NOAHFINNCE guides us through the making of his honest, varied and pop punk-infused debut album ‘Growing Up On The Internet’, out March 08 via Hopeless Records.
Read NOAHFINNCE, ‘Growing Up On The Internet’ | The Album Story below:
(Click ‘View Fullscreen’ for digital feature or scroll down for text only version)
#pdfp65e176938b3a9 .title { font-size: 16px; }#pdfp65e176938b3a9 iframe { border: 2px solid #d7d7d7; height: 100vh; }#pdfp65e176938b3a9 { width: 100%; } .pdfp8cf3836ebtn {background: #2271b1; color: #fff; padding: 10px 20px 10px 10px}
TEXT ONLY VERSION:
For a long time, the internet was the only place where NOAHFINNCE could be himself.
In the closet throughout his school life, and only coming out as trans after leaving his restrictive boarding school environment, the multi-faceted musician grew up feeling like an outsider in every circle he mixed in.
Seeking refuge in a virtual community who understood his feelings and experiences more than anyone he’d ever encountered in ‘real life’, when he began sharing content with the world on YouTube as a teenager – it was an escape.
An opportunity to be his authentic self away from the judgemental eyes of his classmates, the internet gave Noah a chance to find his purpose, but as his platform grew, he began to uncover the darker side of existing within a public facing space.
Over the last decade, NOAHFINNCE has learnt that the internet can be a wicked place for anyone finding their place in the world. Witnessing people constantly overstepping boundaries – from strangers prying into his personal relationships, transphobes spouting their opinions on his day-to-day life, and even grown men getting tattoos of his face – in his own words, it’s “a total clusterfuck”.
For better or worse though, NOAHFINNCE grew up on the internet, and with his debut album – he’s opening the doors to his world.
THE TITLE
For NOAHFINNCE, 2023 was a year of processing.
Launching his YouTube channel as a teenager and hitting 100,000 subscribers by the age of 15, over the last decade the now-24-year-old’s outlet has swiftly become his job. Posting about how he feels and sharing his journey to an audience of thousands, as his platform has grown – so have the opinions of others.
Watching his close-knit, like-minded internet community expand by the day, last year Noah began to come to terms with how he has unknowingly structured countless elements of his life around the opinions of strangers behind screens.
“I’ve been demonised online for years,” he shrugs.
“I came out as trans when I was a teenager, and grown adults had a problem with me being who I was. Over the years, there’s been an increase in things like me being called a groomer. People claim that I made their child transition, when really, I just talk about how much happier I am since making these steps in my personal life.”
“I base so much of my validation on what people on the internet think about me, and I began to realise that this is not a normal life. Most people don’t have that many people with opinions on who they are, and it’s shaped who I am. I’ve only recently realised that it doesn’t have to.”
‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ is the product of a decade of slow realisations and pent-up frustration. Documenting his generation’s love/hate relationship with social media through the lens of his own experiences, on his debut album Noah is reckoning with the conflicting realities of forging an identity through an online platform.
“I fucking hate the internet, but I would be a completely different person without it,” he explains.
“I had such a closeted experience in school where I felt like I was about to burst. I had so much frustration, but despite all its flaws – the internet is where I found my people. I thought I was so fucked up for feeling the way that I did, but finding my people on the internet made me realise that I may not be normal – but I’m not the only one that feels like this.”
THE LYRICS
With his 2022 EP ‘MY BRAIN AFTER THERAPY’ documenting Noah’s experiences untangling the wires of his brain with a therapist for the first time, the musician began reflecting on himself more than ever before.
Becoming increasingly aware of how nearly every aspect his life had been captured on the internet for strangers to cast their opinions on, he started to consider the challenges of separating his true self from the version of him that the world sees from inside a screen.
“I had the idea for the title track early in 2023, but when I got into the studio to work on it, I realised that I was opening up a whole can of worms,” Noah recalls.
“Halfway through writing the first verse, I knew that one song was not going to cover this. Writing lyrics is how I process the things that have happened to me, and when I started writing ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’, I realised what the next step of my life was. I discovered something about myself that I probably should have realised a while ago. As great as the internet was for me – in terms of having my own space – it’s also been a source of total brain worms.”
Realising that so many of the things he was angry about could be traced back to one key aspect of his life, ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ follows the rollercoaster journey Noah has been on throughout his formative years.
From learning to understand his neurodivergent brain, to calling out the toxicity of grind culture and highlighting the hypocrisy of TERF mindsets amidst the ongoing normalisation of transphobia, on his debut album NOAHFINNCE has concentrated over a decade of frustration, exhaustion, and self-discovery into eleven explosive songs.
“These songs are a mishmash of, ‘I fucking hate the internet’, ‘I fucking hate that I’m autistic and I don’t understand how other people work’ and, ‘I just want to run around for a bit!’ Those are basically the only three moods I have,” he smiles.
