GET TO KNOW: FINGY

FINGY is a Los Angeles raised Chicago-based Producer/DJ/Engineer who pushes the sonic boundaries of House music. Influenced by Funk, Soul, and R&B, FINGY’s music encapsulates an upbeat energy with smooth, melodic undertones. Working alongside indie artists such as Ondine, Heartgaze, Nina Tech and more, FINGY is able to shape sonic aesthetics across a multitude of musically diverse catalogs. We had a chance to sit down with them and talk all things production, inspiration and motivation. Read their lovely words below and learn more on their Instagram here.

Tess: Thank you so much for sitting down with us, we are so excited to chat. Let’s get into it!! How did you first get interested in the production/engineering side of music?

Fingy: Both production and engineering kind of have different stories! I think my interest in production started when I was 15. That was when I really started seriously diving into music on my own and around the same time, my brother was producing his own music in Ableton. So I gained this new found passion for music at the same time that I was introduced to a software in which you can create music. One day my brother and his friends were chilling in my living room and they were working on a song in Ableton and I was like “what’s that?” and just started producing that way. 

As far as engineering, nowadays you kind of mix as you go, but I didn't really know what that was at the time. I was just throwing on effects and slapping EQ on and turning the low end up like a thousand percent, because I didn’t know what I was doing. Then when I started looking into colleges, it was either music, music composition, music business, or audio engineering. I can't really play any instruments fluently so I had nothing to audition with. I ended up minoring in music business because I wanted to know a lot about it, but the third option was audio design and production. And I wanted to learn the technology behind it and the techniques and theories behind it and go from there. I just went in blind for my major, and ended up loving it. I was able to hone in on my engineering skills. So production came first in high school and then engineering began in college. 

Tess: Where did you go to school?

Fingly: I went to Columbia College Chicago. It’s one of the few colleges in America that has an audio program. 

Tess: That’s interesting! I love Chicago so much. What do you love about the music scene there?

Fingy: I love a lot. A lot. I think it’s extremely vibrant, eclectic, active and most importantly supportive. What I mean by that is, you have everyone from DJs to vocalists to performance artists. There is always someone doing something in the city of Chicago that involves arts and music. A lot of concerts that I go to I see the same faces and a lot of those faces are artists as well. It’s not only collaborative but it’s a very supportive community as well. People aren’t necessarily stepping on top of each other trying to get to the next stage but we are working together and showing up for each other. 

We truly know how f****** good it feels to have a face in the crowd for ourselves, so I think that Chicago really showcases that empathy among artists that I haven't really seen in other places. I haven't been to many other places but I definitely feel it in Chicago.

Tess: Yeah I feel that in Chicago too. Everyone thinks of LA as this big hub and there's this huge music community but the reality is that it’s kind of this corporate disguise, and the community is not as fully supportive in the ways you’re describing as it is in other places. 

Fingy: Yeah, but it's also a double-edged sword. I have this conversation a lot because I think in Chicago, you come up and if you're genuine and talented, people immediately really f*** with you and want to support you, but since Chicago lacks an abundance of resources like LA and New York, typically you reach a certain threshold and get outsourced or have to move. You hit a level in your career where it becomes less community oriented because you're trying to go national or international. That's a part of the cycle and I think there can be some resentment that the community holds once people make it out of Chicago. It’s very interesting seeing how different cities and different communities operate. 

Tess: How are you finding new artists and music to listen to?

Fingy: If it’s not Discover Weekly, it’s clicking from one artist to get to the next, to get to the next, to get to the next. I listen to one song at a time, so not necessarily artist focused. I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz and soul music. I think the people I want to point out are Liv.e, who is my favorite vocalist. She is rolling out her new album and her singles have been awesome. I’ve been listening to Cookiee Kawaii. She’s this Jersey artist who is really pushing jersey club music forward. She's really raw.

I have also been listening to Summer walker, the song Session 32 over and over again. I knew that song a while ago, but it recently just came back into my life, via my brain, and it's just been on absolute repeat for the past three weeks. 

