The Finches
a place called home
by Emily Logan

“I really don't like bullies,” said lead singer and songwriter for The Finches, Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. “Once I played in a frat bar in Philadelphia and I almost got into a fight. That was pretty unique. It was a big nineteen-year-old drunken frat fellow, and I was like, 'bring it!' I just didn't feel like it was worth being quiet in that situation.”

While feisty and tough are not the qualities Riggs displays most of the time in her music, it is easy to tell from her lyrics that she's not particular to the too-cool-for-school kids.

Listening to The Finches is sort of like visiting your childhood and your future at the same time. Riggs melds her ambivalence of suburbia with a desire for stability and soup-warming-on-the-stove comfort.

“I'm not a fan of suburban sprawl,” she said, “but then I do have these domestic fantasies—you know: back yard, front porch, bathtub.”
Her frequent use of the image of a house emphasizes this. She compared a house to a human and the different parts of the house as parts of the face or the body.

Riggs' lyrics also address her compulsive desire to travel—an element that adds an interesting contrast to themes of settled life. The Finches' new album "Human Like a House", which will be released Jan. 30, is a collection of deeply personal tales from Riggs' life aided by the soothing guitar and backup vocals of Aaron Morgan, who collaborates with Riggs in the songwriting process.

The creation of the album was just about as personal as it gets. The album was recorded in San Diego in Morgan's father's studio, and both Morgan's and Riggs' mothers sang backup vocals on the album. Riggs' mother also played recorder on “The House Under the Hill.” For the cover and liner notes, Riggs created twelve linoleum cuttings and packaged them in a rustic chipboard pack.

The duo met in college at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “(Morgan) graduated before me, but when I graduated I was trying to learn guitar, and I had all these songs in my head,” Riggs said.

The two began to write together, and after Riggs returned from a trip to Germany, they recorded their first EP, Six Songs, in one weekend. Six Songs went on to sell over 1200 copies without any distribution. Since the release, the band has played with the likes of Jose Gonzales, Mt. Eerie and The Evens.

The sound of The Finches stems from varied influences between the two members. But Morgan doesn't think their music is directly affected by these.

“I think it's more the general aesthetic of those bands and how I feel when I'm listening to them that I'm trying to recreate,” he said.

Along with Morgan's influences, which include Nirvana, Miles Davis and Neil Young, Riggs credits Leonard Cohen and Brian Eno, but admits her influences go far beyond.

“I still think the most poignant time as far as music goes is high school because you're so extreme about it,” she said. “Back then I listened to a ton of Goth music.” She cited The Cure, The Smiths, The Ramones and The Kinks as some of her favorites. “I like storytelling music,” she said.

As The Finches created their sound, they attracted a range of fans from various scenes (“I'm famous in this first grade class in Pacifica that I volunteer at,” Riggs joked). Their brand of calm but profound folk music not only makes the audience's muscles relax and sway to the rhythms, but it also gives the band an opportunity to explore themselves.

Morgan, who also plays in the experimental instrumental band Roots of Orchis, said The Finches is his opportunity to be more connected with the audience.

“With Carolyn it feels more personal because there's only two of us and it feels a little more naked,” he said. “[The Roots of Orchis], we have a big table full of electronics that we set out and it’s almost like this wall between us and the audience.”

For Riggs, The Finches gives her a chance to share her music with people who can share with her. “I like that singer-songwriter tradition that if someone has a guitar then everyone has a guitar,” she said.

For the future, Riggs would like to augment some of the local shows with drums and even a choir. After the new album is released, the band will embark on a tour across the country to the east coast. While this will help Riggs quench her thirst for travel, the Bay Area is still her home.

“Sometimes I will stop going out for a few nights, and then when I go out one night, I'll think, 'I love this area! It's worth the rent!'"