An Interview with Finley Taylor

Photo by Sophie Wray.

Well, here we are. How on earth did we end up here? An incredible amount of planning, joking and drawing up ideas have led to this very moment. I’m sorry, you must think I’m writing about the inception of Riffs&Runway. No, I’m writing about having my co-editor-to-be Fin sitting on my couch in Liverpool after a wild New Year, still wiping away the tears from seeing Better Man. Pointer: he’s the emotional one. That said, our magazine is a culmination of eagerness, creativity, and a shared love for music and fashion between two university students who have far too many opinions to keep to themselves. I found that for my inaugural article, it was only fitting to sit Fin down to discuss all things Riffs&Runway and to make sure we were on the same page, of course.

Unlike his pessimistic start to my interview (thanks for throwing me off guard with that one), I opened our conversation by asking what he was most excited about starting our new venture. “There's a social side, obviously you and I get along very well. I'm excited to see kind of what you do, just as much as what I'm looking forward to doing myself.” He wasn’t wrong, the foundation of all of this is purely from our bond and I especially enjoy the pinch of flattery now and then. But then came the introspection: “Writing, especially journalism is an incredibly vulnerable way of writing.” I’ll admit I have the same apprehension, yet whereas I’m very new to this, Fin is undoubtedly a pro and has nothing to worry about. 

Anyone who knows Fin knows that music is a defining part of his identity, and for that, he gives full credit to his mum. “She brought me up listening to a lot of The Beatles, a lot of The Rolling Stones, a lot of Queens of the Stone Age, so she was kind of the foundation of where my music taste lies.” As a Liverpudlian I’ll give it to him, the man has a good taste and has seen some good parenting. Hitting adolescence, it was The Kooks, The Arctic Monkeys and plenty more indie-pop that was blaring through his headphones, feel-good anthems that defined our generation. 

Tastes in music come and go, but I wanted to know the memories that stuck. For Fin, it was his first CD, Jake Bugg’s Shangri La, being played from start to finish in the car with his mum. As for the best live performance he’s seen? There was an immediate answer: Primal Scream. “That was probably one of the best nights of my life.”

Now onto my area of expertise, fashion, and Fin’s approach to his personal style is as predictable as his Spotify playlist. “I’ve gone through a lot of phases, but no matter how distant, there will always be an element of punk,” he said, as I glanced at the arrangement of unique rings on his fingers and the scuffed oxford Doc Martens on his feet. Clearly "not a poser", Fin even wears his Carhartt jacket which he “loves dearly” to work, to bat away the assumption of course. Despite this trend in his wardrobe, he doesn’t like to be boxed into a certain style: “If I’m honest, I get bored.” 

Now who is Fin’s fashion icon that he most resonates with? “Austin Butler. I love the way he presents himself.” Shocker. In all seriousness, I agree, from his biker garb in The Bikeriders to his ambassadorship with YSL Beauty and the wardrobe that comes with it, there isn’t much to dislike. The other is Liam Gallagher, who Fin admits has made some strange choices over the years, yet has maintained a degree of consistency. Mentioning Gallagher’s recent collaboration with Berghaus (yes, the infamous Aldi-toned jacket), I came to realise Fin’s sense of style is interwoven with his taste for music, a trope you may find is a major factor in how we run things here. 

As we drew our conversation to a close, we touched on the heart of Riffs&Runway: the interconnection between music and fashion. “I think ultimately people yearn to express themselves,” he mused. “We’re on a planet with eight billion of us and each and every one of us wants to stand out in our own way and kind of be our own person, and I think that music and fashion are just two very easy, very accessible ways of doing that.” I couldn’t have said it better myself, and that’s exactly why we’re doing this. It’s why we write and it’s why we care so much about this magazine. Fin aptly agrees: “Ultimately, that's why I think it's incredibly important that people like you and I write about that, show people. I'm looking forward to it, an incredible amount.”

And as am I. Welcome to Riffs&Runway.