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Pop-punk YouTube star NOAHFINNCE has finally released his long-awaited debut album, Growing Up On The Internet, and it was well worth the wait! The premiere LP takes listeners on a journey exploring Noah's formative years, during which he found himself navigating a suddenly accessible and unknown internet world. Going against the grain, resilience in the face of adversity, and trans and LGBTQ+ rights are just some of the themes woven throughout the eleven-track body of work. 

"I only recently began processing the effect that growing up on the internet with hundreds of thousands of eyes on me has had on my development as a person," he shares. "It's impossible to separate who you are as a person and who you would be without people on the internet telling you who you should be - I'm sure a lot of my generation and generations to come can find solace in somebody recounting their frustrations with the world as it is now. As a society, we're entering uncharted waters where nobody quite knows the repercussions of having unrestricted access to any thought any person has at any time. Human beings weren't built to perceive and compare ourselves to millions of others, we were made to pick berries and build relationships within our local communities." 

The Noise had the opportunity to chat with the rising star about the record, finding validation within himself and the changes they wish to see in the pop-punk scene.

At the time of this interview, how are you feeling about the release of your debut LP?

NOAHFINNCE: Good! Well, I'm three-quarters of the way through an arena tour supporting Enter Shikari. So I'm mostly thinking about the shows. But every now and then, I'm like, “Oh, shit. It's this many weeks.” So yeah, no, I'm very excited. I'm very, I'm very proud of it. I had no idea what writing an album was like, and then we wrote it. And I was like, “Oh, wow. Okay, cool.” I'm very excited for other people to hear it. But, six days after it's released, I'm going to America for a month touring. So I'm most excited to play the songs live and have people hear them live. 

What song are you most excited for people to finally have in their ears?

It is "Lovely Ladies" because we played on the last UK tour in October, and nobody knew about it. Since October, people have asked me, "When are we getting it? When are we getting it? When are we getting it? Is it a single? Where can we hear it?"

The fans NEED it!

Exactly! We've been playing it on tour this week as well. There are a bunch of video recordings of it on YouTube that people are just like, "Here it is." So yeah, that's what I'm most excited for, and other people were most excited about it because they've heard a lot about it but haven't had the actual song out yet. 

Let's talk about the early days of making this record. Was it something that you felt like, "Alright, Noah, it's time to make an album," or were you writing a bunch of music, and it all seemed like one cohesive collection of work coming together?

It was both. I knew it was an album coming out next, which was very intimidating. I wrote most of it with my friend Steph Abingdon, and our whole thing in the studio was like, we'll write whatever we think is cool. If it doesn't work out, we'll start a new one. So it was very relaxed in that sense. But in the back of my mind, there was always the thought that everything had to fit with the rest of the songs. I'm not very intentional with many things, but things just fell into place. When we were doing the final recordings, I thought more about what would fit together and how the tracklist would go. But yeah, I'm lucky that everything just fell into place.

The name of this record and one of the singles you've put out ahead of release day is "Growing Up On The Internet." I adored the classic pop-punk elements in the track and the hyper-pop Digi core-like elements infused within it. Why name the record after this track specifically, and what does it mean to you? And how does its meaning show itself throughout the collection?

That part was intentional. It was one of the first songs that we wrote for the album, and I think it came about that way because the last two EPs were very much about my time in therapy, going through childhood trauma, and all that fun stuff. Once I processed that, a tiny part of me felt like something was still going on in the back of my mind. And so the song is called that and is purely about that because only in the last year and a half, two years, have I really started processing the effect of growing up in front of a big audience since I was 15. I hit 100k on YouTube when I was 15 or 16, and now, as an adult, looking back almost 10 years later, I'm like, "Wow, that really did shape who I was," because I was initially drawn to the internet and making a space for myself there. After all, I couldn't really be myself in my real life. So, for four or five years of my life, there was a split of myself in my teenage years. It was like a Hannah Montana double-life moment where I was the girl in school because I was in the closet until I finished school, and I came out when I finished, and a boy was online. Once I finished school, I came out with all that happy stuff that went well, but I realized there was still this kind of separation. And yeah, as I was saying, I only really started processing the effects of hundreds of thousands of people having their opinion of you. Not only do they have an opinion, but they also let you know their opinion of you. They projected their insecurities onto you, and I realized I was getting so much validation and criticism from complete strangers online, and it shaped who I was as a person. And that was what I was going through last year, like internalizing a lot of that stuff.

I had to process it because I went from posting content online to playing shows and meeting the people who had been consuming my content for the past five or six years. So yeah, we wrote that song. As soon as I come up with how I write songs, I'll have a voice memo idea or lyric ideas. And I'll write something based on the voice memo. Once I finished writing "Growing Up On The Internet," I was like, "Okay, I could write 100 songs about this." That was where the album's intention came from. I at least had a topic or theme to write about.