Tess:  This is great, thank you so much for these recommendations, we’ll have to check these out! It sounds like you’re listening to a lot of different genres!

Fingy: Yeah, they're all super, super talented artists, and all so different. Three different areas, but all raw. 

Tess: Who are some producers that you have been into lately?

Fingy: I just discovered Miso Extra, she’s based in London. She makes raw shit, I wanna figure out who engineers her s***, she's fire. High Tech is really good. CCIV is a hyper pop dance side project that is really fire. Wealstarcks, I listened to one of his albums that came out in 2021 and it is straight bangers, straight dance bangers. It’s very Kaytranda influenced, mixed with Portuguese Parisian influence, it’s cool shit, I really like it. 

Rod Lee, I’ve been religiously listening to for the last 6 months, he’s from Baltimore, he makes addictive, high-energy music that has now sent me from the 126 to the 138 range, and I don’t know if I’m ever coming back down! As a DJ, it's really fun to play Jersey and Baltimore music because it's around 136BPM to 142BPM and half time is like 68-74 ish, and that's R&B. So layering those vocals over that dance music is really fun to play with. 

Tess: We’ll have to come to one of your DJ sets soon, that sounds so fun. Now, I’m curious, you have such an exectic range, people from different countries and states. Are you finding out about them through Spotify, word of mouth, or at live shows?

Fingy: It’s funny because I was putting together a spotify playlist today and I was like “I know a lot of stuff!” I forget that because my partner knows way more than I do and I’m always learning a lot. It pretty much comes down to Discover Weeklys, and if I find a song I like I will go to that song's radio and find another song I like and go to that song's radio. I watch a lot of boiler room sets and go to live shows. Overall having a partner and friends who love good music is great, we are always sharing. 

Tess: So who is your dream collab?

Fingy: I have a lot of dream collabs. The dream dream dream collab is Erykah Badu. But it’s hard for me to say that, because I don’t think I’m ready and don’t know if I’ll ever be ready. Rosalía is really fire, not only as a vocalist, but also her production and engineering. Yaeji is super dope, I love her art and how she's growing. Both Rosalía and Yaeji are pushing outside of the box and I love that. 

Obviously Kaytranada. He is my bible, he is my blueprint so that will happen. Without a doubt that will happen.

Tess: I love Yaeji. Is Kaytranada from Chicago?

Fingy: He’s actually from Haiti and was then raised in Montreal. A Haitian Canadian boy. But he has love for Chicago because he has love for house and house was born here. 

Tess: Oh interesting! I didn’t know house was born in Chicago! 

Fingy: I know you want a quick history lesson…  this guy Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles were the main guys (at Paradise Garage in New York). One day they got a call from Chicago, like, Hey Frankie we're opening this new club called the Warehouse, we want you to move here, come spin here, yada yada yada. He shows up, starts spinning at the warehouse along with a couple other people and house music was kind of born there via cutting like funk and soul records and just getting certain sections from each like breakdown and then remixing them and looping them on vinyl in real time, and house music was basically derived from the music that was playing at the warehouse. So yeah, Chicago is very much so the birthplace of house music, because it quite literally is named after the club that was in Chicago!

Tess: Wow! I had no idea.

Fingy: Me either and I didn't know what house music was. I just made music that was kind of like similar to that, and then I moved to Chicago and then I took a freshman immersion class and I learned all of this in that class and I was like, look at that. And then I listen to music I was making and was like, wait, this is four on the floor with the hi-hat and a snare in between, this is what house music is. I've been making this the whole time. So I'm just like, okay there's a reason. There's a reason why I'm sitting here right now. So I'm just It all at all.

Tess: It’s all aligning!! That’s great. We would love to know where you get your inspo for your visuals? 

Fingy: That’s a great question. I'd say like a lot of places. Following artists I like, and drawing inspiration from what they’re doing. On Instagram I follow just a lot of, for lack of a better term, aesthetic pages. So a lot of architectural pages, graphic designers, or photographers. I've just kind of been treating and training my eye a bit. I also have a lot of friends with amazing eyes as well. 

