Finish Ticket is back and better than ever! I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with them before their last show on their 2019 Dream Tour. This is the band’s first tour after being on a four-year hiatus, so it was wonderful to catch up with them about new music plans. Before their final show at Slim’s in San Francisco, I talked to Brendan Hoye (vocals), Alex DiDonato (guitar), and Gabe Stein (drums) about how it feels to be back on tour after so long, what their fans mean to them, and why they love being back in the Bay Area so much.
Introduce yourselves, please!
Brendan: We are Finish Ticket, and I’m Brendan.
Alex: I’m Alex, and I play guitar for Finish Ticket.
Gabe: I’m Gabe, I play the drums for Finish Ticket.
Your tour is called “The Dream tour” (obviously after your single, Dream Song). Why, exactly, did you choose to name the tour after that song in particular?
Alex: I don't know; it just seemed kind of funny to say it. Even to have a song called “Dream Song” and then to also just name our tour “The Dream Fuckin’ Tour,” but you know, it was kind of a dream for us because we haven’t toured for so long. In a way, it kind of just felt right.
You’re all from the Bay Area. How has growing up in the bay influenced your music?
Alex: So much, oh my gosh. I mean, literally, I went to one of my first shows ever here at Slim’s. When I was 15, I came here and saw The Matches and it blew my mind, changed my life. We’ve been coming to the Bay shows forever.
Brendan: Yeah, in high school, like every weekend, we would be out here in San Francisco. We’re from Alameda; that’s where the band was started. So we would, just every weekend, come into the city and see local bands. And at the time there were actually a lot of local bands that were doing pretty well and, actually making it out of here and touring and doing all kinds of things. A lot of the bands we went to see, I didn't even realize that they were local, because they seemed to be doing such big things, especially to us at the time, so it kind of just set a really high standard for us. And then when we started actually playing, ourselves, we would try to get on these bills with all of these bands, and we were just kids playing with people in their mid-20s and it was very intimidating. We quickly realized that we had to make a goal; no one would take us seriously as kids, basically. So we had to just show everyone that we had to play really well live. We just had to really wow the crowd and we always had to have a high-energy show that left people wanting more. That was an early goal of ours. And its because of the local scene here in San Francisco and just the quality of the bands and trying to compete with them. Not even compete, though; but just to be on the same level.
Alex: To even be able to play with them.
Brendan: Yeah. And I think the way that that’s influenced us is that its just really made our live shows the biggest thing about our band. We always try to have an amazing live show.
You decided to end the first leg of The Dream Tour in SF. Did you do this so that you could end the tour and just be home, or was there a more specific reason you chose to end the tour in the Bay area?
Alex: Well, actually, we all live in LA now. So we kind of did it a little backward [by having our second to last show in LA]. I guess it wasn’t super intentional, but it feels right. It’s just nice to come back here.
Gabe: Yeah, like our favorite fanbase...I mean, I shouldn’t say our favorite fanbase, but our original fanbase is here. So, it felt right.
Brendan: Yeah. It felt right; we can see family and stuff while we’re here, too.
You recently released a new single, “Ceiling Won’t Break”, which is about how you all deal with depression. The song is incredible, and as someone who also deals with depression, it’s nice to hear songs that perfectly encapsulate how it feels; it makes me feel less alone. That being said, what made you want to release something so personal and raw for so many people to hear?
Alex: That’s, like, our ultimate goal.
Brendan: I think for me, you know, we have a lot of fans who write us letters and do things like that and we would also just stay and talk to people after shows. And a lot of people would tell us about how our music has helped them and things like that. And they'd open up about a lot of the things that they’ve been thorugh. Obviously, its always great to hear about how our music can help people because that’s what we want to do with music. But, you know, you can't always relate to every story. But the biggest thing was that a lot of people suffer from depression and things like that and they were telling us that our music has helped them through it. Personally, I have never really dealt with it, so I would do my best to understand, but I think basically during our time off, when we took so much time from doing what we love, like, there were so many things that changed in our lives, and it led to some depression for us. And that was my first time really dealing with it, but also realizing that I can finally relate to all of the people that I talk to who have it, too, and I can get it. To me, it was one of the songs that really kept me going, because I felt like we had to finish it. I think we all felt that way and we had to get it out there for all of the people that we’ve met and that have shared their stories with us. I felt like we had to do the same for them.
