An Interview with Aengus Finnan,
Folk Alliance International
What is Folk Alliance International? When was it started and what is its purpose?
Folk Alliance International (FAI) is the world’s largest member organization and conference for the folk music genre (inclusive of Appalachian, Americana, Blues, Bluegrass, Celtic, Cajun, Global Roots, Indigenous, Latin, Old Time, Traditional, Singer-Songwriters, Spoken Word, and various fusions). Founded in 1989, it strives to Preserve, Promote, and Present folk music through advocacy, education, and service.
Tell us a bit about the career path that led to where you are now.
My relationship to FAI began as a touring songwriter for over 10 years coming to the event to learn the business of music, and find bookings. Then I came as a festival Artistic Director for 7 years looking for artists, then as Board President of a sister organization in Canada (Folk Music Ontario) when my interest with FAI related to governance structure, and then in my role as an Officer at the Ontario Arts Council where we supported export-ready artists to touring new markets. I didn’t have my eyes set on working with FAI, it simply came to be that was the next natural step in my career and one I’m honored by.
What are your duties as Folk Alliance International’s Executive Director?
Ultimately, I report to a 21 member international board of directors, deliver on our Strategic Plan, oversee our staff of 9, steward the structure and process of our non-profit, develop mission-specific initiatives, and manager our $1.3 million dollar budget. Specifically, my focus remains professionalizing how we operate, elevating the credibility of our genre and organization, and most importantly leading on efforts of diversity, inclusion, and internationalism in our organization, community, and genre.
What job do you think you would you be doing if you weren’t at Folk Alliance International?
Plans were underway to return to music just as this position came up, and I had just released a live CD (my third) and published a retrospective songbook in 2013. That or working abroad in the international development and human rights field.
What band/artist(s) outside the realm of folk music would people be surprised to hear you love?
Mute Math, Midlake, HEM, Air, Stromae, Christophe Maé, Arthur H, Jorge Drexler, and Swedish House Mafia.
What destination would you most like to visit and why?
Thailand – I have friends there, love the food, the weather, and have never been.
You just won a million dollars. What are you going to do with it?
Pay off my lingering various artistic career debt (music, gallery, festival), buy a little home, buy my mum a home, take a year off.
What is/are your current favorite TV obsession(s)? What is the best movie you’ve seen so far this year?
I’m obsessed with covering up the first TV I’ve ever owned with a beautiful Guatemalan fabric.
Isle of Dogs is a gem (though I’m a cat man).
When friends come to town, what is your favorite restaurant you take them to?
Hmmm… when friends come to town it’s for the conference so we don’t get to do dinner out. Were they here at other time of year I’d go to the Antler Room here in Kansas City
You’re stranded on a desert island. What five well-known people (dead or alive) would you like to have there with you?
Well it would have to be 5 people who could forgive me for plucking them from their lives (or deaths) to live cast away with me. Assuming we had long lives ahead, and that it’s an inhabitable island with resources (rather than an acre of sand with a lone palm), I’d want to be with people to survive and thrive with, as opposed to famous people. I’d want to do that building with a healer, an inventor, an artist, a naturalist, and an explorer.
Learn more about Aengus and Folk Alliance International at www.folk.org and be sure to check out more of the NACC Community at www.naccchart.com/community.
