Finn The Human's Pop-Punk Band Is Coming To Supanova Brisbane

Talenteed teen Jeremy Shada, best known as the voice of perenially enthusiastic protagonist Finn The Human in Cartoon Network's cult smash Adventure Time, will be taking a little time at this weekend's Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Brisbane to treat fans to a performance alongside his new band, pop-punk outfit Make Out Monday.

Having pleased crowds at Adelaide's event this Friday past, Shada confirmed in an interview with theMusic.com.au that he and his band — comprised of brother and original Finn voice actor Zack, and friends Logan Charles, John Spicer and Seth Renken — would be taking to the main stage in Brisbane to put on the band's third-ever public performance.

"Definitely, that is happening," Shada said when asked about the prospect of his band following up the Adelaide show with an appearance in Brisbane. "I’m super excited."

"We started about… I wanna say six months ago," he continued, explaining the band's origins. "We have our first EP out now, it’s up on iTunes and stuff; we played our very, very first show at the San Diego House of Blues, actually, during San Diego Comic-Con this year, which was a blast. It was super fun. It’s kind of cool being able to do shows at, like, Comic-Con-type things, because then all my fans that are there for Adventure Time, or are just fans of me, come to the show and it’s kind of expanding that fan base.

"These two Australian shows are actually our second and third shows in all, so it’s awesome being able to play our second and third shows in Australia and kind of have like an international fanbase. That’s super awesome. We’re very lucky."

The unerringly affable, commendably mature 17-year-old says the band came together organically out of shared interests among friends, with little pretense as to their expectations of the exercise — but their early jams went so well it was hard to say no when the opportunity came along to pursue it as a regular pastime.

"Honestly, me and all the other guys in the band, we love a very wide range of music … everything from Fall Out Boy to 30 Seconds To Mars, Imagine Dragons, Maroon 5; just a wide range of stuff," Shada enthused. "All of us have been doing music-type stuff for a very long time. For me, for a while, people really wanted me to do, like, a solo singing thing, almost like a Justin Bieber thing, and I didn’t really want to do that, because I’m not really into that type of thing, but when the opportunity or the possibility of doing a full band presented itself, I was like, ‘Put me down for it’ ... We just jammed one day; we were kinda like, ‘Why don’t we just do this?’ It’s been super fun, and I love doing it."

Fans of Adventure Time and Shada's acting work needn't fear, though; yes, he loves exploring the musical side of things, but — especially given the flexibility of the modern age when it comes to people's creative pursuits — he has no plan to trade one for the other; he's not even sure which he'd cast by the wayside if he had to, at this stage.

“That’s a really hard question, actually," Shada said. "I mean, I think my first love, and what I’ve grown up doing, first and foremost, is definitely acting, but I think the thing overall is, like — especially these days — I wouldn’t really consider myself a singer or an actor outright, or a bass player outright or whatever. I just consider myself, I guess, like, an entertainer in all those facets.

"For doing acting, you kind of have to do singing as well, at least in some capacity… and if you’re doing singing, you have to do some kind of performance or acting anyway, even if you’re on stage, so they all kind of bleed together. I think there’s definitely room for both; I definitely have time for both. Back in the day it was more like you were either ‘this’ or ‘that’ or ‘this’, you didn’t really cross stuff; but when you have, like, this year, Jared Leto winning Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards and he also is the lead singer of 30 Seconds To Mars, it’s kind of like, ‘Yeah, I can start doing both’. That was kind of the reason I was more comfortable finally doing it."

Make Out Monday perform at Supanova Brisbane, at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, this weekend. The band released their debut single, Hope Less Romantics in July; get among the boppy, upbeat, youthful-angst goodness below.