"Finespun, a 4 piece band from New York who typifies the everlasting love affair we all have with the raw power, energy and emotion of rock and roll..."
In 1998, after losing a record deal with Atlantic records because their old singer couldn't perform properly in the studio, Oren Barak and Ed Grazi set out to form a new band. From 1999 to 2014, Finespun was a band based out of New York that wrote and performed its own original music which was a blend of harder, grittier, rock and commercial hooks. The kind that provided music for those searching their soul or someone else's. Founding members Oren Barak and Ed Grazi stayed the course for all those years while sidemen, who who spent most of their time trying to gain credit for being core members of the band, have ironically asked that their likeness not be used after leaving, so we wont spend much time on them.
Finespun spent much of its uptime touring the U.S. in support of its releases. 2001's self-titled debut found them voted among the top 10 acts in the country by Coca Cola's New Music Awards in 2003, and by the time their second release hit, "Digging Yourself Deeper", the band had enjoyed showcase slots at most major music conferences including SXSW, NXNE, 2NMC, NEMO Boston, CMJ, Cleveland Music Festival, Millennium Music Festival, to name a few. In 2005, the Howard Rosen Agency (responsible for breaking The Doors to rock radio) took to the song "Mid-Air", and promoted it across the country, getting it airplay on over 500 radio AOR radio stations. By the time they released their EP, "Against the Fallout", the band had become regulars at clubs in the northeast and opened for the likes of Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns 'N Roses), Wheatus, The London Quireboys, Hookah Brown, The Black Crowe's, Kings X, Fuel's Toryn Greene, Tantric and many more, such that the shows would blend into eachother. Like Janis said, "Its all the same fuckin' day!". The band toured all accross the US from New York to Texas to Cali and everywhere in between. In the coming years, the band would be signed to Stretch The Skies Records, Rat Pak Records, and Dirtbag Records. At SXSW 2007, Oren Barak was said to be "the most charismatic singer I've seen this whole conference", by Jimmy Landry, then of Epic Records. The band slept in vans, on friends floors, ate a steady diet of music and did shows anywhere and everywhere they could.
When it came time to record their fourth release, Fracture, aptly named by Oren Barak after another guitarist was bailed on the group, leaving the rest of the band to pay off his studio debt, they peaked the interest of grammy award winning producers AJ Resta and Karyadi Sutdjeta at Bopnique Studio's in Boston. Those guys are responsible for likes of Elton John, Duran, Duran, Nuno Bettencourt, and many more, so when they took a liking to the songs "Against The Fallout" and "4 Walls 1 Window", the band was overjoyed and the re-release of those songs as singles, with tour to follow, was next in line. The two man production team had this to say about the band: "The problem with the music industry is that there are not enough bands like Finespun. They are persistent, hardworking and aggressive. These gentlemen exploit every possible opportunity that comes their way. When there isn't a visible opportunity they have a knack of creating their own." Truer words have never been spoken.
When the hype subsided, the band went in to track demo's for what would be their next full length release. After recording 10 songs, they gained management who was setting them up to work with members of Disturbed on the new record. Disturbed had just gone on hiatus and was looing for new bands to produce...and thats when the shit hit the fan. The bassist couldnt take the pressure and left. The current guitarist followed suite. Some call it fear of success, some call it a test of the mettle of a man. Some just call it not living up to your word, or being an opportunist with no loyalty. We'll just call it tough luck. Everyones got their shit and we had more than our serving, thats just how it goes.
By 2013, digital had more than taken over and reformed a once familiar landscape into the festering wound that we today call the music business. After 15 years of pushing, Oren and Ed knew that it was time to do something different, as they had come close to dying for trying many, many times.
What follows here is a tombstone. A small compilation of 15 years of hard work and dedication boiled down into 4 albums, save the unreleased last album, which was definitely the best. Please enjoy our labor of love. Know that many tears were shed, many laughs were had. Happiness was felt at new, never before experienced levels of elation and depression, at the lowest of lows, down deep, where they tell you you may not come back from.
A Final thought from singer/writer/guitarist Oren Barak,"Have you ever loved something so much that you would sacrifice you're entire existence just to see it grow? A band is a family, and sooner or later a dysfunctional one. Friends and allies turn into thieves and liars and your once noble pursuit always boils down to dollars and cents. At least I got mine before the whole shit house went up in flames...
