MLWZ's 5 questions to Heather Findlay
1. Looking back to last 10 years which you spent in Mostly Autumn, what was your biggest achievement as a person and as an artist?
HF: My time with MA in itself is quite an acheivement. (I was in the band for 13 years by the way) I always wanted to have children too so, that I now have two beautiful healthy baby boys; a career with MA behind me and a solo career just beginning I feel very lucky indeed!
2. What was the reason(s) you decided to quit Mostly Autumn?
Sometimes it just feels right to move on. I had a great time with them and the band members are still some of my closest friends and always will be. I had a niggling urge to try something different and to do it on my own. This I have now acheived and I have never looked back. A brave move, because there was a lot of security in my life within MA. I felt like I had begun to be just going through the motions in the band and that wasn’t fair to them.
3. You are going to release a series of EP releases instead of one full length debut album. Why?
HF: It was always my intention to create a full album upon leaving MA but once I started to actually write, the music came out in so many differing directions that I had to just take a few steps back and re-think. What I really didn’t want to do was to shoe-horn an incredibly eclectic bunch of songs in to the same collection just for the sake of it. I also knew I wanted to keep my solo work fresh and innovative. The concept of an EP series and the way that breaking up the material in such a way allowed me to be more experimental really appealed to me.
4. Was your intention to radically change the style of your solo works comparing to Mostly Autumn’s stuff? If so, why? Do you want to gain completely new audience by your solo music?
HF: I definitely wanted to move in a different direction and this was the main reason for my leaving MA. I needed to make some kind of a mark on my own. MA is Bryan Josh’s band. Whether I want to attract a completely new audience with my solo material is a tricky question to answer. I love my supporters and I honestly believe there are very many among them like myself, with a very varied musical taste whereas I fully appreciate there are others too who will find the music I have chosen to make harder to accept as there are a lot of my supporters who are deeply into progressive symphonic rock music.
If I went out to write music just to please others I wouldn’t be be being true to myself. In fact I know I would feel very cheated.
When I began working with MA we never actively sought out a fan-base. They kind of found us and until we began to gather media acclaim, we didn’t even know we were progressive rock! It would be ideal in some ways to have that innocence back here again. I am confident that I have made some great music on The Phoenix Suite and it is material that, like all the music I have ever written, is completely honest and means a great deal to me. It has had just as much, if not more effort and love poured into it. Although it comes in a slightly different wrapping this time, I am incredibly happy with it. If others like it too, whoever they are, then I shall be even happier! J
5. Last year you changed your personal and artistic life. What would you say if somebody asks you what your dream to fulfill are in next 10 years time in both fields?
I would love to look back in 10 years time and see that I managed to become a successful solo artist and performer and moreover to have managed to keep moving forward with the creative development therein. I would also love to develop my skills as a painter. If I can do all this whilst maintaining a happy balance within my little family too, then I think I’m on to a winner!