Full disclosure: I am one of those subscribers. I remember the first video I saw you in, where you collaborated with YouTuber Jammidodger and his partner, and that's how I found your music. I can only imagine how impactful being on the internet for that long has seeped into your psyche and how you shaped yourself. How have you discovered who Noah is outside of the internet? How have you found that validation within yourself versus needing it from others?

Honestly, that's a great question. I think I'm still working on that.

Tell me more about that.

That's a lot of what writing this album was helpful for because I struggled to process things until I wrote them down. I struggled to realize my feelings until I spoke about them in a room with somebody. A big thing was meeting other people who had the same experience as me. Whereas, when I was in school, it was kind of me making videos and posting videos, I had my friends that I had met on the internet, but they didn't make content, and they didn't have an audience like I did. And it was really helpful, like, five, six years ago, becoming friends with others who have been through the same thing. My friends have been doing the same stuff I have, but like 10 years earlier. Speaking out with them has been really helpful because the running theme was that I don't think anybody's brain is built to process that amount of information. Humans cannot process that many opinions of themselves and be perceived by that many people. But the overwhelming thing is just that we're all in it together. It's all a bit fucked up. And even other people who don't have an audience can relate to three-quarters of those feelings. Even 20 years ago, 15 years ago, people didn't have Instagram and weren't constantly judging their bodies based on everybody else's Instagram photos. Yeah, I still haven't figured out the validation for myself thing. But spending more time with my friends and not looking so much at the comments – I don't read most of the comment sections now. Because the bigger you get, the more people from outside your target demographic will read your videos. So, I've tried to be less chronically online.

I'm glad this album has been so cathartic for you and that you have that support system in your life. It's so important to have it! Everyone should be less chronically online. Moving on from the early days to being in the midst of it all, is there any song that gave you a lot of trouble in terms of trying to nail down how it would be as a finished product?

The hardest part for me when writing songs is that I'm such a perfectionist. I like to write a single verse when I write stuff, and I can hear the whole song in my head. I could write it down or play it word for word, but trying to find something I like initially is the hardest part. Once we get past the first hurdle of "Okay, I know it wants to sound like this, and it's about this," it's easy from there. Trying to get the lyrics right is the hardest thing with more emotional songs. That may be the hardest part. For example, there's a song called "Subtitles" on the album, which is about knowing I'm autistic but not having the diagnosis and much of last year's thing of processing the whole internet shit. I was also reading more about autism and trying to see myself from the perspective of the fact that I've lived my entire life as an autistic person, and looking back at things that have happened or things that I struggle with day to day, and trying to reorganize them in my head. So "Subtitles" was a big song for that. I wanted to get it right on the page and to be obvious to people what it was about, but without being too overt, if you get what I mean. So lyrically, it was important for me to get that right, but there's also a song called "Lovely Ladies" on the album.

The midsection of that song is just like transphobic hate speech, and so that was actually word for word from a TERF hate speech. That was word for word what it was, but we obviously couldn't use that recording in the song because the TERF would sue us, and we would get into unlimited trouble. So, that one took a lot of work to nail. I wrote that one with a band called McFly, who are great. I actually had the bassist Dougie impersonate the transphobe lady, and we just recorded it like an old BBC microphone. We're trying to get crowd noises in the background to make it sound like it was taking place in a protest. I think, technically, that was probably the most challenging thing producing-wise.

McFly, what an iconic band! What do you hope people can hold on to and feel whenever they listen to this collection?

I'm not sure because, when I say write without intention, I like to write about how I'm feeling. And I only really think about how other people will perceive it once it's close to being released. A big thing is – like I was saying earlier when you were saying how have you begun to process the internal validation thing – I think a big point of the album is just like, we're kind of all fucked. The state of the world that our generation has been given is fucked up. And that's something that I feel a lot of rage about. A lot of people in my generation feel that rage. It will also be a bit cathartic for people to hear that from a different perspective. Because I grew up within the scene, I was obsessed with My Chem and all that stuff. And I love how diverse the scene is becoming.

Seeing how the scene has evolved over the last few years has been lovely.

Yes, exactly! But I love that there are a good few angry trans songs on the record. I hope that people who maybe don't know that much about trans stuff will listen to them and think about them more than just a base level. And it's more just like, I'm very sarcastic about things that I've gone through, and a lot of that comes through with the album. But I think I kind of hope that people listen to it and [are] just like, “Oh, we're fucked, but like, at least Noah knows we're fucked. And at least when I feel shit, I can listen to this.” But most of the album is about standing up for yourself and fighting against stuff. I think people will pick up on that vibe when they hear it for the first time.

