FINGER ELEVEN Members Reflect On Three-Decade Career: 'The Dream Is Still Happening'

In a recent interview with CHOM 97 7's Randy Renaud, Scott Anderson (vocals) and James Black (lead guitar/backing vocals) of Canadian rockers FINGER ELEVEN were asked what it feels like to be performing songs to an audience that includes kids who are younger than the bandmembers were when they first started out. Scott responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's an absolute trip. That's the dream, to have this — I guess we could really, truly definitively call it a music career. We've been at this for long enough."

He continued: "I think the perspective now, I just feel luckier than I have ever felt, because this is — a whole bunch of stuff has changed, but the main core of us just getting together and trying to make stuff that we enjoy and the idea that we still get to do it, I mean, come on. The dream is still happening. I love it."

James added: "Music, for me, is very attached to my dad and my dad's record collection. And so when you see that happening again in another cycle of it, it's — I don't know — it's pretty heavy duty, actually, to think, like, okay, in some kid's house, FINGER ELEVEN was on all the time, and so that's part of the fabric of what he thinks rock and roll is. It's, like, a rite of passage or something. I know that it sounds like highfalutin, but…"

FINGER ELEVEN's latest album, "Last Night On Earth", came out on November 7 via Better Noise Music.

Released in September, the "Last Night On Earth" title track was the follow-up to the album's second single and video which was released in August, the thunderous "Blue Sky Mystery" featuring Richard Patrick from FILTER.

Last year, fans got the first taste of "Last Night On Earth" via the high-octane "Adrenaline" (which reached the Top 20 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart) and a video that's garnered nearly 200,000 views on YouTube. The song also reached No. 2 on the Active Rock chart in Canada, where the song held strong in the Top 5 for over four months.

"As we were making 'Last Night On Earth', there was this feeling that we were making a big rock record," rhythm guitarist Rick Jackett recalled. "We had done that early in our career, and then we veered away from it. But it was time to go back and embrace that bigness of the sound. Even the soft songs sound big."

FINGER ELEVEN have always amalgamated their musical influences from the 1960s forward into their rock mix. They acknowledge that Phil Collins and GENESIS were a big melodic influence on "Last Night On Earth". And the new tunes explore time-honored FINGER ELEVEN concepts with fresh twists. While "Adrenaline" is a rousing, intense anthem about pushing forward against adversity, "Blue Sky Mystery" is another hard-hitting rocker about being beguiled by something just out of reach. Further into the album, "The Mountain" rides musical peaks and valleys in its quest to chase the song, about the creative process expressed in a fantasy setting. Then there is the acoustic number "Last Night On Earth", which tackles relationship turmoil. It's the most personal new track for Anderson.

Originally from Burlington, Ontario and now based mostly out of Toronto, FINGER ELEVEN has released a series of consecutive hit albums and become among the greatest live bands to ever emerge from the great White North. Their self-titled debut album broke the band into the international mainstream, achieving gold status in the United States and platinum in Canada, and smashing the first single "One Thing" across the radio and Billboard charts. Their 2007 album "Them Vs. You Vs. Me" launched the single "Paralyzer", setting radio records in the U.S., peaking at No. 1 internationally and going five times platinum, the band's second million-plus seller. They won the Juno Award for "Rock Album" the following year and set an incredible run at rock radio, with an unbeaten 14 weeks at the top spot. "Life Turns Electric" was nominated for a Juno Award for "Best Rock Album Of The Year". 2015's "Five Crooked Lines" continued to electrify audiences the world over and their 2023 "Greatest Hits" includes their biggest smash hit in a decade, "Together Right", which topped the radio charts for an amazing five-week run at No. 1.

Photo credit: Myles Erfurth