With an ear to retro soul, Amy Winehouse transformed herself into a chart-topping, Grammy-winning diva. Now another Brit, Yorkshire-born Findlay Brown, is pushing old sounds into new territory with his unique twist on early-1960s Brill Building pop.
A former bare-knuckle boxer, Brown — featured in SPIN’s March issue — just released his second album, the Bernard Butler-produced Love Will Find You (buy album here). Hear its title track below.
With Phil Spector-esque production, big band orchestration, and hearty crooning a la Roy Orbison, the album owes lots to Brown’s idols of yore. But the 30-year-old isn’t just looking over his shoulder.
“You can get bogged down if you’re a dictionary of music,” he tells SPIN. “[Filmmaker Jean-Luc] Godard said, ‘It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to.”
Brown is featured alongside Jeff the Brotherhood, VV Brown, Lightspeed Champion, and Class Actress in SPIN’s March feature “Role Models,” which highlights a new wave of stylish, boundary-pushing rising stars who find inspiration in the sounds — and looks — of the past. SPIN’s March issue is on newsstands now.
LISTEN: Findlay Brown, “Love Will Find You”
TOUR DATES: FINDLAY BROWN WITH SHELBY LYNNE:
4/22 Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, CA
4/23 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
4/26 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
4/27 The Triple Door, Seattle, WA
4/29 Myrna Loy Center, Helena, MT
5/1Dakota, Minneapolis, MN
5/2Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI
5/3The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI
5/4Martyrs’, Chicago, IL
5/5Beechland Tavern, Cleveland, OH
5/7Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA
5/8Johnny D’s, Somerville, MA
5/9World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
5/10The Concert Hall, New York, NY
5/11The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
5/13The Belcourt Theater,Nashville, TN
5/14WorkPlay Theater, Birmingham, AL
5/15Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
5/17Granada Theater, Dallas, TX
5/18Warehouse Live, Houston, TX
5/19St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin, TX
5/23McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA
5/25Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA
