Finger Eleven: New World Men

Can-rock vets F11 went away for almost four years. Now that they're back they both feel and sound different.

Taking a vacation in the music industry can be career suicide. People can forget about you as soon as they change the dial on their radio... or click the next profile on MySpace... or download a track from iTunes. In a time where the cycle from "next big thing" to uncool and over-the-hill is measured in months, not years, it's become half the battle just to stick around in people's memories.
Finger Eleven have been out of Canada's collective consciousness for more than three years — a lifetime in the rapid-fire new media universe. Since the release of their self-titled album in 2003, the band have toured North America and Europe, won a number of awards including last year's SOCAN Rock Award, gone platinum in Canada and — most notably — gone gold in the States, an accomplishment only a handful of Canadian artists can boast about.

Much of the success the band received in that time can be attributed to a little ballad by the name of "One Thing," which dominated rock radio airwaves. The Juno-nominated single was a massive hit with everyone from the nu-metal kids to their SUV-driving moms, earning them a MuchMusic Video Award for best video in 2004, and a SOCAN #1 Award in 2005. That song alone enabled F11 to continue touring for far longer than most bands generally do. They criss-crossed Canada, then burrowed successfully through the U.S. Thanks to all this hard work, they were officially established.

"It took a while to come back because we figured once you miss one crucial deadline, what's another three or four?" vocalist Scott Anderson jokes. "We're industrious to a point, I suppose. We worked hard, we toured a lot, so we took some time off. My brother [bassist Sean Anderson] has a couple of kids, a couple of the guys are married. We just sort of relaxed and pretended we had normal lives for a few months."

Their smash hit slowly faded from high rotation at all major media outlets, and the music industry rolled on without them. Nu-metal bands died off while screamo bands rose up. Garage rock went back underground, giving way to dance-rock.

Canada became a hotbed of critically acclaimed talent, exporting several groundbreaking artists in indie rock, punk and hip-hop alike. Our home and native land was no longer just about the Nickelbacks and Sum 41s, but rather some of the most forward-thinking acts of this generation.

It's into this brave new world that our boys in Finger Eleven have finally returned with Them Vs. You Vs. Me. The album, like the three before it, presents a shift in musical direction. It incorporates more than just the chunky rock of their older material, instead using an array of different instruments and influences. It appears the band are well-equipped to adjust to the vast climate change that happened during their absence. Rather than desperately trying to remind everyone who they were, the bold change signals a new era for the group.

"The record's all over the place," says Anderson. "That really speaks to the new writing methods, with us trying a lot more ideas. There were ideas coming from everywhere. We weren't forcing anything. We never bother with the same old thing.

"We had a giant single, and it was probably a good idea trying to go away for
a bit," he says, reflecting on "One Thing." "That song was everywhere. When your song hits the dentist's office, let's take a fucking break. I heard it in a casino and I took it as an omen of good luck, and I lost a shitload of money! So, yeah, let's take a break from that. This is a horrible business model, but I wasn't concerned with following too much up because that single just did so much cool stuff for us it was like, ‘Well, maybe it is time for a break.'"

The downtime ended up being slightly longer than Finger Eleven anticipated, but it allowed their creative juices to flow more freely. In the year-and-a-half spent writing, the quintet wrote more than 100 songs for the album.

"I think maybe a year would have been fine and we could have put out a record, and it would have sounded pretty good, but there wouldn't be half the record that was near the quality it should have been," says Anderson. "I think bands get caught up with momentum and whatever… You get so excited with whatever's new and cool, and time can put out that false enthusiasm real quick, and make sure the really cool ideas stick around."

There's something to be said, however, for bands who strike while the iron is hot. Finger Eleven ran the risk of coming back to people who forgot about them.

"It's just a reality," Anderson reasons. "That's OK. You do go away for a while, why would you expect somebody to remember what you've been up to? When we come back, which is to say, we have a new album, you can just stand behind that. Here it is. If you're not down with it, that's cool, but here's why we've been away, and we love it. You brace yourself for anybody who's not down with it anymore, but at the same time, the only reason you're doing it is you're trying to make something cool with your buddies. It kind of works out that way. I accept the fact that you may have forgotten us."

It certainly helps that the album is anything but a rehashing of their biggest hits. The lead track and first single, "Paralyzer," adopts a bouncy, Franz Ferdinand-esque rhythm with a deceptively simple dual guitar riff. At first listen, one would be forgiven for not immediately recognizing it as Finger Eleven. It's moments like these where the record shines. There are a number of other curveballs on the album, and Anderson suggests this comes from a more democratic writing process as opposed to their last few LPs.

"Early on, James [Black, guitar] would come up with ideas and I'd finish them off melodically and lyrically. This time around, a lot of ideas were born in the jam room. We'd have these little tiny writing sessions between me, James and Rick [Jackett, guitar], or sometimes the whole band. Everyone feels a lot more attached to the ideas because everyone got to be more creative this time as far as the writing goes. It opened up this entire new side of the band. ‘Paralyzer' was born totally out of a jam."

The loose feel lends itself very well to the new record, as there's far more variation in terms of songwriting. The first three songs express the group's newfound creative spark and instantly inform the listener that they're in for a different experience with Them Vs. You Vs. Me.

