The Michigan natives now based in L.A. spent a winter on the iconic enclave to create ‘Islanders.’ They screen the film and perform as FINKEL Friday at Wealthy Theatre. The back story at Local Spins.
An Island’s Frozen Forests Where They Cut Their Musical Teeth: Brian and Jane Spencer of FINKEL. (Photo/Erin Soorenko)
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When Brian Spencer answers the phone, he and his wife, Jane, are traveling through Wisconsin on tour as the electronic soul-pop duo FINKEL.
Long drives make for good conversations, and we go deep. We begin by talking about touring.
“It’s always nice to get back out into a touring phase. That’s the season that we’re currently in and we’re elated to be back in it because we’ve missed it for three years,” says Jane Spencer.
“The pandemic really got us to a place mentally where we weren’t sure what was gonna happen. Like most musicians, we weren’t sure what was gonna happen with our live space. So we’re taking every moment very seriously on this tour and really appreciate every moment.
FINKEL: Electro-pop on ice. (Photo/Erin Soorenko)
“It’s precious, the idea that we get to do this. And we think about that every time we step up on a stage, whether it’s big or small.”
The Spencers — now based in Los Angeles — return to their home state this week, with FINKEL performing at 7 p.m. Friday (Aug. 12) at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids, supporting their new record and screening the documentary, both titled “Islanders.”
Tickets are $20 and available online at grcmc.org. The evening begins with a screening of the film, followed by a performance. The show is billed as “a night of electro-pop on ice inspired by Mackinac Island.” It’s the last Michigan show on FINKEL’s U.S. tour, with other stops in New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Colorado and California.
The record and the film were both made on Mackinac Island, where Jane grew up and where both of them “cut their teeth” playing music.
The album scores the documentary and was made during the winter “within the frozen forests of Michigan’s isolated and eccentric Mackinac Island.” View the video, “Snow Globe,” from “Islanders” here and scroll down for other videos from the project.
VIDEO: “Snow Globe,” FINKEL
Initially aiming to write some music during the winter “and get out of pandemic L.A.,” the Spencers moved into an apartment on Mackinac Island at the end of December 2020 and spent two months creating the songs for the album and accompanying documentary.
The pair — who first delved into music in Southwest Michigan, fronting the Kalamazoo band Less Is More before moving to California — views the Mackinac Island endeavor as “a proof-of-concept for future projects at a larger scale. … It ended up being the start of our long-term plans for future works and couldn’t be happier that it started back home on Mackinac Island.”
On the island, Brian Spencer notes, “almost every part of ‘normal life’ is done differently: transportation, grocery shopping, sending and receiving mail, building a house, you name it. For this reason, it is an incredibly inspiring place to create because it asks you to look at life a little differently. Mackinac provided an experience that was the total opposite of L.A., and because of that it provided us the opportunity to have a different sonic and visual vocabulary. Our creative decisions changed, because our daily life changed.”
Friday’s screening follows its world premiere at Mission Point on Mackinac Island on July 29, with plans for releasing the film on Amazon and iTunes in September. The documentary also has been accepted into a couple of film festivals “and, depending on its reception, might be on other streaming services,” Brian Spencer says.
He also credits the film crew — Craig Harmer, Joe Zook and Anna Gustafson, who all graduated from Grand Valley State University — for making “Islanders” a special documentary.
THE INFLUENCE OF ANTHONY BOURDAIN AND LOVING A NEW DOG
We talk a bit about the documentary and its influences, one of them being chef and author Anthony Bourdain of CNN’s popular “Parts Unknown” series. We riff about the legacy of Bourdain, who committed suicide in 2018.
“His life’s mission is very similar to mine. We just have a different palette in which we paint. I have been a fan of his show and his books and I’m trying to understand every day why someone makes a decision to leave the world on their own volition,” says Brian Spencer.
“I try to make sure that I spend my time on this planet doing as much as I can to celebrate life, whether it’s my own or somebody else’s through this art form. And, he’s a critical role model along with several other folks including Jane, including my family that, you know, I look to as role models in this space.
On Stage: FINKEL during the world premiere on Mackinac Island. (Photo/Myers Flyers)
“And, you know, hopefully we’re doing Bourdain proud by this sort of journalistic art form.”
One life change that’s brought a lot of light into Spencer’s lives has been getting a puppy. This year, the Spencers got Inga, a miniature schnauzer.
“I was thinking about this a lot. One thing I find extremely meaningful about being around an animal and having a relationship, especially with a young animal, is that they are just energy feeders,” says Jane Spencer.
“And no matter if you tell them to do this or tell them to do that, it’s the energy that you give them is the energy that they have in their life. You can see how strongly it affects her if you are stressed out, or how strongly she comes to save you if you’re feeling stressed out. It’s just been wonderful and she just feels like a role model.”
VIDEO: “Time,” FINKEL
VIDEO: “I Am Machine,” FINKEL
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