It’s been a while, but one of the best-selling Canadian bands of all time, Finger Eleven, has completed their first new studio album in a decade, with Last Night On Earth, due 7th November through Better Noise Music – They’ve now released the title track as their latest single with accompanying video.
While everyone agreed the title track was a special song, it took Finger Eleven – Scott Anderson (Vocals), James Black (Lead guitar, backing vocals), Rick Jackett (Rhythm guitar), Sean Anderson (Bass), and Steve Molella (Drums) – many years to find the diamond inside of this movingly candid string-laden ballad about how relationships fall apart. Jackett realised that they had no true chorus, but as they were tracking drums for the last four songs on the album, drummer Steve Molella suggested doing an acoustic, campfire- style jam. They nailed it during their final hour of studio time.
“Scott wrote some of my favorite lyrics,” Molella beamed. “It was the most natural the song has ever sounded.”
“I think ‘Last Night On Earth’ could be placed squarely in a traditional relationship frame where you forget what you’re even fighting about,” continued Anderson, “But you hate that feeling in the pit of your stomach when something’s not resolved and you don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna look like.”
You can listen to ‘Last Night On Earth’ here and watch the video here at RAMzine.
The single follows on from the hunderous ‘Blue Sky Mystery’ featuring Richard Patrick from Filter. You can listen to the song here and watch the video here at RAMzine.
Vocalist Scott Anderson noted that the chorus had a heavy Black Sabbath vibe, and the band maintained that throughout the song’s evolution even as the verses underwent a larger transformation. Changes even came in at the eleventh hour of mixing, but they got the song they wanted. He wrote the lyrics for ‘Blue Sky Mystery’about burrowing into the rabbit hole of a deep obsession. “The more it’s in front of you, the less you understand it, the more you’re obsessed with it,” he says. “You can’t get your mind around it, or away from it.”
‘Blue Sky Mystery’ was originally called ‘10 Ton Saber’,” guitarist James Black recollected. “I just pictured some guy in Star Wars with an enormous, bazooka-sized lightsaber.”
“Working with Scott, James, Rick, Sean and Steve could not have gone smoother. They are good guys and total pros,” said Filter’s Richard Patrick. “Coincidentally, Filter is also celebrating its 30th Anniversary and we’ve never had the opportunity to work with Finger Eleven before, save for an appearance at a festival together somewhere. Recording ‘Blue Sky Mystery’ was a lot of fun.”
Last year, fans got the first taste of Last Night On Earth via ‘Adrenaline’ (that reached the Top 20 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart) and a video that’s reached over 176k views on YouTube. The song also reached #2 on the Active Rock chart in Canada, where the song held strong in the Top 5 for over 4 months and is still inside the Top 20 one year after release. “As we were making Last Night On Earth, there was this feeling that we were making a big rock record,” guitarist Rick Jackett recalled. “We had done that early in our career, and then we veered away from it. But it was time to go back and embrace that bigness of the sound. Even the soft songs sound big.”
Finger Eleven has always amalgamated their musical influences from the 1960s forward into their rock mix. They acknowledge that Phil Collins and Genesis were a big melodic influence on Last Night On Earth and the new tunes explore time-honoured band concepts with fresh twists. While ‘Adrenaline’ is a rousing, intense anthem about pushing forward against adversity, ‘Blue Sky Mystery’ is a hard-hitting rocker about being beguiled by something just out of reach. Further into the album, ‘The Mountain’ rides musical peaks and valleys in its quest to chase the song, about the creative process expressed in a fantasy setting. Then there is the acoustic number ‘Last Night On Earth’, tackling relationship turmoil. It’s the most personal new track for frontman Scott Anderson.
Originally from Burlington, Ontario and now based mostly out of Toronto, Finger Eleven has released a series of consecutive hit albums and become a major live band since emerging from the great White North.
The multi-platinum Juno Award-winning group—featuring Scott Anderson (Vocals), James Black (Lead guitar, backing vocals), Rick Jackett (Rhythm guitar), Sean Anderson (Bass), Steve Molella(Drums)—criss-crossed America last summer with long-time former labelmates Creed, revisiting the summer of ‘99. “People were just smiling the whole time—it was contagious,” guitarist Rick Jackett revealed. “We forgot we had so many friends in America. That was a cool feeling.” Currently on tour across the USA with Alien Ant Farm and Brkn Love they will then head out on their biggest Canadian tour ever, with fellow native sons Headstones and Tea Party joining them.
Last Night On Earth can be ordered here.
