We can’t talk about my journey to New York without talking about Finch.

Let’s go back 20 years. 2005. The internet was a much different place. It felt a lot more diverse and creative than it is today. Being online wasn’t a prerequisite for being part of society. It felt like the opposite. An escape from a codified outside world.

We were not all infinitely scrolling the same apps all day. Instead, there were an infinite number of micro-communities around anything you could be into. For me, it was music genres and bands. Each website had its own identity. It was scrappy. When you liked a band, it was common to be part of an online forum about them. You would become actual friends with the other members. And if the community didn’t exist yet, it was on you to create it.

So this is what I did, and decided to create my own website about my favorite band of the time, Finch. Their first album What It Is To Burn felt like the most exciting and modern thing I had ever heard. It felt like a perfect gateway from punk-rock to angrier music. It was so melodic and cool.

FinchFrance.com was born on May 5th 2005. The first version was built based on what friends who built other websites had taught me. There were no rules. We started by using Photoshop, slicing up designs and exporting them as tables. Accessibility wasn’t even a concept.

This website became my sandbox. Anytime I learned something new about web design, it was a good reason to launch a new version of it. It was a mess. But somehow, a mess that resonated with others. The message board steadily grew to around 2,000 people by the time the website went offline in 2007.

Somehow, 13-year-old me thought it was appropriate to email Geffen / Warner Music to ask to interview the band for their next show in Paris. I even sent them a fax (!). Somehow I received a call back and a date was set. One small detail: I had the English level of a 13-year-old French kid, and let me tell you it was bad. So as I met their guitarist Randy at a café by the venue they were playing that night, I had my questions and recorder ready. I would ask a question, and just stare at him until he finished talking. Praying that my recorder wouldn’t break at any moment. I was joined by a friend from the message board and my older brother, who both had slightly better English than me. We were still totally out of our depth.

The label gave me my first photo-pass that night, which I didn’t yet realize would become the beginning of a new journey into music photography.

While everything that happened since could have happened through other means, my life as it is today is directly linked to these few moments around the band Finch. Deciding to make a website, and somehow thinking it would be fine to email a major label asking to interview a band without knowing how to speak English. Through trial and error, I eventually learned to make websites for a living, and to speak English. My 13-year-old naivety would become a kick-off for what would lead me to move to New York to work in the music industry.

Looking back, I really admire how fearless my younger self was. No hesitation, just going for it. Even when I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t know any better, and that might have been my superpower. I have definitely become a lot more shy since.

Thank you to everyone who enabled me to do all of those things: Warner Music, Randy, and all the web designers who shared their knowledge with me. You changed my life.

Some artifacts from FinchFrance.com can still be found on the Internet Archive.