After "Paralyzer," second song "Falling On" is a more straightforward rocker that should make longtime fans feel at home. But the comfort zone is again breached, albeit quietly, by the third track, "I'll Keep Your Memory Vague."

That song is softer, which at first listen brings to mind that other ballad of theirs, but quickly takes its own shape. It doesn't try to recapture the sentiment of "One Thing," and it's equally moving, if not stronger, because of it. There's no question that it could resonate with as many people as their previous hit did, but that's not what the band had in mind.

"I'd like to stumble on [that success], I wouldn't like to capture it," the singer clarifies.

"That's just how we do things. We can't really engineer it in that way. I don't like trying to capture something like that. It seems kind of contrived if you want to do that, and it would sound really fucking contrived. I think it works, but I don't think we're good enough to do that. You need to be a professional band to say, ‘Let's repeat our success!' That seems like a deal with the devil to me.

"We keep fucking up this way," he says of the album's varied influences. "We're doing what we want and we mean it, so those first three songs, it's like, ‘What the fuck?' But there's a consistency there where you're like, ‘These are good... somehow.' It takes time if you have time, but if not it'll be kind of strange."
Of course, most people tend to keep their ear out for that all-important hit single and little else. Anderson is well aware of this, but doesn't let that interfere with his writing.

"You are judged on your singles and that's it," he says. "I don't think everyone's going to have the opportunity to sit down and listen to the whole record. I'm still getting around that after all these years. I really hope that eventually, if you hear it a couple more times, it'll end up sounding like us."

With the band committed to once again hit the road in support of Them Vs. You Vs. Me, the Burlington, Ontario natives will tour North America extensively. Still, maintaining their reputation down south seems like less of a priority than re-establishing themselves as household names in their homeland. The band were somewhat shocked by Canada's relative indifference to their last album.

"It's not that important," Anderson deflects, referring to Finger Eleven's status in the States. "It hurt a lot more when Canada decided to ignore us and the States embraced us. That fuckin' stung a lot. But that was a bit of a tumultuous situation where I don't think Canada understood why we decided to change and become
a different band. The sound shifted, so I think those adjustments take time, where it's like, what's this band trying to do? Why? We gave it a bit of time, and everybody loves each other again.

"I think if Canada continued to ignore us now, that would really suck. We'd be kind of knocking at the door saying, ‘Can we come in and play?' But as long as somebody's going to listen, and as long as they don't take away our microphones and shit, we're going to keep playing. If not, we can stay in the garage and see where it goes from there. Maybe my cats will dig it."

Regardless of which nation shows them the most love, Finger Eleven have always shown a chameleon-like nature to adapt to current musical trends without losing their signature sound. Their debut album, Tip, appealed to post-grunge rockers. The Greyest Of Blue Skies saw them borrowing from the then-burgeoning nu-metal scene. The new album, however, marks a pivotal moment for the band. The guys are experimenting with new things musically, while Anderson has moved away from the darker lyrics he wrote in the past.

"A lot of angst is gone," he admits. "There are bands that do it over and over for every record, and it seems like they have a firm grip on their anger and their angst, but I think mine is just gone. I don't think it would even sound real. How can you do that? You exorcised that last time. I don't get it. I think there's so much funny shit in the new album. There's self-deprecating stuff. I'm not sure everyone else is going to think it's funny. There's also this level of earnestness where it's hard to listen to the record with anyone else in the room. I hope a little more humour shines through."

The positive vibe the lyrics give off is indicative of the shift in gears the guys undertook while writing the album. Everything is played with a newly restored confidence and, in the end, they sound like a brand new band.

"This time around, I think we're coming out with consistency as far as songs go," says Anderson. "The record's all over the place, but the ideas are as cool as they can be. That gives you time to really focus it and serve the song and come out with something cool. There's less intentions on the record and more fully realized ideas. At the beginning of our career, we tended to listen to outsiders a little more than we probably should have. Now we're too old to do that. We sort of tackled the studio a little better this time around. We were in no way intimidated by a big, fancy studio. We don't give a shit anymore, you know? I know exactly what I want to say and I know exactly how I want to say it."

In the end, Anderson doesn't seem to care about anything other than writing a good record.

"At the end of the record, you just say, ‘Fuck it, we're putting the stamp on this one,'" he says. "Hopefully it says that we're a band that's serious about songs and that's full of musical conviction. If you can connect to a record, and you can connect to a bunch of guys who you don't know, and you hear something that sounds and feels close to your heart, then fuck it. That's all I have to say."

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Them Vs. You Vs. Morrissey

Fans wondering about Finger Eleven's mellower direction may have their answer. When asked what changed with him during the last three years, vocalist Scott Anderson half-jokingly answered, "I stopped hating The Smiths.

"You know when you just ignore bands forever then you finally get them for some reason? Everybody just goes on and on about how great they are, and you don't get it. But finally you're like, ‘Holy fuck!' We have that constant battle, every time we go into the studio, I try to convince the guys that Morrissey and The Smiths are actually cool. They can't fucking stand them!"

This was the cover story from the February 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. The issue is now sold out.