Enrollment at WCU is around 12,000 students. It’d be stunning if even 50 of them knew of Finger Eleven. Those who have heard them recently know of their self-titled album single, “One Thing,” which was no. 20 on Y-100’s most played list last week and the song’s video was shown in rotation on MTV.For those who may think that this is the band’s debut, think again.
Finger Eleven is a Canadian band originally known as Rainbow Butt Monkey. After their funk-styled album ,Letters From Chutney, didn’t even make it out of their homeland, Finger Eleven was born and Tip made its U.S. debut in 1998 thanks to Wind-Up Records. Now, Finger Eleven is not your middle fingers or your private parts. Lead singer Scott Anderson reveals, “When everything is pushing you in one direction and your instinct drives you in another….that’s Finger Eleven.”
Other band members include lead guitarist James Black, drummer Rich Beddoe, guitarist Rick Jackett and Anderson’s brother Sean on bass. The group, except for Beddoe who replaced origi-nal drummer Rob Gommerman in 1998, grew up together in Burlington, Ontario and formed the band while still in high school.
After achieving moderate success stateside with the release of Tip, the band released The Greyest of Blue Skies in 2000.
After two releases, which both currently have five star rat-ings on Amazon.com, the band still remains virtually unheard of here in America. They have songs on the soundtracks for “Scream 3” and “Daredevil,” and also the WWF Forceable Entry album. They’ve toured for years with bands like Fuel, Creed, Coldplay, Evanescence and the legendary Ozzy Osbourne just to name a few. Nonetheless, still no buzz about Finger Eleven.
Then in 2003, after a three year hiatus, they released their self-titled third album. Produced by Johnny K of Disturbed and including a bonus DVD, the band has high hopes for this album.
“We wanted to make it right,” says Anderson. “Everyday for 18 months we wrote and rehearsed and pieced together demos. Once we had some musical ideas on tape, I’d ride around in the Prelude with the stereo up way too loud. Lyrical inspirations were scribbled down on receipts, ATM slips, my arm….whatever was handy. The words ‘to Therapy’ came to me in a supermarket parking lot. In the end, we had 30 songs to choose from.”
Many interesting factors came into play in the making of this al-bum. For instance, the band had a foosball table set up outside the studio so whenever emotions ran high they could use it to vent. Also, on “Good Times” the banging of water cooler jugs and folding chairs were used to create more percussion. Anderson admits that he doesn’t even remember recording “One Thing” because he drank so much that day. However, the most interesting aspect of this album’s recording would have to be the “fan phone.” The band set up a cell phone in the studio and posted the number on their Web site. They received hundreds of calls boasting support for the album, some from places as far as South Africa. It proved to be very inspiring for the group.
Here we are now in 2004, and “One Thing” has finally brought the band some overdue recognition. “It’s never cool to regret the things you didn’t do, right? I wrote myself a note in the form of a song to tell myself just that,” says Anderson about the track.
You can hear “One Thing,” the rest of the self titled album, and material off Finger Eleven’s previous two albums when the band comes to Philly. They’ll be playing on the Snocore Tour along with Trapt, Smile Empty Soul, and Strata at The Trocadero on Friday, March 5. Tickets are currently on sale through Ticketmaster.