Born in Los Angeles in 1966, Finch was adopted by Robert Edward Finch and Sandra Jacobson. She expressed an interest in photography as a child and teenager. “It was just something I enjoyed, and it allowed me access,” Finch recalled to LA Weekly for a 2006 article. “I would tell bands that I would take their pictures if they put me on the guest list so I could get in free. It was a way to meet people and be part of the scene.” Before long, she was in the scene as a musician. Her performance career began in 1984 as a member of Sugar Babydoll, which was fronted by Courtney Love.
In 1986, Finch would join L7, an all-female band in which she would remain for much of her life. The band was initially founded by Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks in 1985; Finch joined the following year along with drummer Dee Plakas. “I only lightly played bass – but when your friends Donita Sparks and Suzy Gardner come around and say, ‘We need a bass player,’ you learn to play!” said Finch in an interview with Guitar World last year. “To me, bass is a response; it’s not an initiation.” Finch was with the group for much of their most commercially successful period (even appearing with them in John Water’s 1994 film Serial Mom as the fictional band Camel Lips) but left the band in 1996 as she became sober and her father died. “I caved under that specific pressure — of not being able to be everything [I felt] was expected,” she later reflected to Rolling Stone.
After exiting L7, Finch played in two other bands: OtherStarPeople and the Shocker. She would reunite with L7 in 2014, and perform on their 2019 album Scatter The Rats, which remains the final L7 record to date. Upon reuniting and touring, Finch recognized the band’s role as “examples”, but also felt more freedom to fail. “I’m very heart-warmed when particularly women say, ‘Because of you, I got into politics’ or ‘I got my medical degree because of you,'” Finch told Guitar World. “You know, fighting for housing rights, that’s awesome.” The surviving members of the band plan to tour this fall, per Pitchfork, with Finch’s blessing.
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