Nate Barcalow

Finch is an American rock band from Temecula, California. The band is best known for their single "What It Is to Burn" from the album of the same name (2002). Their second album, ''Say Hello to Sunshine'' (2005), peaked within the top 30 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Following setbacks within the group, they released the album '' Back to Oblivion'' (2014).

History

Early history (1999–2001)

Finch originally formed under the name Numb with Nate Barcalow on vocals, Alex Linares on guitar, Derek Doherty on bass and Alex Pappas on drums, although it is unknown until when they performed with this name, but it is known that they changed their name to Finch shortly after Randy Strohmeyer joined the band. This original formation was described by Nate Barcalow as a "Deftones ripoff band".

Guitarist Strohmeyer was invited to join Finch (then called Numb) after they witnessed him play with his band Evitca Fresh. Around this time, Strohmeyer became friends with Drive-Thru Records owner, Richard Reines, following fan letters he had sent in a few years prior. Reines offered the group a chance to perform at a Drive Thru showcase show, and so the band performed a show at the "Drive Thru Records Night" on November 26th at Chain Reaction, Anaheim, California where they reportedly played for an audience of 700 people, a month after this show, they released on their website six early demos (prior to this, a demo of "Awake" recorded with Reines was released on Drive Thru website) that were recorded at Pappas' basement: "Letters to You" (titled "I Want" at the time), "Grey Matter", "Ender", "New Kid", "Perfection Through Silence", and a never officially released song titled "Song 3". Another song that was recorded during this session was a cover of "With or Without You" by U2.

The band hit the studios in February and April 2001 to began pre-production of their full length debut but not before releasing their first EP '' Falling into Place'' on October 9th 2001.

''What It Is to Burn'' (2002–2003)

Pre-production for their debut album, ''What It Is to Burn'', took place at DML Studios in Escondido, California in February and April 2001. They began recording the album in June at Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, California with producer Mark Trombino. After tracking guitars in July, recording subsequently continued through September. Strohmeyer said it collectively took a year to write all of the material on the album.

''What It Is to Burn'' was released on March 12 as a joint release between MCA and Drive-Thru Records, followed by a release in the UK on June 2. It was preceded by a promotional music video for " Letters to You" in January 2002, though the song was not released as a commercial single at the time. The album was predominantly described as emo and pop punk. Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw performs guest vocals on two tracks on the album: "Grey Matter" and "Project Mayhem".

To promote the record, the group toured throughout 2002 and 2003. They began shortly after the album's release by touring with Moth. They followed this up with an extensive tour schedule across the United States, the UK, and Japan. They toured with bands including Brand New, The Starting Line, New Found Glory, Something Corporate, From Autumn to Ashes, Coheed and Cambria, and Further Seems Forever, among others.

Nearly a year following the initial release of the ''What It Is to Burn'' album, the group released the song of the same name as the first official single from the record in January 2003. The single became the band's biggest charting success, peaking at number 15 on the US ''Billboard'' Alternative Airplay chart in May 2003 and spending 16 weeks on the chart. The song was followed up with an official single release of the track " Letters to You" in April 2003.

In May 2003, the band performed as a special guest at two shows of MTV's Campus Invasion tour. In June, the band appeared on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!.'' In July, the group appeared on ''Last Call with Carson Daly''. In August, the group performed at Furnace Fest and at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

''Say Hello to Sunshine'' and ''Finch'' EP (2003–2010)

While still on tour, the band began working on writing new songs for their second album, among some of these songs, one was deemed finished at the time and was then played regularly during the later cycle of the ''What Is It to Burn'' tour, while the song was untitled at the time, it would later be named " Bitemarks and Bloodstains". This song became a cornerstone for what was going to be the new musical direction that the band was crafting for their follow up release, and it would also become the lead single of this follow up. After finishing their tour in August 2003, the band resumed the writing process for the yet untitled at the time, sophomore album.

