Finneas shares “confusion” around Rick Rubin’s self-confessed lack of technical ability: “What I assume he means by that is, there are a lot of people that know a lot more than I do”
Musician and producer Finneas says, like many, he’s “confused” about Rick Rubin’s self-proclaimed lack of technical knowledge, and feels he maybe isn’t being so literal when he says he “knows nothing” about music.
In a 2023 interview for 60 Minutes, Rubin claimed he didn’t know how to use a mixing desk and said, “I’ve no technical ability. And I know nothing about music.” He also made similar comments about the freedom of “knowing none of the rules” of music in discussion with Rick Beato in 2024.
Finneas, who recently composed the score for season 2 of Netflix’s Beef, was asked about the evolving role of being a producer and his thoughts around Rubin’s unique practices in a new interview.
READ MORE: Finneas says he and Billie Eilish sometimes bicker about guitar technique: “Her number one piece of feedback is to be quieter… She wants that super-tender thing”
Speaking to Billboard, he explains “He’s made work that I’m really inspired by. I’m a little confused by his kind of… He swears that he knows nothing at all about music, and it’s like, just Google Rick Rubin, Johnny Cash. There are many videos of him setting up the mics. He doesn’t know ‘nothing’.
“I think what I assume he means by that, and I respect this, is similar to what I’ve said before: There are a lot of people that know a lot more than I do. I don’t know the most, but I also don’t know ‘nothing.’”
Finneas goes on to add: “I think I try to do the same thing, which is, I don’t want to make people feel like it isn’t achievable. I think that you don’t want to intimidate somebody out of trying to make something by way of, ‘I have my 10,000 hours, I know so much, you’ll never know as much as I do.’ So I like that about [him].
“I also think that the other thing that he really does, and I’m sure he is happy to talk about this, is he provides this environment. And I think that environment is incredibly important to me. I sometimes do think that, similarly to him, that’s the best thing I can offer some people.”
Interestingly, The Cult’s Billy Duffy lifted the lid on what it’s like to work with Rubin in an interview last year. Speaking on the Rockenteurs podcast, he recalled collaborating with Rubin on their 1987 record, Electric.
“He did hire Andy Wallace to be the engineer – Rick’s always used great engineers, he’s not stupid,” Duffy admitted. “And [producer and A&R exec] George Drakoulias was there all the time. Rick and George were like a team… [but] George was more musical. Rick’s not musical… at all,” he said.
“He’d say ‘can you play one of those pussy AC/DC English chords there?’” Duffy laughed. “We literally deconstructed the album on the spot. I went from a Gretsch with the Roland and the chorus and the echoes. And he was like, ‘Well, that’s a Marshall, that’s a Les Paul, off you go.’ It was quite traumatic for me, I gotta tell you.”
As for Finneas, he’s often best known for collaborating with his sister, Billie Eilish. In 2024, he spoke to Guitar.com around the release of his signature Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster, and shared how guitar remains his favourite instrument choice when taking to the stage.
“I happened to be doing this interview the other day with Hans Zimmer, and Hans was talking about touring, playing live – Hans plays everything and can conduct! And I was like, ‘Yeah, but whenever I see footage of you playing a concert, you’re just always shredding!’ and he was like, ‘Playing guitar is the most fun’ – and it really is true! It’s five or six times more fun to play a guitar or a bass than it is to sit and play a keyboard on stage. It’s so fun!”
The post Finneas shares “confusion” around Rick Rubin’s self-confessed lack of technical ability: “What I assume he means by that is, there are a lot of people that know a lot more than I do” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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