Ahead of bringing his European Tour 2026 to Rockhal on 2 November, Fin Greenall joined the Sam Steen Show on RTL Today Radio to discuss The City Is Coming to Erase It All – an album born from self-imposed creative restrictions, recorded close to his childhood home in Cornwall, and, as he puts it, designed to capture "a moment in time."
While many artists embrace limitless digital tools, Greenall deliberately moved in the opposite direction.
Working with Grammy-winning producer Sam Okell, the band set themselves one simple rule: if a recording technique or instrument didn't exist in 1974, they couldn't use it.
"It wasn't that we wanted to record it exactly like it was 1974," Greenall explained. "It was more that we couldn't do anything that didn't exist in 1974. Every sound, every vibe, every riff – we had to physically create manually."
Those restrictions weren't about nostalgia, he said. They were about avoiding familiar habits.
"We put these guardrails in place to stop us wandering off the path. I didn't want to get into the studio and make another post-indie acoustic record. I wanted to make a coherent body of work."
The result is an album that feels warm, organic and remarkably unified.
"If I had one criticism of my own records," he admitted, "it's that they've often sounded like ten songs we've written and recorded, rather than a Polaroid of a particular moment. That's what we were trying to capture this time."
Much of that cohesion came from where the record was made.
Rather than chasing inspiration around the world, Greenall returned to Cornwall, just a few miles from where he was born.
"My studio is within a couple of miles of the first apartment I was brought home to from hospital," he said. "I learned to swim in the sea there. It's as grounded and as centralised as I could possibly get."
That sense of place shaped both the music and his mindset.
"I feel very at home there. I'm not preoccupied with whether radio likes it or whether my agent likes it. It's just a reflection of me."
Listeners can hear that environment throughout the record, with subtle natural sounds woven into the music.
"There were actually a lot more waves and birds on the demos," he laughed. "Sam wisely reeled that in a little."
One of the album's defining characteristics is what it doesn't do.
Several songs resist the temptation to build into huge climaxes, something Greenall admits went against his natural instincts.
"My instinct is always to think, 'Wouldn't it be great if this exploded at the end?' I'm so glad we didn't."
Instead, the band trusted the songs to remain understated.
"If I'm at home listening to a folk record, I want it to stay that way for 45 minutes. I don't want conceptual surprises halfway through."
That philosophy extended to the recording process itself. Rather than endlessly refining the material, the band recorded the songs soon after writing them.
"We've overcooked records before," Greenall said. "This one feels just right. It's like a medium-rare record."
Although the album opens with the expansive seven-minute Wishing For Previous Glory, Greenall admits it wasn't the song listeners ultimately connected with most.
"We all thought that was going to be massive," he said.
Instead, audiences gravitated towards the gentle Two Magpies, a song inspired by his young daughter.
"It's never the one you think," he laughed. "People aren't told what to like. They'll decide for themselves."
For Greenall, that's one of streaming's unexpected positives.
"It gives me real faith that people are still listening to records. They find the songs that speak to them."
While The City Is Coming to Erase It All captures a specific moment in the studio, Greenall says the songs are already evolving on stage.
"We're already rewriting everything," he revealed. "I've already worked out different ways of doing some of the songs."
That freedom is central to what makes a Fink concert unique.
"There are no backing tracks, there's no playback. If I forget a lyric, we'll do it again until I remember it."
Rather than recreating the album note-for-note, Greenall sees live performance as another stage in each song's life.
"We're a live band that also makes studio records. Live is where you get to have some fun with your mates."
Fink brings his Europe Tour 2026 to Rockhal Club on Monday, 2 November, with support from Angela Autumn.
Fans can expect songs from The City Is Coming to Erase It All alongside favourites from across a career that has made Fink one of alternative music's most consistently compelling live acts.
As Greenall put it:
"Most of the time I'm just thinking... how lucky am I? I love the life I've built for myself."
