A long time in the making, we caught up with flywheel (aka Finn) to speak about his music, live sets, and plans for the future.

flywheel has also recorded a mix for us which you can check out below... 



^{Photos by BONSE1}

Tell us a bit about yourself...

Finn: My name is Finn and I make and release electronic music under the name flywheel. My first release under this name was an EP called Hot Topics which came out on Gimme A Break in 2021. My most recent release was a five track EP on Accidental JNR called Cracked Plastic. 

What first got you into producing?

Finn: I wanted to study popular music at university and it was made clear to me at the open day that I probably wouldn’t get a place on the course if I’d never actually made any music. So, I got myself a copy of Logic and made a bunch of pretty terrible tracks. A lot of the early stuff I made was actually quite guitar-heavy, but somehow I got onto the course and gravitated pretty quickly toward electronic techniques. I was seeing so much exciting live electronic music and making friends with people who made cool electronic stuff, so it was only a matter of time really.

It was such a pleasure to shoot some photos of you in your home studio - could you tell us a bit about your process when writing?

Finn: It was a pleasure to have you! You’re kind to call it a studio when it’s really an IKEA desk in the corner of my bedroom.

The most enjoyable way to make music for me is either to spend time fleshing out really old ideas that I’d nearly forgotten about, or to start with a blank canvas and mess around with bits and bobs until something exciting happens.  

I find that if I think I have an idea for the beginnings of a track in my head , and then take it to the ’studio’ to make it, it never sounds as good as it did in my head, so I lose interest. I’m sure this is a pretty common experience. Most of my favourite tracks are those that I’ve made when I should have been working on something else.

What interested you in using tape in your music?

Finn: At first I just started using cassettes as a way of taking projects away from the computer/digital hardware. I.e. I’d just record certain parts of a track onto cassette and then record that back into the computer to dirty things a bit.

I really enjoy recording something onto tape and then winding it back, pressing play and waiting for it to come in and not really knowing how it will sound. Playing things back at half speed obviously sounds great (I’m hardly the first to notice), but the other benefit is that it doubles the length of your recording so you’ve got more to play with.  

Could you tell us a bit about the mix you’ve recorded for us - were there any influences here, or feelings you wanted to go for?

Finn: I was really glad to have the chance to put together a more laid-back ambient(ish) mix. A lot of what I play on my radio show is pretty heavy and fast, but that doesn’t always reflect what I’ve been listening to. This mix consists of some of my favourite drum-less tracks. It’s not a mix that’s designed to start slow and build; it’s pretty consistent in terms of energy and pace. It’s all pretty warm sounding, too. And it’s a good chance to test out some of what I’ve been making without drums. (Some of it still has drums)

How do you find doing live sets? What’s been your favourite gig so far?

Finn: I love it but I really need to work on my setup. I don’t have loads of hardware, but I do have four or five bits of gear that I use for absolutely everything, which has formed my live setup for the most part. I’d love to strip it down even more. I think it can make for a more exciting live show, the less stuff you have on stage.


My favourite shows have probably been in small spaces. I played in a church bell tower once to about fifteen people and it was a lot of fun. The bell started ringing during the intro to one track and it was scary and cool.

What’s your favourite ambient album?

Finn: Tricky one! A lot of my favourite ambient tracks tend to be moment-of-calm-type interludes or intro tracks on otherwise pretty clubby/percussive releases, e.g. Andy Stott’s ‘Away Not Gone’ from his most recent album.

Ana Roxanne’s album Because of a Flower is definitely up there, and I love Music for Nine Post Cards by Hiroshi Yoshimura. Living Room by Romeo Poirier was one of my favourite albums of last year. Since I have to pick one album, I’ll go for The Disintegraion Loops by William Basinski.

Any exciting stuff coming up?

Finn: Yep! I’ve been working with a group of choreographers/dancers on a long-form project involving a derelict attic in Lewisham Shopping Centre. I’ve made music to go alongside texts written by each member of the group in response to the space. We’re going to perform the results live which will be an exciting way to bring it all full circle.

I’ve got a couple of remixes coming out soon and a track on an exciting compilation concerning ‘non-places’ I’m currently doing my best to finish up a load of demos for what will likely be my next solo release.