Musicians at Home | Todd & Orenda Fink - Design Bureau

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COLOR RIOT Caribbean-inspired greens, yellows, and blues make walls and ceilings pop throughout the home. “Bold colors and shapes tend to catch my eye,” says Todd. “You can see them on most Faint artwork.” He designed the artwork (and co-produced) Azure Ray’s 2012 EP and says it’s only a matter of time before he and Orenda form their own band.

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HOME AUDIO Pianos, organs, synths, and guitars spill from their individual studios to become a part of the home’s decor. Todd even cites his all-white Moog Voyager synthesizer as his favorite item in the house. The couple are working together this summer on new tracks for Orenda’s Harouki Zombi side project, and Todd is prepping a new Faint album for the fall.

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Musicians at Home | Todd & Orenda Fink

Monday, July 29th, 2013

By Joel Hoglund
Photos by Daniel Muller

Todd and Orenda Fink’s home in Omaha, Nebraska, celebrated its 100th birthday this year. Todd, the front man of synth-rock royalty The Faint, rented out the house he’d owned for more than a decade while he and his wife Orenda, the enchanting voice behind dreamy duo Azure Ray (not to mention solo projects and side bands like Art in Manila, O+S, and Harouki Zombi), moved around, and toured, of course. A year and a half ago they settled into the historic house and, between recording projects and world travels, began finally putting their own personalities into the century-old space. “I’m finding this house to have a great creative spirit,” says Orenda. “I think it is because we have had so many creative people living here over the years. It’s just in the bones of the house now.”

JH: Do you find that your styles overlap or do you each gravitate toward different looks?
Orenda Fink: I like the idea of our surroundings being comfortable but inspiring, and I want my home to be fun but also a respite for when we’re feeling like weary travelers. Todd and I definitely gravitate toward different looks but the longer we are together the more they begin to overlap. He is drawn to more modern designs and I prefer pieces and textures with some age on them. We used to fight about designing the house but now our styles seem to fit together quite nicely for us. 

JH: Have either of you ever vetoed the other’s choice of decor?
OF: I have definitely vetoed some of Todd’s contributions to the house. I think one was a fake mounted cat’s head. And another that comes to mind was a plastic sperm-shaped liquor container…?
Todd Fink: I’m sure I have in the past, but I’m wiser than that now.

JH: Your travels have had a big impact on your music, how have they affected the way you style your home?
OF: My first travels were through India and Cambodia, then Todd and I were inspired to visit Haiti and were so taken that we went back two more times and took our friend Chris Lawson. Traveling with an artist like Chris who works in multimedia collage with found objects creates a unique vision of the history and culture of a country. So, collecting his pieces that have been created on our travels and the local art that we acquired are beautiful and meaningful testaments to our time together and with our new and old friends. I like to be surrounded by them. 

JH: What are your favorite decorations in the home?
OF: My new favorite item is the memorial picture of our dog, Wilson, that Kianna Alarid Cameron of Tilly In the Wall did for us. We lost him seven months ago after having him for 15 years, but he is still very much a part of my life.
TF: The all-white Moog Voyager synthesizer in my studio. Although not exactly a decoration, it’s the most beautiful instrument I've ever seen. What attracted me to keyboards in the first place was the promise that new sounds can be made on them that have never been heard before. It seems impossible that this could still be true so many years after the birth of this technology, but it’s true—at least on a classic analogue synth like this.  

JH: You each have a studio space in the house—how does the vibe you created in your house affect the music you write there? 
TF: My mind is a scattered one and I am very easily distracted, so I like my studio to be uncluttered. I am not an organized person but I am trying to become one. I chose a calming but bold blue color. I use my home studio at night because the lighting is important to me. I like glowing surfaces, so on a budget, that translates to up-lighting and light-up globes. I want to feel like I’m in a simple, tidy spaceship.

JH: What inspires your personal aesthetic? Do you draw influences from the design world?
OF: I like things that fall apart beautifully. I really love French and Spanish colonial architecture and French Victorian patterns. I like wood and fabric and warm feeling surfaces. 
TF: I like to take a close look at objects and imagine the decision making process that created them. It’s the same thing I do when I listen to music. I imagine the motivations and the priorities behind the design. Like, what kind of person made this? A lot of times I wish that whoever it was would’ve worked on it a little more. I appreciate the art of whittling down complexity to its simplest form. 

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