A chat with Berkeley’s Red Expos

Los Angeles musician Aidan Finn has found a home within the Berkeley music scene. Finn has been hard at work over the course of the pandemic, writing, recording, mixing, and, ultimately, self-releasing two solo albums under the name Red Expos.

Red Expo’s latest release, Project 2 (2021) is an indie/alternative/folk-rock love child with experimental distortion, grungy guitars, and dreamlike progressions. While similar artists can be drawn to Alex G, Elliott Smith, and Teenage Fanclub, Red Expos uses his two releases to branch out into incomparable territory. The stand-out track to me is titled “Down by the Flare” where he spins a story reminiscent of a fairy tale.

Another track, “Scooby Doo,” has an elusive quality to it and makes me reminisce on the days of old Hollywood — a nostalgic period none of us quite know but can still feel as though we’ve experienced through the song. With a Julian Casablancas-esque mic effect for some of the vocals, the song cements itself as a banger.

For this interview, Finn and I sat down in Berkeley’s Willard Park, a spot where he found himself writing songs over the past few years and reflected upon his career before he graduates this spring. 

How would you describe your sound?

I think my sound for the most part is just guitar, drums, and bass. I want it to sound like a band even though it’s a solo project.

When you’re writing music, what’s the first part you write?

Chords. The chord progressions are huge for me. That’s the most exciting part for me. I’ll just come up with a chord progression on guitar or piano that I like.

What artists are your main influences?

Elliott Smith and Wilco for sure. Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, and some jazz stuff too. Bill Evans…Miles Davis.

What are your current favorite songs?

“James” by MGMT has been on repeat lately. 

When you listen to Red Expos compared to your old releases, there is a difference. I feel like your old releases were more acoustic-driven, whereas Red Expos has more rock influence. What inspired this change?

The songs I had before, like the songs I wrote in high school, were pretty acoustic-y and I just got sick of them. I wasn’t really feeling them anymore. With music in general I kind of stopped listening to guitar-oriented music for probably a year. I was listening to a lot of electronic music and hip-hop. Eventually, I wanted to pick up the guitar again and I decided I wanted a more electric, distorted sound than anything I had ever done. At this point, even if I come up with a song on acoustic guitar, I will definitely record electric guitar because I’m going for more amplified, distorted sound. 

You’re like Bob Dylan, you’ve gone electric. 

Hell yeah. Singing wise too, I wanted to find a voice I liked more.

Of your new work, specifically Project 2, what was the most personal or favorite song for you?

They’re all kind of personal in an indirect way. Probably “Toll Free Call” is the most personal because it is about songwriting.

When you’re writing a song, what motivates you to start writing?

The chords are where I start and then I will come up with gibberish lyrics to help find the melody. Sometimes I’ll keep the gibberish lyrics if I like them. Other times, writing the lyrics is a more cerebral thing. 

Yeah like in “Down by the Flare” you kind of have an old English lyrical theme going on. 

Totally. 

Where did that come from?

There was a passage in a Dickens book I was reading that was about this girl who had to hide her reading habit from her father who mistrusted education. That was the idea for the song. There was one specific phrase, “the hollow down by the flare” where she would go down to tell fortunes or something. That’s where it came from. 

You tend to write story-based songs. 

I’d say that’s true. I don’t want to tell the whole story, but I like to tell flashes of a story. 

You also have a band with your brother called Room 600. What are the goals with it?

That band is three of my really close friends and we all write songs individually so the band is kind of where we can bring our songs together. We write by ourselves, but we all weigh in on each other’s ideas and arrangements. It’s a really good model and it could go on forever. I hope it does. 

In your house, everyone is a musician. Does that bolster your music journey?

It totally does. A lot of kids’ first experience with music is through lessons that their parents sign them up for and they don’t like it that much or it’s stressful. And I did take lessons and got a lot from it, but having music just be a thing in the house is also important. I was always hearing my dad’s songs growing up and it just made music a really fun thing. 

Was your dad always jamming?

He was in a band and I always watched his band as a kid. Well, he’s still in a band. But I would always see his shows when I was like four years old; see them rocking out. 

Has your dad been to a show of yours?

Red Expos has been solo and I haven’t performed any of it yet. But my house in Berkeley, where I’ve been for the last couple of years, we’ve had a lot of shows. We had a two-car garage that we filled with music equipment and we had a bunch of sweaty basement shows. That was one of the highlights of college for me. 

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After Finn graduates this spring, he has plans to intern for a recording studio. When asked what his career plan was he replied: “whatever my career is, it’s going to be music related.”

Red Expos is available to stream on all platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp). Project 1 (2020) from Red Expos will also be available on cassette tape soon through Dream Cult Press. 

Article by Jax Samsell

Photo by Holden Valentine