Interview: FINNEAS on Collaborating with His Friend Alfonso Cuarón and Creating the Score for His First Limited Series, ‘Disclaimer’ [VIDEO]
There might be no one busier in the world of entertainment than FINNEAS (aka Finneas O’Connell). For close to fifteen years, the Los Angeles native has been either songwriting, engineering, and producing hit songs for over a dozen of the most famous artists on the planet (Kacey Musgraves, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj, Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Justin Bieber, Ringo Starr, and Tate McRae; just to name a few), but also creating his own music as well, touring for both his work and his sister’s work, global superstar Billie Eilish (for whom is his most frequent collaborator).
In his spare time, he’s also appeared in small roles in films and television, even working with his mother, actress Maggie Baird, in the 2013 film, Life Inside Out. In all of this work, he has garnered universal praise for all of his work, as well a collection of major awards including ten Grammy Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song as a co-writer on songs for No Time to Die (“No Time to Die”) and Barbie (“What Was I Made For?”). In being one of the musical geniuses of his generation, it was only right for his talents to start finding new avenues and projects to attach himself to; to push the boundaries of what he’s done within his career so far. Since 2021, O’Connell has started making his way into composing scores for various films, crafting the music for Megan Park’s The Fallout and B.J. Novak’s Vengeance. His latest work finds him working with one of the biggest directors in the world, Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, and creating the musical tone for the psychological thriller miniseries Disclaimer.
The show follows Catherine Ravenscroft (played by Cate Blanchett in the present sequences, Lelia George in the past), a famed documentary journalist, who discovers she is a central character in a novel written by Steven (Kevin Kline). In writing this novel, Stephen forces Catherine to confront the past she has tried to forget, as well as the shocking secret that changed their lives. During the pandemic, Cuarón found the novel Renée Knight, and as the world slowly went back to normal, he decided on this being his next project, intrigued by the contradictions that occur for the truth as we hit secrets from our past. In making this his next project, the director called upon the singer-songwriter, newly turned composer to craft the arrangements found at the heart of this fascinating story. Long before the project was even on either of their minds, Cuarón had met O’Connell when his daughter took him to see FINNEAS and Billie Eilish perform together. The two struck up a friendship, sharing various playlists of music with each other during COVID. With this being his most expansive, thematically rich work as a composer to date, FINNEAS’ score for Disclaimer is a perfect, essential companion to the drama and tension found at the heart of Caurón’s miniseries, with each character having a theme that changes as you learn more about them as each episode slowly reveals the accuracy of the events from Catherine’s past.
In my recent conversation, O’Connell and I spoke about his friendship with Cuarón, his connections with the director’s previous work, his thoughts on themes of the series, scoring his first miniseries, what it is like collaborating with family and friends in making art, how vital the cello was to Catherine’s theme, blending classical music in his work, modern composers that inspire him, and making the score with the incredible Attacca Quartet. As we were talking, FINNEAS was in Paris, in the midst of the European side of his solo tour supporting his 2024 album, For Cryin’ Out Loud!. By the time this interview has come up, it has been announced that he will be working on new music with his sister Billie, as well as forming a new band with Ashe called The Favors, and have an album, The Dream coming out later this year in September. While it was a silly, in the moment question to ask FINNEAS “does he ever sleep,” judging by his output of passionate, meticulous, creative, energetic work across all forms of the music spectrum, there is no reason for him to slow down as he is making some of the best, constituently great works of art. He is a 27-year-old virtuoso who will only get better as he takes on new, fresh projects.
FINNEAS is Emmy-eligible in the category of Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special for Disclaimer.
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