FINNEAS may have established himself as something of a Renaissance man in the industry. Together with his sister, Billie Eilish, the multi-hyphenate artist – part of the songwriting and production partnership that helped make her a global household name – has also become an established artist and super-producer in his own right.
While his journey as a guitarist dates back to some of Eilish’s earliest tracks, like bellyache and idontwannabeyouanymore, he officially made his mark on the guitar market last year after partnering with Fender on not one, but two signature Acoustasonic Telecaster models. The hybrid guitars reflect FINNEAS’ approach to both guitar and songwriting – a perspective shaped by his personal guitar heroes.
Alongside Nile Rodgers, St. Vincent, John Frusciante, and George Harrison, the more niche choice of Leslie Feist rounds out his top five guitarists.
“Leslie Feist of the band Feist is the dirtiest guitarist. She is so good,” he tells Consequence of Sound.
“Her music has always had amazing guitar parts and you just never know how those are coming to be on the record in the studio. Even if she was playing all of the guitar parts herself on the record, maybe that’s an overdub, maybe it’s three parts…she has a relationship with guitar that, when you watch her live, it’s pretty stunning.”
He continues, “She’s such an emotive player, I kind of can’t believe how complicated the parts she’s playing are all while she’s singing. She’s so cool and I’ve always been really impressed by her. She’s really a guitar hero of mine.”
Incorporating alternate tunings, nuanced strum patterns, and cascading fingerpicking in her work, the Canadian guitarist and indie pop singer-songwriter – with six studio albums under her belt – was also cited as an inspiration by Australian artist Bec Sandridge.
In a 2022 Australian Guitar interview, Sandridge said, “I love Leslie Feist’s playing. I think she’s so underrated. She manages to play really beautiful lines on parlour guitars and make them gross, which I love. And a lot of the time, she plays lead and rhythm simultaneously, which is something I try to do a lot of the time live.”
As for FINNEAS, he recently spoke about his penchant for inserting guitars into big pop songs – and how his nuanced approach to production – which is “all about pairing” – means he’ll often create multiple layers for any given guitar part.
