Artist Spotlight: Finn Gilmartin

By: Kamal Stephens, Assistant Creative Corner Editor

Welcome to our artist spotlight, where we shine a light on some talented artists on campus. Today, we at Creative Corner are very pleased to introduce you to Finn Gilmartin, a musician here at Canisius. He had this to say in our interview:

What instruments do you play? “I play drums, bass and guitar. I'm much better at drums than the other two but have a lot of fun with all three.” 

Who introduced you to music? “I learned a lot of my music taste from my parents growing up, lots of classic rock and stuff. Green Day and Rush have always been big influences, and even some newer bands like Twenty One Pilots played big roles in my desire to play. If not for Josh Dun and Tré Cool, I likely would've given up on drums after middle school.”

When did you start playing? “I started drumming when I was eight. I've taken lessons as well as been in band throughout middle school and most of high school, including lessons from Joe Goretti, a local drummer who has played with the likes of AJR and Moby.” 

What about Bass and Guitar? “I picked up guitar and bass on my own about two years ago, and have been self learning through online guitar tabs and YouTube videos. Not the greatest way to learn, but I'd say it does the trick good enough.”

What are your inspirations or motivations? “I would love to make it to a point where I can live off of touring with a band. Obviously everyone wants to be a big rockstar playing stadiums and amphitheaters, and while that would be great, I would be perfectly content to tour playing Riverworks-type venues to smaller crowds, as long as it would make enough to pay the bills.”

Are you in any music groups? “I would love to start a band, but it's incredibly hard to get people to show up. I've tried a few times, but every lineup I've gone through has kind of fallen out of contact without much of a thought. That's a good chunk of why I learned all the instruments for myself, just for the ability to write and play the parts alone. However, I would be very open to other people collaborating on writing and playing together, as it would be pretty hard to play live as just myself.”

What’s your favorite song to play? “My favorite song to play would probably be ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana, seeing as it's incredibly iconic and pretty easy to play even as a mediocre guitarist. I also love playing ‘Jerry Was a Racecar Driver’ by Primus as it is a very fun and unique part on the six string bass.”

Anything closing statements for our readers? “Anyone interested in a collab can contact me at @finnygmusic on Instagram, I mostly make punk/metal or really anything rock-centric.”

A special thanks to Mr. G for contributing to Creative Corner, and anyone interested in contributing can feel free to contact the staff. Thanks for reading!