Exclusive Interview: NOAHFINNCE On Representation And Rebellion

One of lockdown’s brightest stars, NOAHFINNCE, is the latest of our exclusive interviews! Noah shot to fame thanks to a string of great singles and the online community he’s created with his fans. Through social media – including his informative, insightful, and most of all, fun, YouTube channel – Noah has created a space unlike any other.

Now Noah is back from a busy summer of touring with his brand new single ‘LALALA,’ a hilarious and biting track about the ups and downs of our emotional well-being. We were thrilled to talk to NOAHFINNCE about ‘LALALA’ and so much more in this interview!

You have a new single [that just came out] called ‘LALALA!’ Congratulations! We love the sarcasm and sense of humor in the track! What was the inspiration or the catalyst behind your making it?
Thank you! Pretty much it was suggested to me that I should write a happy song and I wasn’t feeling particularly happy, I was feeling mentally drained. So I ended up writing a song about not wanting to write a happy song.

What can you tell us about the writing and recording process of the song? 
It all happened quite fast ‘cos we wanted to get a single out for tour but I had RØRY come over to my house, we had a long chat about the gist of the song, whipped out an acoustic guitar, and got writing. I then went into the studio with St£fan and we changed up the chorus a lil, finalised the structure n added that bit of chaos and we were done!

If ‘LALALA’ is the first NOAHFINNCE song that someone hears, and they decide to become a fan, which song of yours should be the second one that they listen to?
I would always recommend ‘Worms!’ It’s a very fun song but it’s also very honest which is what I aim for when writing music.

How do you think your music has evolved from Stuff From My Brain to My Brain After Therapy, and now to this new era?
I think I’m now way more aware of the kinda direction I want to go musically. When I was writing SFMB I was very new to even singing in front of people and I’d really not finished many songs before. I felt really embarrassed and shy a lot of the time whereas now I feel way more confident in my abilities. I think just having more experience in writing and experience in playing shows has helped me figure out where I want to go. 

We love how rebellious a lot of your music is! Which other artists that challenge the status quo do you look up to?
I really love The Oozes so much, I brought them out on this recent tour and I think they’re amazing. Their lyrical content is very confrontational which I love and they have so much humour to them.

In terms of other artists, I’m a big fan of PUP, Microwave, My Chemical Romance obviously, and I will always be obsessed with Fall Out Boy’s early albums (especially Take This to Your Grave).

We also love the creativity in your work outside of the music too – like your album artwork, the set design on your tour etc. How do you come up with these concepts? Is there a specific direction you work in each era or album?
Thanks omg! So I design the music artwork myself in like a crappy little iPhone app and then send it over to artists who actually know how to use photoshop and make it look polished!

In terms of coming up with concepts I kinda just take inspiration from the lyrical content of the songs, I usually have an idea of what I want the music videos and artwork to look like while I’m writing the songs. 

The set design was designed by my friend Tim (@prisonstyle_brb on Instagram) who’s done my tattoos too and I pretty much just told him to go crazy with whatever he thinks looks cool.

I guess each era has a specific direction, for example, the EP cover for My Brain After Therapy is very DIY vibe, cutout pics of me as a kid because the EP itself is very reflective of the stuff I talked about in therapy regarding my childhood.

The ‘LALALA’ artwork is designed by Izu who used to tag me in artwork that he made of me and I just love how it looks, so I’m definitely thinking of using more of his stuff for this next era.

Having gained a lot of fans during the pandemic, you finally got to see some of them IRL during your U.S. tour this summer! What was the highlight of the tour? And what was the biggest lesson that you learned? 
I’d say the highlight of the tour was actually meeting people at the shows every day. It’s one thing seeing the number of streams go up on a screen but seeing people face to face was insane. I never thought there would be people in Tennessee who know who I am and I met so many cool people with really interesting stories to tell.

I’d say the biggest lesson I learned was that I need to let people know my needs. The US tour was tough because we had lots of bus issues, the worst being that the air conditioning didn’t work… like, at all… so I had heat exhaustion for about two weeks and was throwing up every morning from it. I’ve become aware of the fact that it is important for me to ask for help even though it feels like I’m being a nuisance (which I know is silly). 

Now you’re on the road throughout the UK! How are these shows going? What has it meant for you to see your fans show up night after night?
It’s been great! Genuinely my favourite tour yet, the shows are going great, there’s been so many special moments. I’ve never played to 800 people at one time and it’s been insanely overwhelming seeing people be so connected. It really hit me how much this all means to me.

We love your YouTube channel so much, and we love that you offer such a safe space and great advice, but that it’s still fun! How do you come up with your video ideas?
Thank you! And honestly, sometimes I’ll go weeks struggling to come up with ideas and other times I’ll plan 6 videos in a day! A lot of my video ideas start out with “wouldn’t it be funny if somebody made a video like this?” and then I realise I can literally just do that.

A lot of the videos I make are influenced by seeing so many people be ignorant online. I like that I can take something terrible somebody has said, laugh about how insanely horrible it is and also explain quite clearly why it’s wrong. I think there’s value in doing that because a lot of the time bigotry comes from ignorance and not everybody means to be ignorant. If you can help somebody understand why a view they hold is maybe harmful, they’re a lot less likely to go out in the world and spout bigotry. 

Providing that safe space on social media requires you to be very open with your audience – is that ever a struggle for you?
To be honest, it’s something that comes very naturally to me, I’ve never been able to hide my feelings and I’ve been posting about my life since I was 15 so it’s just kinda normal to me. There’s been a few times where I feel I’ve overshared but I’m always very communicative with my audience and if there’s stuff I say I prefer not to talk about, they usually respect that most of the time.

Who are some other prominent LGBTQ+ voices or activists that you look up to and would recommend their content to your audience?
I love Jamie Raines (Jammidodger on YouTube), we’ve been friends for a few years and his content feels kinda like a hug. Very comforting vibes. 

What message would you like to share with your fans and the THP honeybees as they’re reading this?
I’d just wanna say hi!!! Hope you’re doing good!!! Send me pics of your dog!!!

BRB, we’re scrolling through the 23494 pics of our dogs in our camera roll to send some to Noah. Thank you so much to NOAHFINNCE for taking the time to chat to us in this interview!

What do you think of Noah and ‘LALALA?’ Did you enjoy our NOAHFINNCE interview? Get a chance to catch Noah on tour earlier this year? Let us know over on Twitter @TheHoneyPOP! Or if that’s not your vibe, we’re also on Facebook and Instagram!

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