Rachael “Steak” Finley is the ultimate alt girl

Rachael “Steak” Finley and Surfbort’s Dani Miller appear in our Fall 2023 Issue with cover stars Scowl, Yves Tumor, Poppy, and Good Charlotte. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy. Her collaboration with AP goes live at noon PST at Hot Lava.

There are a multitude of winding paths and internet wormholes one could take to get to Rachael Finley, known as “Steak” by fans and friends alike. While the traditional “spotlight” hasn’t ever been her comfort zone, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an Angelino who doesn’t either love Finley or know her lore. From her significant internet presence to her impact on streetwear to the powerful, at times harrowing, life story she published last year, she’s proven there are people capable of circumventing the cliched, overstated “Renaissance man/woman” label, and are truly living it.

She was a television host for VICE and MTV, and she traveled the country selling metal band tees. She was a ward of the state of Florida. She is also an entrepreneur and businesswoman who has worked in streetwear and skate brands for years, helping develop and build beloved labels. Finley started her very own brand Hot Lava in 2015, which has become a lionized alt-girl streetwear brand, beloved for its blend of skate style and feminine edge. The design process, Finley once said, is in part dedicated to those who have driven its success: “I design directly for the fans — what they want to wear and can’t find.” 

Read more: Designer Helena Eisenhart doesn’t want to fit in

In the early days of influencing, she was a Tumblr heroine with Easter egg-colored hair, creative, DIY style, and a powerful Twitter presence to boot. The stories she told, on the internet and IRL, were replete with honesty, a sharp, unfiltered sense of humor, and plenty of trials and tribulations as she entered motherhood and faced the world of entrepreneurship with scrappy, multifaceted savvy. And while her Tumblr days are gone, Finley has continued to write, chronicling her transition into motherhood, twice, through relationships and marriages, and all that has happened in between, ultimately publishing her acclaimed memoir in 2022.

The title of her memoir, Nobody Ever Told Me Anything, unpacks how true its titular sentiment is, starting with Finley’s traumatic childhood — a year of which was spent in a swamp where her mother had abandoned her to fend for herself. But although nobody ever told Finley anything, she seems to have figured it out herself, which is evident in the massive life she’s built, and the magnanimous spirit with which she’s carried her burdens. Today, she runs a podcast, continues to build and grow Hot Lava, and runs its production out of her warehouse and printing space, Steakworld, where she also helps do the same for an array of other streetwear brands — and she’s newly married, expecting baby No. 2.

While there may or may not be a second book in the works, as Finley tells her friend Dani Miller — a “Hot Lava girl” and frontwoman of the venerated LA punk band Surfbort — while they lounged in the warehouse on a hot summer day, she’s trying to slow down a bit. There’s another baby on the way, she’s recently married, and there is already a “pile” of projects on deck, including an exclusive AP collaboration. However, as she writes in her memoir, “I am the swamp. Dark, mucky, icky, dangerous. A force to be reckoned with.” And there’s no telling what could come next.

Steak! Love you so much, stoked to be talkin’ to you! How do you juggle being an iconic author, podcaster, owner of the sickest brand Hot Lava, legendary internet girl, No. 1 mom, wife, and expecting baby No. 2 all at once? Like, we all wanna know how you do it! 

I have a scarcity complex I am trying to heal! Also, distractions. For a long time, I needed distractions so I didn’t have to sit still with uncomfortable feelings — pain, fear, things like that. Now, maybe for the first time, I am trying to scale back, to be honest. But I’ve been working and doing things like this for so long, it doesn’t seem crazy to me, and I also have an incredible team. I just get excited about solving hiccups that are bound to happen. It keeps me interested. 

I have often wondered what it all looks like from the outside, but I guess that answer is this question — which I get a lot upon meeting people or when I’m catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while. My close orbit is just used to me being like this, so they don’t push me to be different because they know it’s my comfort zone to work like this. To keep starting things and adding to my pile of life. At least my collection of distractions is generally profitable… Unlike my four dogs. Why do I have four dogs? That was stupid.

Geez, you are a superhero, and so inspiring to everyone out there. I think it’s cool to be so many different things. You can be a mom and a superstar at the same time. 

I am not going to lie, but you just jumbled up a fear in me that I’ve only ever felt the panic of twice — both times I was pregnant. It’s that fear of being like, “OK, I’ve made it. I’m a mom. This is the entirety of my being now.” It came up recently when I was looking at mom TikToks. Sometimes that stuff scares me because I like living very, very large, and that mindset seems so small and limiting. Don’t get me wrong: Being a mom is the biggest thing l’ll ever do. [It’s] the thing I’m most proud of, but I think those fears won’t let me just be, and that’s the good part of the coping mechanism. It has allowed for a lot. I have to constantly remind myself to let other things fail or fall away so my motherhood doesn’t suffer. 

I think your experience growing up in Florida and a lot of the hardships you write about in your book have made your art even more real. What would you say are your artistic influences or vibes for Hot Lava? 