Speaking more about the state of the scene and your advocacy for the LGBTQ community, what do you hope to see regarding how this community continues to evolve demographically in the coming years?

There needs to be more diversity and more people to be heard. I don't think we need more of the same shit that we've been getting for the past 20 years. Although I love pop-punk and all those bands, the genre tends to be stale. So, I love diversity in terms of the people creating it and the music itself. I love that mixing genres is cool nowadays. I guess, like, even 10 years ago, I remember when Sempiternal came out by Bring Me the Horizon, and people were so pissed off about the fact that they were kind of writing metalcore pop songs. But yeah, I'm just really excited about how things are going. I would love to see less gatekeeping because, even within a scene, I feel people were drawn to the scene maybe at a young age when they felt like they were different. They felt like outsiders, and it was like they were against the world. When they grow up, I think people tend to become the parents they were rebelling against. And I've definitely seen that a lot. Even just like in my experience of me supporting shows and the fans going, "Oh, fucking look at this young generation." So I'd love to see more diversity in creating music diversity in the kind of music that it is. Genres change. And yeah, just like, less fucking bros trying to tell other people how they should be. Because that's completely antithetical to the genre itself.

I know that you're on the road right now, and as soon as you're done with this tour, you'll head off on another tour. Being on the road can be taxing mentally, physically, and emotionally. How do you find ways to ground yourself whenever you spend all this time away from home and away from your loved ones?

It's difficult. I feel like it takes me, like – part of having autism is finding difficulty within transitions. So, if I finish a tour, it will take me a solid three weeks to feel normal when I'm home. And I will be home for three weeks and then straight off to another tour. So, obviously, having your people around you is very important. But, while I'm on tour, there's obviously space to feel grounded. And because I've been touring for about three-and-a-bit years now, I love my team and everybody on my team. We know each other well, and you just become a family on tour. It's equally important for the people around you to be aware of your feelings and what's happening and have them look out for you. But yeah, it's a difficult one. A lot of it for me is just like planning because I also have ADHD. So, juggling everything and managing everything takes a lot of work. But, like being intentional with your time, trying to plan things in advance and then planning rest time, which I'm still very terrible at, is essential. But I'm getting better at it. It's still something that I need to figure out.

What is your favorite song from this album to perform live?

Good question. Again, I'm so indecisive. I can't pick favorites. The only thing I can ever pick as a favorite is color; green is my favorite color. I can't pick a favorite band or song. There are a few things.

Okay, then, which one are you excited to play live today? What's the first one that comes to mind?

It's probably "Growing Up On The Internet" because a lot is going on. It's either that one or "Lovely Ladies" because when people know the song and the lyrics, I know they will go crazy for it. But "Growing Up On The Internet" has this riff that is so fun to walk onto. It's the opener of the set. It's got all the auto-tune bits, and it's got little breaks. That's probably the most fun so far. 

What is your favorite lyric on the album?

I think in "Subtitles," again, a big song about autism, it was really difficult in my head to figure out what I wanted to say. I think the second verse is the favorite second verse that I've written for anything, maybe even the favorite verse I've ever written. I was getting stuck on it. I couldn't figure it out. So, I was like, "Look, I'm just gonna go to the toilet. And then we're gonna come back, and we're gonna be fresh." I ended up writing the entire second verse in the bathroom. But my favorite lyric is like the whole verse. It's like, "I wish that this life would come free with instructions/ I'm sick of soul searching, just trying to function/ It's crazy how I'll/ take until 25 faking that I'll be alright/ because I'll be alright/ And maybe if I tried more/ and maybe if I ignore the headache/ that stuck in the back of my mind/ that I've trampled to death/ Tied my knots round its head/ till I find its last breath/ And that's never coming so." Like that entirely, to me, sums up completely how I felt. It's exactly what I struggled to say when I was worrying about writing the song. So, definitely, just that whole verse.

Do you have a message for anyone reading this interview, whether they're fans or people who just clicked and are discovering you at that moment?

The thing I want most people to do when they listen to the album is listen to it in full. It's only about half an hour of an album. Just set half an hour aside, put your headphones on, put them on in the car, and go for a drive and listen to it in the tracklist because it is intentionally that way. And, like, get the lyrics up, I don't know. That's the way that I enjoy listening to albums. And now that I have an album coming out, that is how you should listen to an album. And that's how you should listen to this album. So yeah, you listen to it at once. Please don't skip the singles because they make sense. There's context to them and how they fit in the album. Also, thanks for sticking around. Sorry. I was so obnoxious when I was a teenager, but I assume you were too.