“I didn’t really want to write songs about being trans because I’ve had my surgery, I’m on hormones, and I feel so much more comfortable than I did. However, now there’s been a rise in anti-trans rhetoric. I never thought that it would grow to the point where they’re closing gender clinics and trying to revert the Equality Act of 2010. I know that there’s a lot of young trans kids that look up to me to tell them what to do, but I don’t know what to do. It’s just fucked.”
He might not have the answers to everything, but ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ is proof that no matter how much adversity life throws at us, we’re never alone. A testament to resilience, community, and trying to secure a better future for ourselves, Noah is hoping that other people can find the same solace in these songs as he found when he wrote them.
“When I think about the things that have happened in my life, it would be easy to curl up in a ball and never go outside again, but I write these things down to help myself come to terms with it all,” he explains.
“For a long time, my audience were just numbers on a screen. However, when you meet those people and speak to them, you realise that they can relate to these parts of your life that you thought no one else understood. We have a shared understanding of these experiences, and I’m glad that I’m able to give people the music for those moments.”
THE SOUND
Raised by parents who would soundtrack his car journeys with the likes of The Prodigy, Nirvana, and Rage Against the Machine – and spending his teenage years exclusively listening to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy – over the last five years, Noah has been expanding his sonic palette.
From the euphoric 2000’s pop influences of ‘3 DAY HEADACHE’ to the ripping breakdowns of punk rager ‘LOVELY LADIES’, ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ takes everything the songwriter has learnt over the last decade and hones it into a collection of high-energy songs as brilliantly chaotic as the thoughts constantly racing through his brain.
“I have ADHD and have the shortest attention span ever, so if I just made the same song 11 times over, I would fucking hate it!” he laughs.
“I wanted to throw everything into it because I have a lot of musical interests these days. I know that people don’t just listen to one genre anymore, so why would I make an album that’s just one genre? People are always telling me to find my sound, but now I know that my sound is everything!”
THE COLLABORATORS
With most songs on ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ written and produced alongside long-time collaborator and friend Stefan Abbingdon, throughout his time as a songwriter Noah has learned to be picky about the people he works with.
Having been in sessions with musicians willing to sacrifice creative expression for the sake of commercial success, on his debut album the 24-year-old made a point to collaborate only with those who shared his passion for authenticity and evolution.
“I don’t give a shit about writing a hit, I just want to write a song that helps me get out the way I feel,” he explains.
“I don’t just want to write with somebody because they’re well-known, I’d rather write with people who are weird like me. That’s what I ended up doing this time, and I get on so well with everyone I work with now.”
First meeting the band at his second ever show, McFly’s Danny Jones and Dougie Poynter ended up becoming part of that close circle of collaborators, adding invaluable contributions to the album writing process.
“I had five days in the studio with the McFly guys, and they taught me a lot,” Noah nods.
“They didn’t put any pressure on me, and they taught me that making music is supposed to be about having fun. It’s a job, and the management will give you a deadline, but I just need to do what I do. That was an important lesson.”
THE ARTWORK
Working with an artist to create a cartoon character for each of the eleven songs – now featured on an insert inside vinyl copies of the album – Noah’s initial idea for his debut album artwork was quite different from what we now see.
A portrait of the singer embracing the pink TV that often appears in his music videos, the image that unexpectedly ended up gracing the cover of ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ came from a press shoot with photographer Corinne Cumming.
“During the shoot, I just ended up hugging the TV. I looked at the photo afterwards, and I knew that was the album cover,” Noah recalls.
“I feel like I’m always being watched. Not like the government are spying on me or anything, but there are thousands of people out there who know who I am. I go outside my house, and people recognise me from something I did five years ago. Growing up on the internet, I feel like I always have eyes on me. There’s something special about the fact I’m hugging the TV on the cover because I hate it, but it’s the reason I am who I am.”
THE FUTURE
Documenting his entire life online, perhaps surprisingly, Noah doesn’t regret much about the way he grew up.
Despite all the chaos and trauma, it’s led him to this point.
Releasing his debut album on his dream record label, touring the world with artists who he grew up emulating, and constantly making friends along the way, a lifetime of oversharing on the internet has brought Noah to the people who truly understand him.
Accepting his status as the internet’s big brother, ‘GROWING UP ON THE INTERNET’ is a thank you to everyone behind a computer screen who’s ever made the musician feel accepted and valid, and he hopes that it can help others on that journey too.
“When I started posting videos, I just needed a space to be myself, and to meet other people who were like me. After being in the closet for five years, I came out. I’d worked on myself so much, but after that I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’”, Noah finishes.
“Doing this album has made me realise that this is what I should have been doing the whole time. I can’t fix everybody’s problems, but if I can distract them from them or make them feel a little bit better – that is the most fulfilling thing in the world. The fact that I am reaching people who feel the exact same way as me is crazy, because ten years ago I didn’t even know that they existed.”
The post NOAHFINNCE, ‘Growing Up On The Internet’ | The Album Story appeared first on Rock Sound.