Growing up in Florida foster care and the trailer park and the skatepark meant I never had money. Even through my 20s, I didn’t have it. I still don’t know if I have “it” — so I never dressed any way I wanted to when other young people were really experimenting. A lot of the stuff is stuff I wanted to wear then, or I make it for my friends I’ve met on the way or that I still have. I’m so glad to have switched to making things in the U.S in the last couple years because the turnaround is quicker. The first few years of the brand were years of ideas. Most I had actually outgrown but still wanted to make. They were still on my mind, and then with international lead times, it’d be an additional year on top of that. But now that we make things in-house, I am finally starting to catch up with where I am now. I like that you called me an artist. It’s the second time I’ve been called that, and it’s fun to me. I’ve never considered myself a designer or an artist. I like selling things and self-expression, and that’s something being a clothing brand owner will always represent. The MOCA let me launch my book there, and since then, people have used those terms about me, which again is fun and funny.  

I still remember the first Hot Lava clothes I got: the sick bucket hat and purse! 

You were always a Hot Lava girl, and that shoot we first did with you was awesome. You totally capture the entire brand vibe of wearing and doing whatever you want. 

Next up, what’s the coolest thing you have learned from your daughter Mars? Every time I’m around her, I’m like, “What a little comical genius.” She’s so badass!  

Mars is actually great at reminding me to be present and laugh. She’s such a dreamy Pisces, and it’s so opposite of my Leo energy, but as her mom, I always make space for her to be her, which means I get to be in her world, too. If you know any Leos, they don’t make much space for others’ worlds.

It’s so rad that you and your husband both make really special clothes. Do you collab a lot, or how does that dynamic work?

Sorry to be all topical zodiac person, but he’s on the other side of the spectrum. He’s the other leader sign, Capricorn. We are both set to lead and are business-focused signs. But where I’m manic and impatient with design, he’s all thoughtful and intentional. He’s an actual artist, and his clothing reflects that, whereas mine reflects my customer base. We collaborate when I’m like, “Help” because I really trust his tastes, and he gets the business side, too. He made the AP designs for the collab. 

Favorite song or album to blast in the studio or make out to? Besides Surfbort and Trashworld, of course!

Yes, besides Surfbort, who you’d be happy to know the comedian Mars said, “Is that your friend Dani from the bands I like?” when looking over my shoulder at the pics we took at Steakworld… I like No Limit, Master P, [and] TRU. You can do anything you want to that music — screen print, make out, whatever. 

Any advice you want to give to young creatives?

Perfect your craft, but know you don’t need to profit off of every piece of output. Everyone is an artist or creator, and then instantly they wanna scale into a business. That shit is hard. It can deplete you. Owning a business is a full-time job and a half and often can make you dislike the things you once enjoyed. It’s amazing to profit and sustain, but it’s all checks and balances. One year it might feel good, and the next it could feel like hell. Listen to that. 

Not everything needs to be a business. There should be things that you do and put out that you enjoy. There is a lot of mental peace in a stable paycheck from a 9-5 instead of feast and famine of business owning based on your creative output. Also, no ego will get you further than anything else.

You’ve been called the ultimate alt girl. What does that term mean to you, and how does it feel to be doing something with AP?

I think I get this a lot because I’ve only really existed in alternative spaces and workplaces that have been primarily and historically considered male-dominated. My first office job was at a metal label, and then I worked in skate, brand co-ownership of men’s brands, and now I have a 3PL and production facility that houses almost only streetwear brands. 

I know that the people with the body mods and full-body tattoos get a little feathered ruffled in the comment sections when they see my photo, my blond hair, and my frame attached to the word alt, but “alternative” to me is boundary-pushing as a mindset and not just a physical identity. In blond-land, Pam Anderson is just as alternative as Courtney Love. 

This is my third time in AP! The first two times were an ad for the record label I worked at that was a drawing of me and said “millennial youth.” I didn’t even know what that meant at the time [2006], and now the word is so ingrained in our society, of where we “belong,” what type of impact we’ve made, etc. Tumblr was very millennial youth. 

I also remember, when I was younger with no place to go, loitering at my hometown’s Barnes & Noble coffee shop and reading AP — without purchasing, sorry — because it was preinternet, and I wanted to see what the outside world even looked like, what people dressed like, what I could dress like, who I could be. I don’t think everyone has to be for everyone, but it’s cool to think maybe someone out there could be doing the same with this article, and maybe it’s saying, “You can go be anything you want to” to them. Or maybe they look at it and they hate what I’m saying, and that helps them find what they like, too. Both are wins. Both are cool to me. So grateful for our collaboration. So many musicians wear our brand. This makes perfect sense.

I’m so excited for the baby on the way, and I love the dress you are wearing! I’m obsessed. It’s been so fun hanging in your warehouse and catching up. So, one last question — what’s next for you? 

Slowing down, working smarter and more diligently, and learning how to use the circular saw in our garage so I can start making furniture and cutting tile for my other projects.