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FINNEAS
releases debut album
‘OPTIMIST’

OUT TODAY

Unveils official music video for ‘Love Is Pain’

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Eight-time GRAMMY® Award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer FINNEAS today releases his highly anticipated debut album, Optimist via Universal Music Australia. The thirteen-track collection, written and produced entirely by the artist, includes the recently released tracks, ‘The 90s’ and ‘A Concert Six Months From Now,’ FINNEAS’ poignant and heartbreaking ballad, ‘What They’ll Say About Us‘ plus ten previously unheard songs.

Listen to Optimist HERE

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.”

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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,’ 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.”

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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 realisation—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.”

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.

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Optimist by FINNEAS is out now via Universal Music Australia
Stream/buy HERE

‘OPTIMIST’
Track Listing

1. A Concert Six Months From Now
2. The Kids Are All Dying
3. Happy Now
4. Only A Lifetime
5. The 90s
6. Love Is Pain
7. Peaches Etude
8. Hurt Locker
9. Medieval
10. Someone Else’s Star
11. Around My Neck
12. What They’ll Say About Us
13. How It Ends

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Follow FINNEAS
Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

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AMNPLIFY – DB