They decided they needed a change for their second album, wanting to be taken more
seriously. This transition grew gradually and the decision to change was not an overnight
process. So, they
changed their name to “Finger Eleven”. The name was taken from the
lyrics “Thin Spirits” on the TIP album, which they later on changed.
Finger Eleven released their debut album TIP on August 26, 1997, which was
produced and influenced by Arnold Lanni (Our
Lady Peace). They paid more attention to
melody and having Tool as one of the major influences on their album. In TIP
you can tell they have greatly matured musically with lyrics carrying more emotion,
meaning, and the vocals are more powerful. Letters From Chutney that
had a more “grunge” sound. I personally like Letters From Chutney the tunes are catchy.
“...we paid a lot of attention sonically to little
things you probably wouldn't have paid attention to the first couple of times.” comments
James Black about making the album.
Mercury dropped the band only six
weeks after releasing TIP. Just after a few months of TIP's release their
drummer Rob Gommerman left the band to go back to school. “He was
bitten by the school bug.” jokes Scott in an Edgefest interview. In December of
1997, after through months and months of auditions for a new drummer they finally found
one that had everything they were looking for aggression, style, talent, and personality.
Rich Beddoe joins the band.
On February of 1998, Wind-up Records (same label as Creed) signed them to their label. “It was actually a great stroke of, I don't know what - fate, luck…” says James Black in an recent interview. They had an extensive tour in the U.S with bands like Creed, Fuel, and Days of the New. On September 15, 1998, TIP was re-released in the U.S. remixed and renamed “Consolation Day” to “Awake and Dreaming.” Their single “Quicksand” reached the top 20 on the Billboard Rock Chart in the U.S. While in Canada their other single “Above” is getting heavy rotation in Much Music. The album TIP, was re-released in early March of 1999 in Canada on Wind-Up records. Finger Eleven also finished their Edgefest tour across Canada and their small western tour with IME. They are going to work on thier next album early December with Arnold Lanni which is going to be released around Feb to April of next year, if we're lucky.