On September 2nd, 2003, Finch headlined a show at The Fillmore, San Francisco where they played three brand new songs, one of which was an early version of the song "A Man Alone", and on September 7th, they played another show at the San Diego Street Scene before heading to the studio to began the demoing process, these demo sessions were overseen by Mark Trombino. While in the process of writing these demos, Pappas, left the band, he then went to join the musical duo JamisonParker as a touring drummer. On an interview done on April 16th, 2005, Strohmeyer revealed that Pappas wasn't really involved with the writing process of the album and so instead, most of the songs that they recorded were written with Marc Allen, who at the time of recording, was the drummer of the Post-Hardcore, Emo band, Counterfit. Strohmeyer also revealed that a few songs were also recorded with Chris Tsagakis from RX Bandits, but none of those songs ended up being used on the second record.

After exactly four months since their show at San Diego Street Scene, the band played a one-off show at the Troubadour, West Hollywood, California where Marc Allen played his first show with the band. At the time, Marc was still the drummer of Counterfit and so, for most of the shows that Finch played during this year, Counterfit was billed as their opening act. Finch also was scheduled to make an appearance at the Skate & Surf Festival but decided to cancel the show to continue the recording and pre-production of the album. To make up for this, they announced two one-off shows on April 8th and 9th, at the Epicenter, San Diego and The Glass House, Pomona respectively, where they played some of the new songs that they were working on, among these, it is known that they played early versions of "Insomniatic Meat", "Brother Bleed Brother", "Fireflies", "Reduced To Teeth" and "Miro"; along with "Bitemarks and Bloodstains" and "A Man Alone", which were debuted the previous year with Pappas.

The band announced a tour on June 1st with Counterfit and Recover, all while they were still in the process of recording the album. It is known that while Trombino began the demoing process of the record, he was unable to work with the new style of these songs, and so, Jason Cupp and Ben Moore took over the duty of producers and engineers. The tour with Counterfit and Recover began in July and lasted until September. By the end of this tour, Counterfit decided to disband and played their last show on December 11th, 2004, and so, Allen became Finch's full time drummer until the band first hiatus in 2006.

After another winter break and some setbacks on the mixing department, the band finished the recording of the album in January 2005, and soon, news of the now titled album "''Say Hello to Sunshine''", began to circulate. The news of Allen officially joining the band were also announced on February 2nd. Prior to the recording of the album, the band was moved between three different record labels: Drive-Thru Records and MCA Records, which was then purchased by Geffen Records.

The band played a few one-off shows in March, among these was a show at the Whisky a Go-Go with Jimmy Eat World on March 29th, before embarking on a lengthy tour which began in April till September to promote the new album, which by then was already announced to be released on June 7th, 2005. On the day of release, they played an acoustic show at Tower Records, Los Angeles, California. After this tour, which included both European and North American venues, as well as multiple festivals, the band went onto another tour to support H.I.M.'s fifth album. The tour began on October 7th and lasted till November 24th, but after this tour, the band announced an hiatus quoting "''Amongst the many reasons for our decision, our individual priorities just lie in different places''". This hiatus would last until November 23th, 2007, when they played a comeback show at The Glass House, which they previously announced in October along with the news of the band reforming and planning a comeback tour.

The band then reformed with two new members, Andrew Marcogliese who replaced Marc Allen and Daniel Wonacott who replaced Derek Doherty, both of them were bandmates of Barcalow's band ''Cosmonaut'', which he started during the band's hiatus. Finch then announced a comeback tour which began on January 13th, 2008.

On July 22, 2008, the band released a four-song EP titled ''Finch.'' The EP was the band's first record that was released independently. Finch spent most of 2008 touring in support of this release, including a summer headlining tour with Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Foxy Shazam and Tickle Me Pink.

Finch announced in October 2008 that they had begun work on their third studio album and on May 30th 2009, they released a demo for the song "Hail to the Fire" on their Myspace page.

On December 17, 2010, after an extended period of inactivity and infrequent updates, Finch announced that they had broken up. They explained that each member had broadened his "musical ," which made it difficult for the band to collaborate on new music. On the same day, Finch released a digital single titled ''Epilogue'' that featured "Hail to the Fire" and "World of Violence", which were to appear on their third album.