With a lot of the photo shoot and video concepts, I like texture and vibrancy and anything that ignites the senses. When I make music I try to paint a sonic picture, so when I do visuals I really try to make it as visually textured and create as much of an environment as possible. 

A lot of these photo shoots I’ve done have been photographers asking if they can shoot me, so if they are doing this for free, I’m like “Whatever your vision is, I'll get it done.” And that is awesome for them because they're able to like, use me as a canvas to express themselves and create their vision. And it’s awesome for me because it takes the pressure off me to communicate visually, since my job is to do that sonically. 

Tess: Are a lot of these photographers people that you meet in chicago?

Fingy: Yeah, these are people reaching out to do photo shoots, some of them have been for trade, like I do a photoshoot for them and then I do a set for them at one of their parties. It is a lot of showing face, meeting people, and them offering, or them reaching out to me and me being like, “Bless.” 

Tess: Yeah! It’s hard to find a photographer you feel comfortable with and that can capture an actually good photo of you. 

Fingy: Yeah, and throwback to 8th grade when girls would hang out to have photo shoots. And that scared the living shit out of me, I hated that. If I knew that was the vibe I would not show up. When I was a kid, my mom would try to get professional photos of me taken, but I would always be making silly faces. My theory behind it was if I was purposefully making a funny face, I’m purposely looking ugly so people can imagine that I look good in real life. Versus trying to look good and not looking good, that would be really embarrassing. So then Fingy stuff started coming up and I needed photos of myself. Luckily I am a dancer and I have danced since I was 5 and when I go to photoshoots now, I just dance. I am always dancing. I did an interview with These Days recently, and they shared some BTS content, and like, I don't know if you can really tell but the whole time I'm just like dancing because I don't know how to strike a pose, but I do know how to move my body.

Tess: Do you dance when you’re DJing too?

Fingy: Yeah, I do, and it adds this whole new layer that I hadn’t anticipated. When I did dance lessons as a kid, we'd start with like confidence warm ups. So you’d have to walk across the floor with confidence and the only mistake you can make is if you walk across the floor and say, “I can't do it” give up. You just have to send it. It's okay if you look f****** stupid but just commit and do it and promise, you'll look dope. So I got that ingrained in me as a child. So when it comes to performance, rather than having to perform and do choreography and emote, like I used to, now I'm just standing behind a table doing some shit and grooving, and that's so much easier. So yeah, dance has totally leveled me up in the DJ aspect of it. I’m not doing pirouettes or head spins but I am like, doing a little groove. 

Tess: It’s all about confidence. That's a really good lesson to teach kids. More kids should be taught to just go for it. 

Fingy: Yeah, it's not all being cool, it's not about doing it right. Confidence is the truth that you are speaking through your body. 

Tess: Wow, that's beautiful. What is your creative process like? 

Fingy: It's different every time but If I had to describe it in one word, it would be fun. You gotta just f***** have fun. It depends on where I’m working and who I'm working with. But I guess the general thing is, I sit down at my computer and I f***** do some things, and then I stop doing the things, and I’m left with something, and that’s the process. 

Tess: Yeah that's great. How do you continue to pull through and find the fun in your work when you’re feeling blocked?

Fingy: The tough paradox of it is, when I'm in my studio, I do have everything I need to create but I create the best when I’m on the go, like a different state or different country. Something about being in a different place really helps me, but that's hard if I don’t have all my stuff. But at the end of the day, most of the stuff I do is truly in the box. So, I can always sauce it up later, but if I had like full autonomy, I would be traveling around and making s*** on the go, and that would be how I'd be having fun.

Tess: How does your creative process change when you work with/for other artists vs. creating music for yourself?