Alex: And it was for ourselves, too. We were able to talk about it and we were able to accomplish something that was important to us and to our fans.
You took a four-year-long hiatus where you didn’t release any new music. Now, you’ve released two new songs in the span of two(ish) months. Did you feel like you ~had~ to release new music right after coming off of hiatus?
Gabe: It was a combination, I think.
Alex: We’ve been wanting to release new stuff since the day we stopped touring in 2016.
Gabe: Yeah, we’ve had songs like stacked up and you know, songs that we love, for years and years. But through a lot of complications, we weren't able to release them. So this was pretty much the fastest we were able to do it through all the shit we had to go through. So now, what we've learned from that is that we want to be able to keep releasing as much as we can. Because when you sit on, like, 30 songs and they don't come out, it's just really hard to do. You get less excited about making new stuff, so I think for us, since the hiatus, we just feel like we have to keep releasing new music, we have to keep sharing everything with everybody.
Brendan: I think it also, just not releasing music and just sitting on so many songs, made it harder to keep writing. Because you start to be like, “well, what’s the point? This isn’t even going anywhere.”
Gabe: Exactly. You just start questioning everything.
Brendan: So, now, that's just the biggest reason we want to get stuff out. Just to keep ourselves feeling like we actually can put stuff out into the world and as we're doing new stuff, we see that it’s gonna make it out there. It’s really kept us motivated. And now we have a bunch more things; so many new songs.
Alex: Yeah, and they're coming out this time.
How does it feel to release new music and to be back on the road?
Brendan: It feels amazing.
Gabe: It's pretty crazy because we got really used to this, these guys more than me, but for most of my adult life, we’ve been touring and making music. So to take time off from what I'm used to and then to come back to it just gives me a new perspective. It lets me appreciate the little things, like long drives. Little things that we used to dread, now I'm, like, “YES!”
Alex: Yeah, I think we’re all more cognizant of how grateful we should be this time around. Before we were on a kind of trajectory where we were just like, go, go, go, and then everything stopped. And for years we just wanted to get back to doing it again. So now that we are, I think we have a newfound appreciation for people who are making it able for us to do this, like fans coming out and people wanting to watch the shows. It just means that much more this time around.
Brendan: Not that it ever didn’t, but it just means even more now.
Alex: Yeah, just like a perspective change.
What do you love most about music? Gabe: Oh, I got one. Can I start? For me, I think what I used to do is just love music to listen to and appreciate it. But with making music, finding that it connects with people, like what you were saying about “Ceiling,” you know? Just like, holy shit. It just makes it so much bigger. Just having something bigger than yourself that you can share with people is honestly the most rewarding thing I think I've ever been able to do.
Brendan: I completely agree. That's totally why I love it too. That’s why I, at every show, but especially on this tour, I've been looking out at the crowd and just seeing people’s reactions [to the music]. It’s just so awesome to see how something we've created has impacted people. And during the show, seeing it in real-time, seeing people crying and singing along and seeing how happy people are to be it is just amazing. I don't know, I love it.
Any closing thoughts?
Gabe: We’re just happy to be back. We’ll have more stuff coming out. We’re independent, now, so we're in control of our destiny, as far as releasing music. So, we have a lot of stuff we're excited about.
Alex: I mean, we can just say that there's a new song coming out very soon, and then more to follow.
While I may not have exact dates as to when Finish Ticket will be releasing new music, I can assure you that some amazing new things will be released soon. For the time being, don’t forget to check the band out on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. While you’re there, don’t forget to follow them on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!
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