Finch breaks mold with new album

Finch guitarist Randy Strohmeyer said that with the upcoming album "Say Hello to Sunshine," his band wanted to branch out.

"We totally wrote songs that were different sounding than the rest of the stuff we've done in the past," Strohmeyer said by phone from Chicago as the band unloaded equipment into a venue called The Bottom Lounge.

Strohmeyer took a moment to call out to one of the crew to watch his fingers. Then he said that the band had an idea of what the new album was going to sound like once they started writing the songs. "There were probably two or three songs that weren't finished when we started the recording process. Those were mostly because the vocal lines weren't written. But we worked with a producer (Jason Cupp) who inspired us to do different things."

The band — made up of Strohmeyer, bassist Derek Doherty, vocalist Nate Barcalow, guitarist Alex Linares and drummer Marc Allen (who replaced Alex Pappas last year) — is happy with how the album turned out. "We knew the album was going to be different. And we knew that we wanted it to be our best release to date. In fact, we all had agreed that the album had to be good in our standards or we would just as not release anything.

"We've always had a high standard for our music. It's simple. The music represents us. Ever since we were younger, we knew we wanted to play music that we liked."

In addition to playing music he likes, Strohmeyer, whose father introduced him to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull, said he's lucky to be doing a job that he loves. "There are many people out there who hate what they do for a living. I would find that hard to wake up every morning if I were in that situation. Being in a band is something fun and cool. "

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If you go

What: Vandetta Red, Finch

Where: Lo-Fi Cafe, 127 S. West Temple

When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m.

How much: $12

Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499

Web: www.smithstix.com

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com