Finger Eleven is back and reinvigorated with their new CD “Five Crooked Lines,” and the first hit single “ Wolves and Doors.”
They make a long awaited return to Lethbridge, Oct. 26, when they play Soundgarden with Head of the Herd and a local opener to be announced.
Frontman Scott Anderson is excited to get back on the road with the band for a month long cross- Canadian tour.
“I’m packing a duffle bag right now. I always forget something, but I’ll be prepared as as I can be,” said Anderson from his home in Burlington, Ontario.
He is absolutely looking forward to touring again.
“This band loves touring and we love this new record,” he said.
“ It’s been a while. We did a tour in the United States with Three Days Grace before the record came out, but that doesn’t really count.
“ It’s been a couple years since we went all across Canada,” he continued.
The band also includes guitarists James Black and Rick Jackett, bassist Sean Anderson and new drummer Steve Molella.
The last time they played Lethbridge, they played Pulse with punk band GOB.
“I remember that show. I remember it was well attended. It was a different line-up. But there were a lot of rock fans in the audience. There was a lot of energy,” he said.
“I’ve forgotten my share of lyrics, but when they’re singing, it’s usually too late,” he laughed adding the new CD takes the band back to the beginning and includes a lot more rock.
“It’s a really fun album. It’s an album we can reproduce live without any trickery,” he said.
Finger Eleven recorded their new CD in Nashville with producer David Cobb who had them record the whole CD in 12 days— one song each day.
“We’d do one song a day. So Every day we’d crack one song open and finish it and the next day we’d wake up and do the same thing all over again,” he said.
“He’d actually scheduled his vacation at that time, but cancelled it so he could work with us, so we were flattered.
“Those Nashville guys can record albums in three days with those Nashville players. We were a little more meticulous,” he said.
Unlike a lot of bands, Finger Eleven never plays songs for audiences before releasing them on an album.
“We tend not to. We usually go to a cottage and work out the songs among ourselves first. That’s just always been our process. So we don’t play them until we’ve released them on an album,” he said.
While he is pleased the first single “Wolves and Doors” has caught on there's others on the album he is more proud of.
“There’s five or six others I would have picked first, but what do I know,” he said pointing out “God As Speed“ “Not Going to be Afraid” and “Criminal” as his favourites. He noted “Gods of Speed” was released as the new single about a week ago.
“ We’ve always like d to make pretty big sounding music. Anthemic is not quite right though. But I’ve always liked that about us,” he said.
They are enjoying playing with new drummer Steve Molella for the past year.
“ But he’s so annoying to tour with because he’s so good at everything. He’s younger than us and better looking than us and if you play him at pool, he’ll kick your ass at it,” he said adding the band’s management team recommended him.
“He’s a perfect fit. it was really a non-audition because he just knew our material. So it’s been great,” he said.
Finger Eleven has been running a competition to choose an opening act to share the stage with them and Head of the Herd.
“You’re often at the mercy of promoters or there is no opening act, so we decided, why not pick them ourselves. Best case scenario, you discover a new band. If we can give other rock bands that opportunity, why not,” he asked.
“ We had five or six bands from each city. And we had to rank them. We didn’t have one unanimous vote. So we had to see their songs and if they could perform them live, so we spent a lot of time watching Youtube,” he said.
Finger Eleven, Head of the Herd and the Lethbridge opener Cosmic Charley play Soundgarden, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $40 in advance.
