An Interview With Finneas O’Connell About His Band, THE SLIGHTLY’S, His Experience Being On Glee and Much More!

Meet The Slighty’s! They are a Pop n’ Roll band with a penchant for insistent, hook driven, unapologetically catchy songs. Led by songwriter and frontman Finneas O’Connell (who found success as an actor with reoccurring roles on Glee and Modern Family and in movies such as Bad Teacher).

The band consists of four teenagers born and raised in Los Angeles California.  The group met each other at a battle of bands at Club Nokia in 2012 while each playing in different bands with all losing the contest that year. In 2014 they came together to form The Slightlys and took home first place in that same competition.

The Slightlys soon released their debut single “Superhero”, which attracted widespread attention leading to a dedicated fan-base as well as offers to play such high profile festivals as The Warped Tour and The Twilight Concert Series along with iconic venues such as Club Nokia and The House of Blues.

In 2014, The Slightlys returned to the studio to record their debut EP with famed producer/engineer Eric Palmquist (Bad Suns, Night Riots, HUNNY).  The result is a collection of power pop anthems with melodic guitar riffs, catchy choruses and a driving insatiable rhythm section rarely heard in rock music today. The first single “Desperate Measures” is an angsty instant pop anthem featuring radio-ready hooks and close vocal harmonies. “A Warning” features O’Connell’s rich soulful tinged vocals over insatiably danceable drums. All in all songwriter Finneas O’Connell hopes his songs “inspire people to never stop working on the things they love and to remember that although being patient sucks, you’ll need to be patient if you want things to turn out right.”  They hope to release an EP early this year.

Find out more about The Slighty’s here:

www.theslightlys.com
www.facebook.com/theslightlys
www.instagram.com/theslightlys
www.twitter.com/theslightlys

Learn more about Finneas and his band, The Slightly’s in the following All Access interview:

Thanks for your time, Finneas! How’s the end of 2015 shaping up for you?

This year has been amazing! I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better year.

What are you most excited about for 2016?

Making so much music!! This year is gonna be amazing!! Can’t wait for everyone to hear the stuff we’re working on…

How did The Slightly’s first come to be?

We all met at a battle of the bands a couple years ago and just vibes like crazy. We were all playing in separate bands at the time and we all lost but when we started playing together we went back to the same competition and won first place!

Why do you think you all work so well together?

I think we all have a lot of respect for each other as musicians and so I think we’re all really open to ideas from each other and we all bring really different stuff to the table.

Where did you come up with your band name? What other names were you considering?

Lying in bed at like three in the morning. Die4timriggins mostly.

Can you talk about where your current lead single “Desperate Measures” came from? Do you think this song sums up what The Slightly’s sound will be all about?

Yes and no… I sort of hope no one song could completely sum us up musically, but there are definitely some things in this song that we hope to carry through into our other work!

How have you been able to balance your work as an actor and musician? Do you prefer to do one over the other? What is your biggest passion?

I am a performance junky so any time I get to be onstage or in front of a camera, I’m stoked. Acting is a lot harder to predict schedule wise, whereas with music, you can just schedule yourself a gig and invite your friends and have a great time… I don’t think I’ll ever have to make a choice of only acting or only making music, I just hope I’ll always be able to do both.

Do you think that your work on Glee has helped you be a better musician?

It has definitely helped me be a better performer… You always have to give it your all on that show and I just thought to myself “then I should always give it my all whenever I perform” sometimes it’s hard to remember to do that live because you’re juggling so many things between playing and singing and working the crowd and communicating with the other guys in the band, but you have to remember that the MOST important thing is to put on a great show.

Where do you generally get the inspiration for your music? Can you describe what your songwriting process is like?

They are from personal experiences or hearing my friends and family talk about theirs. Not that writing songs about pirates sailing the seven seas can’t be awesome, I just don’t know any pirates or know anyone who knows any pirates so it’s hard for me to relate. I think a lot of songwriting revolves around empathy and compassion. So the simpler the concept is the better. What you do with that concept lyrically is where I like to be creative.

Are you guys excited for your upcoming shows in the new year? What have been some favorite shows of yours? What about a favorite concert that you attended?

We played on the rooftop of an aquarium last summer… That was pretty nuts. Everyone had a blast. Even the fish. Super excited for more crazy shows like that. David and I saw SHAKEY GRAVES in October and he blew our minds. That’s probably the best live show I’ve seen.

Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations? Living or dead, who would you love to work with?

The Beatles in all respects are my favorite band/artists ever. I would love to work with any of them. Or time travel and work with all of them.

What do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope listeners take away from your music?

I always hope they connect with it on some personal level. I try to write songs that make people feel something, but I also try to write songs that understand how people are already feeling and articulate it for them. When a song does that for me personally, it’s the best feeling.