Perth Voice Interactive

AN anthropologist working with Aboriginal groups in WA, it’s no surprise that Finn Alexander’s music is deep, multi-layered and says a lot about the human condition.

When he’s not out in the field deciphering civilisation, you’ll find the 26-year-old tinkering on his guitar and writing songs in his share-house in Fremantle.

Alexander’s been playing guitar since the age of 10 and got a first class music education from his cool parents who were into Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Leonard Cohen and PJ Harvey.

After a songwriting hiatus, Alexander realised he needed music back in his life, so in 2022 he formed a new alt-rock band – The Forever Party.

“The group came together late last year after I fell deeply back in love with songwriting after a long break,” he says.

“I’d been so totally immersed in studies and work and remember feeling a bit lost, and envious of people around me making beautiful things. 

“At some point I realised that there was this colossal, music shaped hole in my life.”

Alexander got in touch with his old drummer Rory Lowe-McLoughlin from Western Kinsmen of the Sun, and it wasn’t long before they had enlisted fiddler Elise Hiatt from Jack Davies and the Bush Chooks, Patrick Nielsen on bass and lead guitarist Finn Pearson, whose played with Siobhan Cotchin.

Their upcoming single God is Murdered is a dreamy, spiritual epic that winds its way through the ups and downs of modern life.

Featuring a bitter-sweet melody and gorgeous chord progression, it never outstays its welcome and is at times uplifting and at others melancholic.

The video for the six-minute song, shot by Walkley award- winning videographer Rebecca Metcalf, includes a montage of conflicts and riots around the world, interspersed with footage of Alexander, looking like a bewildered Jesus, wandering around the countryside.

“God is Murdered is about a lot of things, and I’m finding new meanings in it as it ages (I wrote it two-ish years ago),” Alexander says.

“The chorus line is ‘We’re killing God, and we’re building new religions’.

“One idea there is that in the rejection of traditional religion we seek the same sorts of meaning in secular ideology, with similar consequences.

“There’s this beautiful irony to that which makes me laugh. We yearn for rapid social evolution but we’re still profoundly tribal animals, so we get snared again and again by black and white thinking, moral dogmas, and ideas like excommunication. Whatever our views are, we all find a way to carve an altar out of something.” 

Alexander says he’s inspired to write about things that fascinate or bewilder him; mostly acts committed by dumb humans.

“There’s a song on our upcoming EP called Reflections of the Revolution about a fictional revolution where humanity devolves into a sort of euphoric anarchy,” Alexander says.

“There’s this human inclination to view ourselves as the archetype of the saviour.

“When shit hits the fan most of us would like to believe that we would ‘rise to the occasion’ but that doesn’t often play out in reality. I think that’s an interesting thing to write a song about.

“We’re an alt-rock band with a lyrical tendency towards the honest and the absurd. Imagine that Nick Cave had a drink with Father John Misty and then Matt Berninger walked into the bar but he was a little bit intoxicated (or something equally as ear catching).” 

Alexander is currently in Romania, but he’ll be back on home soil to play with the Forever Party at Bunbury Fringe on January 12 and the band’s latest single God is Murdered will be released on January 11. To find out more about Finn Alexander and the Forever Party see facebook.com/finnalexanderandtheforeverparty.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK