Sean Flinn

American songwriter/musician Sean Flinn lives in Portland, Oregon. Born in the shadow of Mount Shasta, Flinn spent his boyhood exploring the bends of Whiskeytown Lake and its surrounding woods. He was first turned on to the guitar at a young age while living in the Bay Area. His interest led to a decade of studying jazz and composition but it wasn’t until he moved to Portland in his early twenties where he found his musical clan. The Portland Mercury calls Flinn’s music “as honest and forthright as it comes-literate, sober tunesmithing commanded by a strong and assured voice.” He began recording and touring with bands and musicians formative to the Pacific Northwest music scene such as Y La Bamba, Nick Jaina, and Jolie Holland.

In 2010 he released his first record, Write Me A Novel, which Buzzine’s Andrew Shaw hailed as, “as good a debut as anyone could wish to produce” thanks to his “enthusiastic presence and unapologetic blends of swagger and lyrical touch.” Ranking in Paste Magazine’s Ten Oregon Bands You Should Listen To Now, where Luke Larson calls Flinn “a tried-and-true singer/songwriter” who “has picked up his own eclectic style of crafting pop songs along the way…that were as creatively recorded as they were solidly written.” The Parisian pop band, Herman Dune, invited Flinn’s band to tour Europe with them. They sold every last record they had brought with them on the tour. Flinn also shared the stage with other notable artists including The Lumineers, Head and the Heart, and Damien Jurado.

The Lost Weekend (released fall 2014), his sophomore LP, explored the tension between what is real and what is remembered. CMJ dubbed it “spacious, out-west roots rock”. In Willamette Week’s review, Palmedo describes the record as “Delicately constructed from start to finish, The Lost Weekend isn’t just immensely likeable—it’s also really good.” Flinn and his band toured nationally and internationally following the release of the, The Lost Weekend.

Sean Flinn has taken some time off to experiment with new textures and sounds, and plans to release a new record early next year.