Singer-songwriter Finn Phoenix on his evolution as an artist, and playing music with friends

Finn Phoenix and The Firebirds is one of three youth bands playing WFDD’s Spring Fling event this weekend. Finn has been performing for about six years, but for this show, he’ll be joined by a few new friends.

WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with Finn about his evolution as an artist and musical inspiration. 

Growing as a musician

If you go to farmers markets around Greensboro, Mebane or Durham, you’ve probably heard Finn Phoenix singing and playing guitar.

He’s 14 now, but he’s been doing shows at markets and festivals in the area since he was just 8 years old. 

“I see a lot of people all the time, they're like, ‘Wow, you used to be so little, and now you're, like, a lot bigger and performing still,'" Finn says. 

He’s been singing for as long as he can remember, but he started learning how to play music when he was in elementary school.

“There was this school talent show, and there was this girl that was playing the ukulele during it, and it was really, like interesting to me for some reason," Finn says. "So I asked my parents for a toy ukulele for Christmas, and I started just taking some lessons.” 

And after a couple of months, he played his first open mic night in Charlotte. Eventually, he started learning guitar too.

Now, six years later, he has a list of about 60 songs from a variety of genres and time periods that people can request at shows. 

“My parents used to play a lot of 70s and 80s songs for me when I was just in the house. And so some of my first like, favorite songs were James Taylor and Creedence Clearwater Revival," Finn says. "And so some of my first songs I ever played were a lot of older songs.”

He learned pretty quickly that those are the crowd pleasers that make people get up and dance. But as he’s gotten older, he’s found all kinds of other music that he likes too. 

He listens to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gorillaz and Santana. He’s also a big rap fan.

“I listen to a lot of De La Soul or Jurassic Five. There's also this band called Ozomatli," he says. "That's like a Latin rock rap fusion band that's really cool. They're from California, and, yeah, I just kind of listen to anything that sounds good.” 

Writing songs

Finn mostly plays covers when he performs. But he’s written a few originals too. He recorded his first one when he was just 8 years old, called “Life at Lindley," with the help of his dad and his guitar teacher. 

“I performed that for my third-grade talent show at my school, and it was just about my elementary school, and, like, lots of funny references to the teachers and the events that we had," Finn says.

When Finn first started writing songs, he says they mainly revolved around a weird and funny concept he came up with. 

“There was this one song called 'Creepy Clown in a Creepy Town' that the creepy people in the town weren't scared of him because everything was just scary already," Finn says. "So that kind of like was what I was writing when I was younger.” 

Naturally, as he’s gotten older, his songs have matured a bit. He’s also getting a formal songwriting education now in the Music Production Program at his school, Weaver Academy. 

“It explores a lot of different sections of writing music," he says. "The past couple months, we've been writing our own songs and kind of figuring out our structures of our chords and stuff.”

He says he plans to put out an album of originals this summer that will sound unlike anything he’s done before. 

“Get ready for some experimentation, I guess," Finn says. "One of my favorite things about music is genre fusions, honestly. And maybe I'm going to try to like add some jazz and soul influences into some of my new songs.”

Playing with friends

Finn has played a lot of shows over the past six years. But his favorite performance to date was for the Martha Bassett Show in 2022. He performed one of his originals then, “There’s Change in Numbers.”

He was 12 years old at the time, and his upcoming performance will be kind of a reprise. 

"I was a lot younger," Finn says. "And so I'm just really excited to get to come back and play with her and her band again, especially with my new friends that I made since then, and collaborate with the band in a whole new way.”

This time around, Finn will be playing with The Firebirds, made up of three friends from his music production program. 

“My friend Jett is playing the drums, my friend Zion is playing the bass, my friend Nathan is going to be playing the keys," Finn says. "And they're all multi-instrumentalists as well. So it's kind of cool that we can play our own roles in the band, but also help each other out.”

They’re not quite an official band, and this will be the first time they’ve performed together outside of school. But Finn says he hopes the four of them play together more in the future. 

“It's just way more fun, honestly, because performing with people, you get to feed off their energy, as well as the crowd’s energy," Finn says. "Have more fun while you're playing with your friends.”

Finn Phoenix and The Firebirds will perform alongside The Biscuit Eaters and Detective Blind at WFDD’s Spring Fling on May 10. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.