Incredibly Unfamous award-winning
indie pop-folk artist
Finn O'Sullivan
got her start performing Taylor Swift concerts in her bedroom while her parents were out. She grew up in a small house with sparkly lights and solstice parties and full moon walks and go-to-sleep guitar serenades and left of center everything. And music was at the heart of all of it. She played piano early and she sang songs in the bathtub and she picked up a guitar when she was twelve and, as Taylor Swift herself once said, "just like clockwork, the dominoes cascaded in a line."
Former Rolling Stone managing editor John Dioso calls O’Sullivan “the lovechild of Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift,” and that marriage of songstress genius comes out in her lyricism and in her fearlessness in exploring not only the depths of feeling, but also some serious badassery. To quote another of her musical heroes and influences, Ezra Furman, she is unafraid to "feel all the feelings in the book tonight," and she writes about the universal themes of love and loss with both humor and compassion. In one of her songs, she muses about a habit of putting her "faith in things that tend to fall apart, secretly hoping I can turn it into art." And she’s quite adept at doing just that. O'Sullivan's turns of phrase and sometimes surprising chord progressions evidence a maturity in musicianship and a true poetic gift. She has shared the stage with Langhorne Slim, Carsie Blanton, Rainbow Girls, and a host of local Colorado talent.
O'Sullivan says that songwriting is a way for her to express herself and talk about things that are important to her, which is sometimes hard for her to do in everyday conversation. She is "committed to creating things that other people can relate to," and her songs are a testament to this commitment. She explores love and heartbreak, patriarchal privilege, the worlds of her favorite fictional characters, and the endless what if's that keep her up at night.
Lyrics are often where a song begins for O'Sullivan. "When I write a song," she says, "it's not based on a melodic idea or a chord progression, but on a concept, a lyrical idea." Her lyrics range from old soul, to millennial quirky, to fresh and bold, and her clever, catchy, and sometimes melancholy tunes simply get stuck in your head.
O'Sullivan began working with a producer after she won the 2016 eTown Handmade Songs Competition in Boulder, CO, and she has been recording on her own and with producers since. Her first two EPs, Between the Lies and pitypartythoughts, were released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. She released her first LP, When the Power Comes Back On, in 2020. The title song of that LP won the Song of the Year award in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Her EP These Days was released in April of 2021 and Fine Things, inspired by the show Our Flag Means Death, was released in October of 2023. Her latest EP, Best Last Words, released in April of 2024, was also released on vinyl with two bonus tracks. Get it HERE. Her next project, out September 27, 2024, is bite it back, a 3-song EP, self-produced and inspired by the dead gay wizard club. IYKYK. Pre-save it HERE.
Depending on the venue, O’Sullivan plays solo, with a full band, or with “Children of Divorce,” a trio of femme songwriters who play originals as well covers of their “parents” Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. O'Sullivan recently earned her bachelor's degree from The University of Colorado Denver as a singer-songwriter major.
O'Sullivan coined herself "incredibly unfamous" based on a pinback button she found at a second hand store. Her song of the same name realizes that remaining incredibly unfamous is not the worst thing that could happen. For her, the phrase is primarily about staying true to self amidst pressures to fit someone else's idea of what it means to be successful in a daunting and challenging industry. Still, though the phrase is relevant, it is also, hopefully, eventually, wrong.