Terry Finch

Meet London-born UK Open Mic performer Terry Finch:

Terry Finch

Hi Terry Finch, thanks for joining us! Let’s get into it:

Do you play solo only, or also in a group?

Solo

How old are you?

Where were you born?

London

Where did you grow up?

Mitcham

How did that place influence your music? (if at all!)

A strong desire to escape.

Where are you based now, and why?

Epsom, I worked in a psychiatric hospital and never left the area.

What got you into making music in the first place?

I heard Echoes by Pink Floyd in an art class at school and wanted to be a part of something creative.

What instrument/s do you play?

Singing
Piano
Piano
Guitar
Bass

Who would be in your top 10 musical influences, and why?

Tangerine Dream, Kate Bush, Mozart, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, ELO, everything influences me really, sometimes even music I wouldn’t normally listen to.

Do you write your own songs?

Yes

How many years have you been writing songs for?

What process, or processes, do you often find yourself using when you write songs?

I have to wait for melodies to arrive in my head, driving, dreaming, in the bath, travelling, lyrically I use the syllable per note method, I write about life and it can be a lengthy process to make words match the melody.

How long have you been playing open mic nights?

Why did you get into playing them in the first place?

Just a place where I can perform my own music in front of an audience.

What advice would you give new performers who are just starting out playing their first open mics?

Be true to yourself, never second guess and audience, don’t write songs you think will please other people, write to please yourself, there will always be someone better than you, don’t worry about it.

What’s the hardest thing, for you, about playing open mics?

If the audience does not react

What’s the most bizarre, or fun, open mic, or gig, you’ve ever played, and why?

I sometimes play satirical songs, I keep these separate from my usual “serious” music, sometimes the audience has been open mouthed and others have been laughing out loud, because the subject matters I choose are sometimes risqué.

If it’s not already, are you hoping to make music your full-time career?

Yes

What do you currently find the hardest and biggest obstacles to moving your music career forward?

Getting heard, I am eclectic in my style and this is frowned upon by the “gatekeepers”, its never been an issue with audiences, they either like the songs or not, I always have good responses from audiences, but agents and promoters have a set of industry guidelines which are stringent and frankly counter cultural, they restrict musical freedom and consequently much modern music is homogenous, I cannot adhere to industry trends, it would not be honest to myself or to the audience, so I feel I am in a battle to get around the people who book the acts, I am always receiving compliments from the audience about my songs and encores, but this apparently is not the metric to be judged by, instead I have “literally” been told that my music is not genre specific enough and have consequently been blocked from performing at certain venues, I am also not very good at the promotional side of things.