FINGER ELEVEN, one of the best-selling Canadian bands of all time, are experiencing a vibrant, full-circle moment. The multi-platinum Juno Award-winning group—Scott Anderson (vocals), James Black (lead guitar, backing vocals), Rick Jackett (rhythm guitar), Sean Anderson (bass), Steve Molella (drums)—criss-crossed America last summer with long-time former labelmates Creed, revisiting the summer of ‘99. “People were just smiling the whole time—it was contagious,” Jackett declares. “We forgot we had so many friends in America. That was a cool feeling.”
That infectious, invigorating energy helped FINGER ELEVEN enthusiastically complete their first new studio album in a decade, LAST NIGHT ON EARTH, primed for a November 7 release via Better Noise Music, their first with the label. Pre-orders are available now HERE. Today (August 1), they’ve released the album’s second single and video, the thunderous Blue Sky Mystery featuring Richard Patrick from Filter.
Vocalist Scott Anderson notes that the chorus had a heavy Black Sabbath vibe, and the band maintained that throughout the song’s evolution, even as the verses underwent a larger transformation. Changes even came in at the eleventh hour of mixing, but they got the song they wanted. He wrote lyrics for Blue Sky Mystery about burrowing into the rabbit hole of a deep obsession. “The more it’s in front of you, the less you understand it, the more you’re obsessed with it,” he says. “You can’t get your mind around it, or away from it.”
Last year, fans got the first taste of LAST NIGHT ON EARTH via the high-octane Adrenaline and a video that’s reached over 176k views on YouTube. The song also reached #2 on the Active Rock chart in Canada, where the song held strong in the Top 5 for over 4 months and is still inside the Top 20 one year after release. “As we were making LAST NIGHT ON EARTH, there was this feeling that we were making a big rock record,” Jackett recalls. “We had done that early in our career, and then we veered away from it. But it was time to go back and embrace that bigness of the sound. Even the soft songs sound big.”
