On May 10, Finish Ticket will be performing at UC Davis West Village. The free show begins at 7:30 p.m. The San Francisco-based band has been storming the West Coast and recently signed to Atlantic Records. Finish Ticket was started by twins Brendan and Michael Hoye and their friend Alex DiDonato. In 2012, brothers Gabe and Nick Stein joined. In a phone interview, MUSE caught up with Brendan and Michael Hoye to find out about their success.
MUSE: How does it feel to be signed to Atlantic Records?
Brendan: It’s cool. It didn’t ever sink in the way you expect it to. There were months of figuring it out and that night it felt really good.
Michael: What we’re noticing now is it’s really cool to have so many people on our team. We’re [active] on social media and now we have a graphics department. We can get everything done really fast. Before, it would take us a week and we’d have to track down a freshman to get our posters done. We are a lot more efficient now; a whole new door of connections has opened.
Your album Tears You Apart will be re-released on May 20. What changes have you made?
B: The digital will come out on the 19th [May]. There were a few changes. We recorded one of the later tracks “Bring the Rain.” That’s one we never played live before but we recorded and it became our strongest live song. It just felt wrong and we wished we could change it. We’re a lot happier with it. We re-recorded another song that Gabe has been on. There was a track that he really wanted to drum on, “Catch You On My Way Out.”
M: We got the whole record mastered by Ted Jensen; he did Green Day and all of our favorite records when we were growing up. He’s done everything, so much stuff, it’s crazy. We were all like, ha, sure, then we actually realized he could remaster it [Tears You Apart] and it all worked out.
Where did you film the video for In “The Summer”?
M: I sort of compiled random footage that we had from hanging out on the road. It’s more of a compilation of a few years. It took a really long time to track down some of those videos. A lot of the footage was from these video projects that we filmed and never finished.
You’re playing at Amoeba Records to coincide with the release. What’s the most recent album you’ve bought?
B: Yesterday I went with my girlfriend and got the new Lykke Li, which is an amazing album. I’m in Berkeley a lot so I go there whenever I have some cash and have a look around. One of the first times we went to LA as a band, we drove to LA and we couldn’t afford a hotel. To kill a few hours we hung out there [Amoeba Records] but we couldn’t buy anything because we were broke but it was fun. So being in a record store kept us motivated. Back in the day, we saw a few bands perform there; that was really cool to go see.
What’s been your favorite moment of your tour with The Kin?
B: We got to play The Bowery Ballroom in New York City, a fairly historic venue, The Strokes played there. That’s one of the key places to play in New York City. We got to play there again recently; we just did a little two week tour with The Mowgli’s, that was a lot of fun. We went into it knowing The Mowgli’s and we also got to play with Misterwives. Their record could be one of the best I’ve heard in a while. So playing The Bowery Ballroom twice was just amazing.
How would you describe your own style of music?
B: We used to say indie pop but everyone says it now so I feel like it’s got a negative connotation. We consider ourselves alt rock. We have a big emphasis on melody and on song meaning as well. Throughout our music there’s no particular emphasis on one particular style. We like it to be interesting.
What’s the story behind your name?
B: It’s some old inside joke we had as teenagers and we never really revealed the meaning. It was never intended to get that far out. We didn’t really realize we’d be stuck with it.
M: Yeah, some of the members involved in the original inside joke aren’t even in the band anymore.
Have you played in Davis before?
M: Yeah actually, I went to UC Davis for two years and we played a lot of places. We went there the same week as the Whole Earth Festival last year. So we love Davis. We’re pretty excited that the show we’re doing on May 10 is outside too.
You can see Finish Ticket on stage at UC Davis West Village on May 10. The free show begins at 7:30 p.m.
