8x Grammy Award-Winning Musician, Songwriter and Producer Finneas Releases Debut Album ‘Optimist’

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Universal Music Canada

15 OCTOBER 2021 (Toronto, ON) - Eight-time GRAMMY® Award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer FINNEAS today releases his highly anticipated debut album, Optimist via Interscope Records/Universal Music Canada, the country's leading music company.

Available to buy and stream now here: https://amzn.to/3j5M2fz

The thirteen-track collection, written and produced entirely by the artist, includes the recently released tracks, “The 90s” (https://amzn.to/3mXTIl1) and “A Concert Six Months From Now,” (https://amzn.to/3lMILU9) FINNEAS’ poignant and heartbreaking ballad, “What They’ll Say About Us” (https://amzn.to/3AOKLiK) plus ten previously unheard songs.

Listen to Optimist HERE: https://amzn.to/3j5M2fz

Also released today, the Sam Bennett-directed music video for “Love Is Pain,” a standout track on the album where dreamy keys wrap around his heartfelt delivery of lines such as “wish it wasn’t mandatory dying.” Speaking about the song, FINNEAS reveals, “It’s about how painful and heartbreaking love is. I wanted to write a song about an adult relationship. The more you love someone, the more they have the capacity to cause you heartbreak.”

Watch the official music video for “Love Is Pain” BELOW.

FINNEAS’ music derives from a place of love. It’s the kind of love embodied by tireless marathon studio sessions playing every instrument, singing, producing, and recording himself at all hours. It’s the kind of love that makes you propose. It’s the kind of love kids are the best at. It’s the kind of love you’ll feel on his full-length debut album.

As the world went into Lockdown during 2020, FINNEAS returned home to L.A., which afforded him ample time to naturally assemble what would become the album. “As a producer-artist, you never give yourself enough time to work on your own music. Unfortunately, nobody is going to boss me around and tell me to produce my own album except me,” he explains. On the stories he tells through his music and songwriting, FINNEAS explains, “I’ve always been interested in people and their idiosyncrasies,” he admits. “It’s hard for me not to focus on them or notice. At the end of the day, I’m just observant.”

He introduced the album with the single “A Concert Six Months From Now,” that sees acoustic guitar creaking underneath candid recollections of purchasing tickets to a show for an old flame before a gust of distortion hits like a tidal wave.

“In 2017, I had literally bought tickets to take my girlfriend to see The Fleet Foxes at the Hollywood Bowl,” he recalls. “It was six months away, and I was like, ‘It’s really optimistic of me to think we’ll still be together by then’. I happened to be right though. With all of the pessimism and negativity in 2020, I was pretty worried, but I still decided to be positive. Even if things didn’t work out, I would’ve regretted not trying as hard as I could have.”

Other highlights on the album include “The 90s,” (https://amzn.to/3mXTIl1) FINNEAS’ heartfelt look back at a decade where things seemed simpler, a world without the internet and smartphones, and a desire to return to those times. On “The Kids Are All Dying,” piano and handclaps bleed into a rush of energy as he adopts the tone of the internet on the hook, “How can you sing about love when the kids are all dying?” “Even if we are living through a time of chaos and uncertainty, the human experience is never going to exclude love, sex, fun, leisure, and adventure,” he says. “If you’re in love, you’re going to write a love song. It’s how the brain works.”

Watch a beautiful live performance video for the song “The 90s” BELOW:

On the other end of the spectrum, “How It Ends” rides a funky bass line and claps towards a soulful refrain. Meanwhile, “Only A Lifetime” surveys a long, strange year through a different lens. “A lot of people were pacing around their houses, praying for lockdown to be lifted, and waiting for the vaccine,” he states. “I had a sudden realization—I might really miss this calm time I had with my family and my girlfriend. I was trying to remind myself to stay present and stay engaged no matter what is going on.”

Talking about what he hopes fans will take away from Optimist, FINNEAS reveals “My hope is some kid somewhere puts this on and maybe thinks, ‘This is exactly how I’m feeling right now.’ That’s what I do with my favourite music. Personally, the more I learn, the less I know. So, I just feel really lucky right now…and optimistic about the future.”

Fresh off a string of rousing festival performances, which included BottleRock, iHeartRadio Music Festival and Austin City Limits, FINNEAS will embark on a North American tour, which kicks off October 25 in San Diego. The 15-city tour will see him make stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, Athens, OH, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, New York, Boston, and Montreal before concluding in Toronto on November 21. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.finneasofficial.com.

Earlier this year, FINNEAS received two additional GRAMMY® Awards with his sister Billie Eilish for everything i wanted (Record of the Year), as well as a Best Song Written For Visual category for “No Time To Die,” the official James Bond theme song, both produced by FINNEAS.

Optimist follows the release of FINNEAS’ critically acclaimed debut EP, Blood Harmony, the DELUXE version which is available now. Written and produced entirely by the 24-year-old artist, the eight-track collection exemplifies his skills as a songwriter, producer, and storyteller.

In 2020, FINNEAS received an impressive 6 GRAMMY Awards® including the prestigious Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical as well as Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year with his sister Billie Eilish for her groundbreaking No. 1 debut album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? and hit single ‘bad guy.’

FINNEAS’ trademark production can also be heard on recent songs from Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, Tove Lo, Ben Platt, and throughout Billie Eilish's recently released sophomore album, ‘Happier Than Ever.’

OPTIMIST TRACKLISTING

A Concert Six Months From Now
The Kids Are All Dying
Happy Now
Only A Lifetime
The 90s
Love Is Pain
Peaches Etude
Hurt Locker
Medieval
Someone Else’s Star
Around My Neck
What They’ll Say About Us
How It Ends

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
10/25 – The Observatory North Park – San Diego, CA
10/27 – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
10/28 - The Wiltern - Los Angeles, CA (DATE ADDED)
11/01 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
11/03 – Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR
11/04 – Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
11/06 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
11/08 – Summit – Denver, CO
11/10 – Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
11/12 – Ohio University – Athens, OH^^
11/13 – Theatre of The Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA
11/14 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC (EARLY SHOW ADDED)
11/14 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
11/16 – Irving Plaza – New York, NY
11/17 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY (DATE ADDED)
11/18 – House of Blues – Boston, MA
11/20 – Théâtre Corona – Montreal, QC
11/21 – The Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
^^Rescheduled Date

October 15, 2021 11:15am ET by Pressparty  

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