Finn Pearson embraces the glamour of the grind with 'Rush Hour at The Servo’

For alt-country/folk-rock artist Finn Pearson, the past few years have been defined by “gig whiplash”. Rush Hour at The Servo is a record born in that strange space between it all; with title and lead track Rush Hour paying homage to the musicians out there on the road.

The five-track EP, out 18 September, brings together Tunnel Lights, Equilibrium, Boys Don't Cry, Silver Tray and Rush Hour, a collection of songs written across different stages of Pearson's life, from the existential uncertainty of his early twenties to the fallout of relationships and the strange, often contradictory experience of building a life as a working musician.

On just a regular day, after driving hours just to find he’d been double booked for a pub gig, so played in a TAB room instead, Finn headed home overtired, with freshly spilled stale coffee across his car's centre console. Running almost completely out of fuel, he limped into a Liberty Oil in O'Connor, only to find a queue stretching onto the street. In the middle of his increasingly irrational meltdown, the phrase rush hour at the servo occurred to him - and it made him laugh.

Years later, the phrase became the perfect shorthand for the contrast that defines life as a working musician: the intense highs of a sold-out audience alongside the tedium of playing to empty rooms and driving on long stretches of highway. For Pearson, the servo is where the grand ambitions of being a musician meet the comforting suburban banality of waiting for discount unleaded.

That same tension runs through the music. Heavier on electric guitar than his previous work, with strings replaced by slide guitar and a greater emphasis on live arrangements, Rush Hour at The Servo pushes further into Pearson's alt-country rock sound while retaining the intimate, conversational storytelling at the heart of his songwriting.

At its centre is Rush Hour, a stripped-back and reflective love song to the road itself. Playing between 150 and 200 shows a year, Pearson spends much of his life behind the wheel. “This song tries to capture the light and shade of this weird life that I’ve chosen for myself,” Pearson says. “The contrast between the excitement and connection of an incredible show and the parts of it that can be as boring and tedious as any other job can really spin you out. It’s all part of the beauty of it though, and I’m out here doing it, for better or for worse.”

Recorded as the EP's final track, Pearson explains with Rush Hour “I wanted to capture something intimate and untouched, but also dreamy and a little bit magical.. Sort of happy in a sad way? Like driving back from an amazing festival or something.”

Pearson's past year has seen him nominated for WAM Country Act of the Year and Best Guitarist, receive airplay from Triple J, ABC Country and Australian Country Radio, land Spotify playlisting on “Heaps Country”, complete two regional WA headline tours and support Eskimo Joe, William Crighton, Playlunch and Adam Newling. Rolling Stone described Silver Tray as an “upbeat, dust-kicking alt-country sound”, while The AU Review named Tunnel Lights its Track of the Week.

As one of WA’s hardest working musicians, Finn has built his career by showing up, playing the gigs, putting in the kilometres and steadily moving forward. And now, as the stages get bigger and the recognition starts to catch up, the rhythm remains much the same: the show ends, the gear gets packed, the car gets loaded and eventually, there's a servo on the way home.

Rush Hour at The Servo lives in that gap - a record about the highs, the lows and all the moments in between.

Finn Pearson’s EP ‘Rush Hour at The Servo’ is out 18 September via Auxiliary Records.