album what it is. I wanted a draft finished by the end of the year and managed to do so by midnight on New Year’s Eve, phew…! No fun, my babe, no fun.

Regarding the piece for Phaedra Ensemble, it is funny to realise that I was writing songs from a place of anger while also writing this ‘utopian sounding’ music. I can see now that I have found solace in sonic world-building as a way of holding onto hope in what can so often feel like a world without much. ‘morning-star’ was one of several pieces written over Spring 2020 in my parents’ basement; it felt like an important moment in history and I wanted to try and capture the zeitgeist.

The text from ‘Oblivion (excerpt 1)' is from excerpts of writing (scraps of poetry written on planes and trains with the band, diary entries) that I have been collating over the years. I sold a zine of these excerpts at the concert where the track was recorded.

Shout out to the guy at Jenny’s Cafe for being nice to me as I sat there on my lunch breaks exhausted and caffeinated while probably looking starry-eyed and a bit greasy. Good spot FFO people-watching, chips and Ribena. When I needed a neighbour, you were there."