By Chad Taylor
soundcheck@dmcityview.com

Bonne Finken and The Collective will hold a CD Release Party at People’s Court on Friday, May 18. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $10 in advance/$15 at the door. The Farmer Tan Funk Band, Chad Elliott and Kee’s Camp Dance Squad open.

“The thing that’s been the hardest, was I told myself ‘no editing, Bonne.’ ”

Bonne Finken is talking about the process of recording her new album, “Live From the Loft.” The biggest challenge for a live album is finding a way to best capture the moment, and keep a recorded product FEELING live.

“There were a few times where I’d listen to a track and think, ‘Oh! If I could just edit that one second, it would be perfect.’ But if you do that, you alter the feel of the song, and it’s not the same,” she said during our chat last week.

“Live From The Loft” is Finken’s third album, but her first recorded outside of the confines of a traditional studio environment. Part of the timing of the album is due to the current make-up of her backing band, The Collective.

“This is a really good group of musicians,” she said. “I’d have to say that this is pretty close to my Dream Team.”

The Collective is a revolving door of artists who Finken has worked with since the former Final Mix and 3 a.m. member started her solo career. Finken’s always considered herself a solo act who performs with a backing band, and that mindset has allowed her to bring in people to suit the needs of an album — or even a particular song. This freedom of choice has also helped Finken to explore the eclectic mix of influences that create “her” sound, and mix-and-match the musicians as needed. Her current “Dream Team” lineup consists of Jon Locker, Jeff Banks, Neil Stoffregen, Seth Hedquist, Scott Dawson and Josh Schryver, and the desire to capture this moment in time led Finken to the idea of a live album.

“Part of the nature of The Collective is how it changes. They’ve got other things going on, and as much as we’re enjoying this right now, we know that it can’t last forever,” she said.

The biggest technical challenge for Finken was finding a space that would allow her the control that she’s used to having over her product.

“We really wanted to capture the sound,” she said. “But there isn’t a club in town that would let us take over for a month and set up all the additional mics and let us really tweak the sound how we wanted it. That’s why we wound up renting The Loft.”

Finken and The Collective performed three shows at The Loft last December, recording each and choosing the tracks that worked the best together to form a cohesive album.

“For about half the tracks (on the album), I played them at each of the three recorded shows and picked the best track,” she said. “But the other half I played once and went with it because that’s how you get all the really neat, unplanned pieces of a live show — all the neat solos and things that you couldn’t just write out.” CV