Fingy: I think Pharell said it best, a good producer is like a chameleon, and can come into the room, or have someone come into their room, and soak themselves in the artist and work in the way that's best for that artist. It's different when I work with producers. When I work with producers, someone will come in and work on something and we’ll kind of take turns tapping in and out. But with vocalists, I am very much checking in on how they’re feeling. So like okay, how are you feeling today? What's been going on in your life? What’s the energy like today? Do you know what you want to create? We have some food, we chat, and then we send it. And as I'm creating, I'm constantly tapping in with them seeing how they like it. 

Sometimes when I am trying to find a lead melody, I’ll listen to songs that I like and start singing over them with new words and then use that idea to create a completely new song out of that. Then that melody eventually evolves and becomes something new and indistinguishable from the original thing you were listening to. 

Tess: That’s a cool tip. Yeah, listening to something else can really spark creative inspiration. 

Fingy: Yeah, you can listen to something and be like, “I love that drum sequence,” or, “I love that baseline, let me emulate it.” Then I'll work on that for a while and then be like, “Oh, actually, I'm gonna do this instead” and then I do something else. Just taking like a lick of something you like and trying to emulate it, but then it always naturally evolves into something completely different.

Tess: A starting point! Is there any one element in the process of producing a song/album that feels more important than the rest?

Fingy: I think of the idea of “the zone.” If I am working on a really special song, time just falls away and I am tripping over myself trying to keep up with all the ideas I have. When I’m clicked in, there is no stopping, it’s a domino effect. That’s what makes the song special.

I have made songs where I haven't been in the zone, it’s possible. But I do my best to make sure “The Zone” happens. That’s making sure my space is clean and smells nice, and I’m clean and smell nice, and I’m comfortable, just getting everything in order in my environment. But there’s no guarantee. It’s alchemy. 

Tess: It really is alchemy. Do you ever make songs just for yourself that you don’t plan on releasing?

Fingy: As a person, I love sharing my stories and I love telling people what I’m doing. When something happens to me, I immediately want to tell someone I’m close to, that's my nature. Same thing with music, If I make something fire, I want to show everybody. Once you put out music, it takes its own form and expands and becomes its own thing, and there's a lot of value in that. The reason why I truly want to make music is I am trying to positively affect as many people as I can. As I grow older I’m also thinking about quality over quantity, and intention versus mass production. I feel like I’m discovering the power of music and its true influence. I find myself thinking, how influenced can someone truly be by a universal theme, rather than something that hits a certain deeper place in your soul. I’m aware that I can only go so deep as a white female bodied person, I am toggling with the fact that I want to affect a lot of people but to what extent? Music is really sacred and I have seen how sacred art forms become oversaturated because the meaning of the music was lost in the masses. I want to make music to put it out and I am picky and I am only going to put out what I think is 98% there. 

Tess: That was a great answer. Thank you for all of that. What advice do you have for a producer who’s just getting started?

Fingy: Have fun, get weird and organize your files. It always needs to come back to fun. If it doesn't start there, it wont fuel you. Making music and art should be a fueling process for a creative person. Don’t make anything that you think needs to sound like anything else. You might as well try to do what I do with photos, make it sound ugly, but then it might be cool instead of trying to make it sound like a top 40 track, because it won’t, and you’ll just get sad. 

Tess: Yes! That is great advice. What can people expect next from Fingy?

Fingy: Off the top, working with you guys and working with these lovely kids who are putting in these dope ass demos. So I would like to say that, WIP baby!

Tess: Finally, I would also love for you to explain the name ‘Fingy’ because I love this story and people should know!

Fingy: Okay. So the government is Natalie Finfer and when you type that in, autocorrect thinks you mean Natalie finger. You're like f***. So some people started calling me finger and I was like, okay, that's cute. So then I was making a soundcloud really quick, I was like, “Oh, what's the name? What's the name? Finger beats.” And like, started my kind of career-ish as Finger Beats and then, when I was getting ready for my first EP it was like, it’s now or Never. Let's do Fingy. It's kind of ambiguous. I like that. And makes you smile and you can't be too serious. It's never that deep. It's never that serious. So I like Fingy because it keeps it light.