STG Presents Liam Finn and Eliza Jane With Special Guest Jason Lytle 10/25 At The Crocodile

Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents Liam Finn + Eliza Jane, with special guest Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 9:00pm at the Crocodile.

First you form a one man band. This involves knowing how to play a variety of instruments, and sometimes several of them at the same time. This hasn't been a problem for Finn, member of Betchadupa and heir apparent to the Finn family's musical talent. He has recently given live audiences in London, LA, Sidney, Melbourne and Auckland a bit of a thrill by singing, playing guitar lines, bass lines and the drums onstage at his solo gigs, with only a looping effects pedal (and even more recently EJ Barnes) for company.

Then secondly, you gather a bunch of suitably solitary compositions together. Finn has been writing the songs that will appear on this album, I'LL BE LIGHTNING, for the past few years while he and his band have been resident in Australia and the UK. Initially he imagined some of the songs being used by Betchadupa - the group are currently taking a break but will record together again - but, as Finn says, "the stuff I was writing was very personal and pretty intimate. These songs are very honest, they're like the story of my life over the past few years and I think they're some of the best songs I've ever written. But," he laughs, "because of that I guess I was a bit more sensitive about them, SO I didn't take them to the band immediately because I felt a bit self conscious about it."

Then finally, once you've gathered the songs and the instruments, you find a studio and record them. Also alone, Finn spent two months at the beginning of this year at Roundhead, a central Auckland studio, playing, recording, engineering and producing his own album. "Mainly because I didn't want to compromise or collaborate," he acknowledges. "I wanted to record these songs the way I heard them in my head. And I had a very clear idea of how I wanted them recorded."

To do this, Finn also stayed away from anything digital or computerized, instead opting for old fashioned analog gear, including a vintage Nieve recording desk that The Who had once owned and a bunch of two inch tape. "It's like the difference between digital video and film," Finn explains. "There's just something you can't capture on computers."

Tickets: $12.50 in advance, $15.00 day of show, not including applicable fees. Tickets are on sale now at Tickets.com, online through TheCrocodile.com, in person at the Paramount box office, 24-hour kiosks located outside The Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at 877-STG-4TIX, or online at STGPresents.org.