ANDERSONVILLE — Local musicians Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham are genial collaborators, but as Finom, they’re fed up.
On their new album “Not God,” the art rock duo wield intricate vocal and guitar harmonies to reclaim their time from corrupt governments, blowhard scenesters and any other false authorities.
“It’s not only a record about our personal battles with control, but also witnessing other people’s struggles with being able to hold autonomy and power in their own lives and the people who decide that they should be in power, and trying to tell them to go f-ck themselves,” Cunningham said.
Finom will perform “Not God” and songs from their previous albums at several Chicago shows this year: a sold-out show at the Hideout Friday; a headlining performance at Andersonville’s Midsommarfest June 9; and a show at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St. Nov. 2.
Stewart and Cunningham were active in Chicago-area bands, choirs and other musical ensembles from a young age, and they both attended Whitney Young Magnet High School. They first formed a group in 2014 and released two albums under the name Ohmme.
Their band focused on guitar because both members are self-taught on the instrument.
“It felt like the way that we approached it was a lot different than instruments that we’ve been trained in,” Stewart said. “It just helps us think outside the box of what sounds we can create.”
On “Not God,” the band’s sound evolves along with its new name, including acoustic guitar and electric bass for the first time. The songs, featuring high-reaching vocals, are spacious, though no less ferocious. When guitars do take the lead, like the squealing coda of “Cyclops,” they maintain tension rather than release it.
“We wanted to give the songs space to breathe on their own,” Cunningham said. “But I think we also wanted to come a little bit closer to how we sound live.“
The songs on the album explore the independence of adult life and its highs and lows. Lead single “Haircut” was inspired by auto-complete text on messaging apps, generating an internal monologue about errands and other anxieties.
On “Dirt,” Cunningham and Stewart invoke eating the titular substance as a metaphor for vice and indulgence. On a record lacking traditional verse-chorus structure, the most powerful refrain comes in “Hungry,” when the singers harmonize on, “I was a house for someone else and now I only feed myself” and repeat the lyric over and over.
The album “No God” was produced by Jeff Tweedy at his studio The Loft. The Wilco frontman is a long-time admirer of Stewart and Cunningham’s work, dating back to producing an album for Stewart’s former group Kids These Days in 2012. Finom has opened for Wilco numerous times on tour.
The bandmates said Tweedy guided them to focus on the best performance of each song to pin down its essence.
“Sometimes you should just have faith in your own songwriting and know that, if you have the core elements there and you have a really good feeling performance of the song, you don’t need to throw a bunch of things on top of it to make it a good recording,” Cunningham said. “Sometimes you should just let it be.”
The duo brought around 20 demos to their sessions with Tweedy in fall 2022. They refined and edited the songs with his son Spencer, an accomplished musician currently touring with Waxahatchee, playing drums.
“Not God” was then largely recorded live in studio, captured by engineer Tom Schick, with select overdubs recorded at Cunningham’s studio Fox Hall after a round of tours and other commitments.
“We bring songs to the studio that are pretty brand new, almost unfinished,” Cunningham said. “And so it was cool there was space to truly mold them as a group, which I thought was exciting, challenging and beautiful.”
Finom used the new record as an opportunity to collaborate with their favorite performers and choreographers from Chicago on their videos, including directors Alex Grelle, Jake Saner and Marisa Dabice.
“I do feel like the visual component of the album is also just as important creatively to us as the music,” Stewart said.
With their latest album complete, Stewart and Cunningham enjoyed performing the songs for the first time on their recent visit to Japan, where they opened three shows for Wilco and performed two more on their own.
In addition to the younger Tweedy on drums, V.V. Lightbody has been playing bass with them on this tour.
“It widens our platform that we can bend and dance around on,” Stewart says of her friend’s playing. They joke that they have invented a new type of band, a “power trio with four people.”
The Finom bandmates said the album doesn’t feel complete until it’s being shared with an audience. On stage, they let solo sections stretch out and discover new iterations of their latest songs.
“We’ve just started playing these songs live and it feels cathartic as f-ck, honestly,” Stewart said. “It feels really good to play the songs.”
In between their upcoming performances in Chicago, the band has a few dates planned across the country, but they’re focused on establishing a sustainable tour schedule compared to pre-pandemic.
“At this point, bands operate by the community that wants them to exist,” Cunningham said. “We’re so grateful for everyone that has made touring possible and just hope that people will continue to feel like live music and records that can wedge a really deep place in their souls.”
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