My Inspiration: Finn Forster – Lonely Nights (feat. Frikhan)

After a busy 2020, which included the releases of his debut EP, Lockdown B-sides and single Time, Middlesbrough singer-songwriter, Finn Forster returns with a new sound and a new track Lonely Nights’ 

The single, which sees him team up with local rapper Frikhan, veers from Finn’s folkier style for a more 90’s R&B and Pop influenced offering, complete with synth sounds, smooth vocals and catchy hooks.

We caught up with Finn and asked him to tell us what inspired this latest release…

I’ve been writing more than ever over the last year now, I’ve never felt more intertwined within myself in regards to what I want to achieve, how I want to go about getting it and why I want to. 

I bumped into a pretty established DJ by chance encounter before the pandemic kicked off. I won’t name drop but to give you more of an understanding they’ve been in the charts multiple times. We were drinking in a bar due to mutual friends/contacts. They were really nice, we had some amazing advice and I ended up drunkenly playing them a couple of my latest releases and they loved them, we kept in contact from then and I’d agreed I’d love to write for them. We chatted back and forth and I ended up writing a load of tracks, purposely not in the usual style I’d write for myself, I approached the writing and composing with another artist in mind, something I hadn’t previously done but loved doing looking back.

Nothing really came of the songs I had sent, but one stuck with me. Personally, the more I listened the more I played with the idea of releasing the song myself. That song was Lonely Nights. I messed about with it for a while on just acoustic guitar and quite naturally, couldn’t help but think it needed something extra added. If I knew I was going to be delving into this different style for this release, I might as well go into it with both feet if that makes sense. That’s when I contacted Frikhan (Ryan Dube). Then collectively working with my lead guitarist Billy Smith and my drummer Robb Maynard to add percussion (both from Teesside duo Moon Wax) the single is what you hear now.

In a nutshell you could say I was heavily inspired by the likes of Harry Styles Fine line album and Justin Timberlake’s Justified album when working on Lonely Nights. For me personally, it’s a refreshing turn in my previous tracks and breaks up my regular sound a bit. It’s bold, it’s fun and it’s the collective outcome of inspirational moments I’ve had when listening to my favourite 90’s RnB records growing that quite clearly have subconsciously influenced my writing when I let it. I’m interested to see how it’s received but one thing I was always going to do is bring it out, it needs to be heard. With better times now on the horizon, summer round the corner, it’s the best single to put out right now for me.