In 2012, Nate Barcalow formed a new band called Earthbound Ghost.

''Back to Oblivion'' and ''Steel, Wood and Whiskey'' (2012–2016)

In October 2012, Finch announced they would reunite and perform the ''What It Is to Burn'' album in its entirety for one night on February 1, 2013, in California, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the release of the album. Initially planned to be a single show, it was followed by announcement of a second California date after the first one sold out along with a UK date. The lineup for the reunion shows included Alex Pappas, who left Finch in 2004 before the release of ''Say Hello to Sunshine'', and Daniel Wonacott, who joined the band during their previous reunion.

Finch continued to add individual ''What It Is to Burn'' anniversary dates until it became several North American tours, beginning with a March tour featuring The Almost and The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and ending with an October tour with Dance Gavin Dance. Footage from the band's initial reunion show in California was recorded and released as a live CD/DVD titled ''What It Is to Burn X Live'' on January 7, 2014, through Tragic Hero Records. While touring, the band debuted the track "Back to Oblivion".

In March 2014, Finch announced they would join Warped Tour and release a new album through Razor & Tie later in the year. On September 30, Finch released their third studio album '' Back to Oblivion'' which was produced by Brian Virtue. Finch toured North America in the fall of 2014 with Maps & Atlases.

On November 13, 2015, Finch released the album ''Steel, Wood and Whiskey'' for free on their website. This acoustic album features newly recorded renditions of songs from their back catalog.

Finch began working on a fourth studio album in mid-2015. However, due to difficulties within the band, it was not completed. According to a statement by the rest of the band, Barcalow drew distant, missed recording sessions, and stopped communicating altogether by January 2016. In October 2016, Barcalow privately announced on Instagram that Finch had broken up and posted nine new demo songs to his personal YouTube account. The following day, the other members of Finch posted a statement claiming that Barcalow "quit again, for the third time in the history". This was followed by the release of two new demos to Finch's official YouTube account: "Monuments" and "These Buildings are Burning".

In early 2016, Linares, Pappas, Wonacott formed a new band with Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail called Speak the Truth... Even If Your Voice Shakes. Barcalow went on to form the electronic duo outfit Private Lives. In 2022, Wonacott joined Senses Fail.

''What It Is to Burn'' 20th anniversary tour (2022–present)

On October 11, 2022, the band announced that they would be reforming to play at the When We Were Young Festival in October 2023. In January 2023, they announced the ''What It Is to Burn'' 20th anniversary tour, which began in Chicago on May 5, 2023.

Band members

Current lineup
* Nate Barcalow – lead vocals, keyboards (1999–2006, 2007–2010, 2012–2016, 2022–present)
* Randy "R2K" Strohmeyer – lead guitar, backing vocals (1999–2006, 2007–2010, 2012–2015, 2022–present)
* Alex "Grizz" Linares – rhythm guitar (1999–2006, 2007–2010, 2012–2016, 2022–present), lead guitar (2015-2016)
* Alex Pappas – drums, percussion (1999–2004, 2012–2016, 2022-present)
* Kenny Finn – bass (2023–present)

Former members
* Derek Doherty – bass, backing vocals (1999–2006)
* Daniel Wonacott – bass, backing vocals (2007–2010, 2012–2016)
* Marc Allen – drums, percussion (2004–2006)
* Andrew Marcogliese – drums, percussion (2007–2010)

Timeline

Discography

* ''What It Is to Burn'' (2002)
* ''Say Hello to Sunshine'' (2005)
* '' Back to Oblivion'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finch
Musical groups established in 1999
Alternative rock groups from California
Emo musical groups from California
American post-hardcore musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 2006
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2010
Musical groups reestablished in 2012
Musical groups disestablished in 2016
Musical groups reestablished in 2022
People from Temecula, California
Geffen Records artists
MCA Records artists
Drive-Thru Records artists
Tragic Hero Records artists
1999 establishments in California