[COS](https://www.cosstores.com/) jacket and OUR MOTHER rings.
For most the name [Finn Roberts](https://www.instagram.com/robertsdfinn/?hl=de) is synonymous with a Netflix Original series _Greenhouse Academy_ playing the character Alex. Though for the LA local, aspirations of music certainly have taken precedent as the young talent releases his new song "The Occasion," a paired back single which highlights his stirring, gentle and unadulterated vocals. Sparse as well as intense, something immediately hits that references the early days of 90s alt rock and the bluesy devastation of Jeff Buckley. We caught up with Finn to chat about "fun" IDs in LA’s music scene, his parallel careers in music and acting, as well as those strong Jeff Buckley vibes.
**What was your experience growing up in LA with the music scene and engaging with live music?**
Aside from bigger venues, it was tricky dealing with the over 21 or over 18 scene in order to see certain bands so we had to be creative, When we were really young we had pop ups in people’s houses, The Smell in Downtown LA and there was Amplyfi where I played a few shows actually because I was in bands at various times growing up from about the age of 12 with my brothers and kids in the neighborhood. We started with covers and later wrote our own songs. And there were festivals of course. I remember going to Coachella when I was about 16, specifically to see Wild Beasts. It was actually my birthday that weekend. Awesome.
**This is a collaboration with you and your brother, how long have you guys been working together in this medium do you feel it’s easier as you’re family or are there more boundaries that you feel you have not creatively broken through yet?**
There is both an ease and an unease in working with someone as close as a brother. On the one hand you feel free enough to say whatever you want bluntly but you can also get that right back at you and it could derail things. But Pascal and I have a long history of music together whether it was playing or writing together, so there’s a lot of respect there between us but as a producer/artist, it’s still a relatively new relationship. The thing I’m proud of is that we can always be straight up with each other without too much heated debate, we trust each other. Pascal is such a talent and one of those people where if the right song comes along something truly magical happens. He started writing an arrangement for The Occasion one night and pretty quickly we realized it was something special and exactly what the song needed. The vocals are emotional, and the instrumental parts and production add layers of additional beauty and emotion and allow the song to breathe and build.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a boundary but maybe a new frontier would be for us to create a more beat-driven song together. I’m already thinking about that and think we’d both like that.
**Your song was exceptionally nuanced and ethereal how do you feel that fans from your work on Netflix will engage with your music?**
Thank you! Truthfully, I have no idea how fans of the show will respond to my music. I do know they are excited to hear it though. I’m curious how they will engage with it, given my character on the show isn’t a musician. He is definitely different from who I am as a person and as an artist. But music with emotion and feeling becomes a universal language that can reach anyone. The Occasion was written from a vulnerable place within me, when I was thinking about what is real and truth, love and connection. I wasn’t sure I would ever release it honestly. The lyrics reveal that and somehow it feels like the right time for it. I hope people connect with it and feel something. All I can do is offer it up to the world.
**Has your popularity on social media and Netflix helped guide your music career? I feel it is a lovely thing that the work will be able to get in their hands.**
It has definitely energized me and been a catalyst for releasing music. These fans of the show and even an earlier show I did called Side Effects are just the best and send me the most amazing messages.
It feels really good to share something else with them, a different side of myself perhaps, and to connect with them all in a different way, though music.
**Having worked with Mike Mills and a slew of other about respected projects do you feel that that level of creative expanse is something you incorporate into your music?**
Definitely. I’m grateful for those experiences. Working with people who have a strong creative vision has definitely helped me realize the importance of staying true to yourself and in being creative in the way I want rather than following a trend of what is supposed to be popular.
**I see that you are really into photography do you feel your photographs and music collide at some point in a directional narrative and design?**
I do love photography especially film photography, I do hope one day to be able to utilize my photography in my music, even have my own gallery in the future.
**Sonically who do you feel is the most inspirational to your sound and how do you see yourself evolving as a musician?**
I will say Ray Lamontagne for his storytelling, Nick Drake for his hauntingly beautiful sounds and loneliness and lyrics, and lately Maggie Rogers because she’s exactly where I’d love to be right now in terms of creative freedom over her image and sound, plus she’s just such a talent, love that girl. And of course, Jeff Buckley, always, one of my biggest music inspirations .
Firstly I am planning on releasing more music. I want to start working on a live show and hope to start playing shows when this whole crazy quarantine fiasco is over and write more music with other people too. I always try to write from an emotional place, I use a lot of my life experiences and what I’m thinking and feeling at the time to make a song. It can end up being soft and tranquil or hard and crashing as well, if I start something and it doesn’t have that ‘magic emotional quality’ that can suck you right in then I don’t even bother. It can be a finicky process, I’ll hum melodies until I know what to do with them, sometimes it can take a while. That’s my current process. I’m getting confident in my instincts and understanding that writing music is just a learning process.
**How do you describe your style? I feel strong young Jeff Buckley vibes.**
A Jeff Buckley probably saved me as a vocalist. By the time I was 18 I had become very unsure of myself as an artist and felt bankrupt as a vocalist. The things I had been trying to do with my voice weren’t making sense to anyone else. I ended up going to see an LA vocal coach, Kyle Puccia, great guy, who immediately had me start listening to Jeff Buckley. As soon as I heard Lover You Should Have Come Over it was like meeting an old friend. I was blown away and everything I was doing before made sense. Suddenly my range was back and singing become my place of joy again.
Without doubt my biggest fashion and style inspiration is the incomparable and eternal Dylan Rieder. He never fell into the expected norms of the skating world at that time. He blazed his own trail. Just be who are you, unapologetically.
* * *
Photographed by: [Paris Helena](http://parishelena.com/).
Styled by: [Janet Gomez](http://www.janetdgomez.com/).
Grommer: [Kayle Williams](https://instagram.com/kaylewilliams1) using Quidad + Kevin Murphy at Exclusive Artists.
.jpg)
