At age 9, Finn started taking lessons at Milton Mann Accordion Studios in Culver City after their door-to-door salesman was bowled over by his hidden talent.
Later in grade school, he played clarinet so well his music teacher dug up a long-lost alto clarinet just for him.
In junior high, he switched to saxophone and played in high school jazz ensembles and rock bands.
Finn discovered electric guitar and started writing songs; he formed progressive rock band Oracle and recorded some original tunes. After sending five or six tapes to record companies, he quit his part-time job to await royalties.
He also played guitar with avant-wacko jazz band Halfway to Cleveland. They improvised music encrypted in random newspaper articles.
In fifth grade, Hansen brought home a rented violin. She was encouraged by family members to practice "in Carnegie Hall" or "anywhere else." She took a violin lesson from Mrs. Grantham and played in 7th grade orchestra. The orchestra leader, who smoked nonstop in the classroom, died of emphysema halfway through the school year and was not replaced.
She moved to CA, got a job, and found a roach-infested single in Venice where many neighbors were working musicians—even one or two who got by without a day job. She bought a guitar and started practicing.
Inspired by a recording of guitar master Sabicas, Hansen took flamenco guitar lessons but could not find a band seeking a fledgling female flamenco guitarist. She switched to electric guitar and went on many dead-end auditions.
Hansen and Finn met at a guitar audition for Santa Monica College jazz band. They started a two-guitar band with a drummer and bassist and worked paid gigs 5–10 sets per night, 5–6 nights per week in dive bars and clubs in LA, Long Beach, Azusa, and glamorous Hanford and Visalia in central California. They flew to a weeks-long gig in Sitka, Alaska, and drove to gigs in Oregon and British Columbia in a cramped, overloaded Honda squareback.
They decided to get day jobs in LA and start an all-original trio Walking Upright with drummer Bill Adams. Hansen switched to bass. The band played lots of LA clubs—including Club 88, which held an awards ceremony and proclaimed Finn "Guitarist of the Year" (no actual trophies were available at the event or any time thereafter). They released a vinyl sure-to-be-double-hit single: Timecard Zombie b/w I Go Where The Meat Meets … thereby halving royalties from their inevitable worldwide success. The band fell apart.
Finn and Hansen started a new all-original band The Ants Will Love It, played more LA clubs, got some good reviews, and released a CD, Start in the Middle that got airplay on CA college radio and charted once in Campus Circle magazine. The band fell apart.
They quit their day jobs and spent three months driving an old Isuzu Trooper down the east coast of Mexico to the Yucatán peninsula and back through Chiapas and Oaxaca. They returned to LA broke, got evicted, and found new day jobs. They recorded Rumba Mutt in their tiny living room.
