Interview by Kris Peters
At some stage of a band's career when they have released enough hit songs to justify such a collection, the traditional Greatest Hits package almost becomes a necessity.
What should be seen as a celebration of a successful career is too often viewed more as a commercialised assortment of songs that have already generated a substantial amount of money, but, also as is often the case, the bands themselves have little or no say in the process or release.
Not that anyone is accusing Canadian rock outfit Finger Eleven of jumping on the gravy train.
Far from it.
These guys have earned their stripes and the imminent release of their overdue Greatest Hits album on June 17 also serves as a homage to some of the bands personal covers and Finger Eleven's first new music in seven years, Together Right.
Featuring a previously unreleased cover of Pink Floyd's Welcome To The Machine (a live fan favourite) as well as their version of wrestler Kane's entrance song Slow Chemical, Finger Eleven seem to have all bases covered with a collection of 12 tracks including Paralyzer, One Thing, Fallin' On and Living In A Dream.
Frontman Scott Anderson sat down with HEAVY to run over the idea.
"I think we've talked about it for long enough," he smiled. "We hit the right moment to say can we agree on these songs, and do we have enough for a Greatest Hits? Can we do this? Alright, let's do it. James got the artwork together and the ball started rolling, and I'm excited to say we finally pulled the trigger on it."
In the full interview Scott talks about the song selection process for the album, the new single Together Right and how it reflects Finger Eleven in 2023, the Pink Floyd cover and why it made the cut, the early days of the band and the musical climate that gave them life, their early name Rainbow Butt Monkeys and WTF, how their music has changed over the years, new music plans and more.