When Finneas O’Connell and Ashlyn Wilson first crossed paths almost a decade ago - long before either had become an international success - the spark was immediate. In a world of fleeting, surface-level conversations, their instant chemistry has endured the test of time.

Ashe echoes the sentiment: "I feel like any relationship where you meet younger in life - I mean, he was 19 and I was in my early 20s, but still - it feels like this foundational period of your life, where those friendships that you meet, if you do hit it off, kind of count for a lifetime. They’re such a part of those really informative years. It was such a consistent connection over time. When we started working together more, it just made sense."

That bond was cemented through collaborations like ‘Moral of the Story’ (2019) and ’Till Forever Falls Apart’ (2021), songs which reached millions and became defining moments in both careers. Yet, several years later, each found themselves in a different place. Charts, awards, the kind of fame where one name alone suffices - none of it guaranteed real fulfilment.

During a self-imposed break from music, Ashe rediscovered her joy simply by being with friends, creating together. Writing for Suki Waterhouse breathed new life into waning embers. "I was with my friend in a room, and I was advocating for her as a songwriter and talking to the producers. It just kind of made me fall back in love with it," she describes fondly. "Similarly, working with FINNEAS; that's like, the thing. Making music with your friend, who you care about and respect so much, is all that matters."

Despite a relentless schedule, building a new band from scratch felt essential and obvious to FINNEAS. The rest is history, and under The Favors, this duo have curated a cinematic, organic, harmony-driven debut LP, ‘The Dream’. Unfolding a narrative that exists in its own reality entirely, the era-agnostic world-building here is a key focus - but initially, the tone and direction of the music itself was not crystal clear. "We really came into this with a very blank slate," Ashe states. "We sent more photos to each other than we did songs for inspiration."

Part of the appeal lay in stripping things back, dedicating an ode to times of decades past - away from celebrity culture, away from external expectation - and reconnecting with the collaborative joy that had first brought them together. As with any new form of experimentation, FINNEAS highlights the desire to apply lessons learned from every other musical chapter.

"It really does enrich your life to see everything through this different spectrum of light. That's why this band was so appealing to start with. I'm going to see everything through this different lens now. I'm gonna get to sing all these shared harmonies with Ashe. At the time, I was not making music with my friends David [Marinelli] and Ricky [‘Rat’ Gourmet], either yet. It was an excuse to fold them in, and the collaborative spirit of it was always going to reinvent how I look at making music."

Bringing the four members together into one room allowed them to embrace a classic recording approach that felt new to them all: playing live as a unit and capturing the sound directly. No tricks, no synthetic layers - just four quality musicians locking in, with minimal post-production. It’s a methodology FINNEAS has since carried into his solo work, reshaping his own discography.

Across ‘The Dream’'s twelve tracks, each member shines. FINNEAS and Ashe’s vocals intertwine, Marinelli takes a lead moment, and Rat’s guitar lines bring unexpected colour. From the outset, the striking debut single ‘The Little Mess You Made’ set the tone - romance, mystery, and drama.

That mischievous tension hints at the broader story woven through the record. Much of it is set against the deliberately specific canvas of New York City - songs like ‘The Hudson’, ‘Lake George’, ‘Times Square Jesus’, and ‘Home Sweet Home’ root the narrative in iconic scenery that underpinned their early memories.

Those personal memories spiralled into a deeper world-building exercise inspired by the listening habits of youth. "I grew up listening to The Who and My Chemical Romance, where there's a lot of like narrative and third person," FINNEAS shares, tracing ‘The Dream’'s story from title-track to addictive disco-rock closer, named after his favourite Lower East Side bar. "We just kept having these like New York motifs, so it had started to have this pins-on-a-map feeling to it."

As for live shows, that world is still waiting to be fully revealed. "We've had these little moments, but we still are ramping up to play our first ever headline show as The Favors, and that's such an exciting thing," Ashe gushes. "It feels like a mountain. We're putting in what I would call an immense amount of effort for only a few shows, and it is so exciting and unbelievable. I can't speak too much yet to how it's gonna feel, but I know that playing with these guys is some of the most fun I've ever had on stage."