Ultimately cathartic and intensely personal, ‘Shades are Drawn’ is an album you don’t want to delve into until you know you can swing it in NYC. As a fellow country boy relocated, I remember well the emotions Finian Mckean bleeds onto tape here. The loneliness, the claustrophobia, the grapple with a new abacus of monetary and social worth. It all leaves you with your balls shrunk into your stomach and an honest wonder if it’ll ever get better here. ‘Shades are Drawn’ sounds so good, it doesn’t really matter if it does. Even if you’ve never lived in NYC, put it on and turn it up nice and loud.

You seem to have a diverse musical history -- what sorts of projects have you worked with in the past, and how would you say that those experiences have informed the sound for "Shades are Drawn"?

Hmmmm...On some level, "Shades" was all about throwing out everything I ever learned about making records and just making the damn record, if you know what I mean: not a lot of takes, very few edits--I tried to work so the whole process of getting feelings to tape was immediate and real. My old band the Push Kings started out with that ethic, doing lots of home recording & leaving things raw, but over the course of three albums, we got really into the perfectionism of production, putting shit under the microscope...

Emotionally I was so damaged during the "Shades" sessions that it was easy to just roll tape and not give a damn, recording blind, you could call it. The crazy part is, the sounds you get when you work fast usually end up slaying anything you slave over. I think it was David Briggs who said: "The more you think, the more you stink."

How do you write your material?

All kinds of ways...Sometimes on a guitar in my back yard, sometimes at the piano in the dark, sometimes humming a capella as I walk through Red Hook. Some songs, like the title track, I wrote as I was recording it--the texture & rhythm of the tremolo guitar was the blueprint for the groove, the lyrics, everything...if there's one thing I've learned since I started making music, it's that the only thing that matters is mining into your soul and letting the feelings out into the world.  That's non-negotiable.

What would you consider to be your biggest influences, musically?

I usually answer this question by just listing ten records I played that week but my record player's busted and my CD collection sucks so I'm gonna have to give it some thought...Neil Young for his beautiful fucking melodies; John Lennon because he knew the only kind of rock n roll is that pure, undiluted feeling; JJ Cale for always under-writing his songs, leaving room to breathe; Syd Barrett for being such a tripper & not being afraid of anything; Duke Ellington for sheer sonic mastery...

What have been the biggest hurdles in your relocation to NYC? 

Ha ha! Where do I start? I just can't hang with the pace of life here; I have a new song that goes: "I'm tired of the city/ Don't want to get beat up or run down/ I always feel so happy/ When I get out of town." That's it in a nutshell. I hate the noise, I hate the way people speed up when they see you in the crosswalk, I hate the concrete canyons. That said, I've made the best music of my life here, met some fantastic people & absorbed some of those Brooklyn street smarts: I don't take shit from nobody!@#$!

But when it comes down to it, I'm a nature boy and I'd rather be wandering in a meadow of ferns, listening to the wind in the trees. As soon as I can get out, I will.

Will you be providing your fans with a recording soon? If so, when/where/pertinent details.

Hell yeah...one major positive thing about living here was re-connecting with an old friend named Patrick Brennan. He's an awesome musician & drummer and we've been playing out as a gtr/drums duo for the last year. We're pretty much done with a collaborative album that I'll release on my label in the first half of 2007. The project is called Finian McKean + the Wild Palms. 

Do you have any favorite venues to perform at in NYC/Brooklyn?

Hands down my favorite spot is Sunny's Bar in Red Hook. It's a magical, bohemian, salty-dog type place that's been going strong for 100 years or so...We set up right on the floor facing the bar and just play rock n roll, bar band style, until closing. My best performances have been there, with the crowd pressed up against me & each other, sweating, partying, drinking in the best roadhouse manner.  

Of course there are a million sweet spots to play live music, and that's another bonus to living in NYC: Southpaw has a great vibe, so does Pete's Candy Store. I'm very excited to check out Union Hall, which just opened up in the Slope.

What NYC bands do you like to perform with?

Soft Explosions, Slink Moss, Paul Brill, Man in Gray to name a few...I've only been playing out for a year and a half in this incarnation so I hope to meet many more. I'm doing a residency at Pete's Candy Store on Tuesdays in October where I'll have some killer guests: Chris Leo aka Vague Angels, Shonali Bhowmik of Tigers & Monkeys, Travis Caine, and more.

Have you ever considered anti-depressants?  What’s your take on chemically chosen reality?

Well...They would seem like a good option for somebody like me who's prone to fits of depression that leave me useless and make everybody around me crazy...Trouble is I eat organic & I hate hospitals & I don't like the idea of somebody at Pfizer or Merck choosing my reality for me. I prefer the rock n roll route, which is plain old-fashioned self-medication of the herbal variety; that stuff has the added bonus of making music sound better, which I don't think Zoloft can do yet.

And I'm like many artists in that I'm scared of anything that might dull my pain & make me less sensitive to feelings--making music is the best anti-depressant I know.