Split Enz, Crowded House legend Tim Finn chats to Clinton ahead of new tour
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There's a fraction too much fiction. There's a fraction too much fiction.

My guest today is the legendary Tim Finn, the founder of Split Ends, of course collaborated with his brother Nir with Crowded House and solo performer. It's 40 years since his first solo album was released, Escapade, and he's going to be touring the country in a few months' time. And he joins me on the program. Welcome, Tim. Nice to be here. I'm seeing you on the video at the moment. It's a video call. And I could hear you listening to some of your legendary tracks there. When you say recorded with Split Ends, six months in a leaky boat,

and you're there and you're in the mixing studio and the final mix is done, do you sit back and think, we've got a good one here? I mean, you do. You get excited. Like, you know, you work on them so hard, though. That's the thing. You spend hundreds of hours, you know, if you combine the writing, rehearsing and then recording. And so you are a bit kind of worn out with it by the time it gets to the mix stage. But then if it's a really good mix...

And Eddie Rayner, our keyboard player, played quite a big part in this mix. Usually the band would sit back and let the engineer producer do most of the work, but Eddie rolled up his sleeves and got involved. And so I remember the jubilant feeling that he was having and it sort of spread. It was very infectious. And I had to admit, yeah, it was a rush, this song. And kind of the speed of it surprised me because I wrote it as a kind of mid-tempo song.

song and it just took off in the studio and wanted to be faster, you know, and so it had a lot of excitement in it by the time we finished. What does the song mean, that song? Well, you know, I was reading a book about the pioneers, the early days of people coming out in ships and boats from Europe and

uh, to Australia and New Zealand really. Um, those boats were stinky and smelly and horrible. Uh, they were crowded. There was no sanitation. And so I just kind of got into that because the band was going through, um, quite a good time internally, but, but myself personally, I was, my life was kind of falling apart a little bit. Um,

Yeah, I was having a rough time. A long-term relationship was ending and I felt very fragile and exposed. So the band was my kind of safe place really. So it was a song about that feeling of having your mates alongside you, supporting you, you know, in a difficult time.

Tim, I was only a little kid in the early 1980s and I was born in the mid-late 70s. And my mum was a Kiwi, though, so a lot of Aussies feel affection for Kiwis, of course. What was the theatrical side of Split Ends? What was the driver of that? Well, to be honest, I mean, we were very influenced by 60s bands, particularly the Beatles. The thing about the Beatles, every time they kind of came out, they had a different look. Yeah. In Sgt. Pepper's, they were wearing those really brightly coloured suits and

It just seemed normal to us to kind of dress up and put on a show, you know. We've adopted these personas because they just felt right, you know. Became a bit of a trademark. Very different to the Oz pub rock scene of those days. Yeah, well, that's right. In 1975, we were playing the pubs around Melbourne particularly because we were signed to Mushroom Records at the time. Mark Guninski and Frank Stavala and all those guys were putting us into the pubs.

And, you know, we had a following of about six people. They came to every show. And the rest of them were standing at the back of the room kind of squatching their heads a bit, I think. What's going on here? But, you know, they didn't forget us, I guess. You know, if they weren't sure, they still remembered us. I have read books about Split Ends and yourself and your brother. But how did Neil join the band?

Well, we were looking for a guitar player. This was in 1977 and the other founding member of the band, Philip Judd, had left the band and so we needed a guitar player. He'd supported Spadense when he was about 16 through New Zealand and we just knew he was a good singer, good songwriter. He'd never played electric guitar but we figured he could pick it up pretty quickly. When he was a little boy, I used to encourage him with his piano lessons. So he was steeped in

in a lot of musical knowledge and a very good singer. So, you know, it was a no brainer when we finally clicked on it, you know. Fast forward to your time with Crowded House. And certainly I've heard the stories that it was you and Neil writing songs together that would have been a Finn Brothers album effectively when you put Woodface together and you ended up joining Crowded House. Did you want that stuff to be work with just you and your brother or were you happy to sort of bring it into Crowded House? Yeah.

Well, we wrote it as a brothers project and we set out distinctly to write harmony songs. So we were right up with you and it's only natural. And they were all sort of fitting into this framework of the blood harmonies, you know, the two brothers singing together. It was because of the fact that Neil was stuck between, because he'd started his Crowded House record already. He'd already recorded Fall At Your Feet and a few of the other songs, handed it into the label. They'd said, no, we don't hear a single.

So then we did our project.

And then so he was going through the agony of, oh, God, you know, because the worst thing you ever want to do is listen to a record company, but you can't help it. You know, they get in your head. And so he was a bit torn because we had all these other really good songs. They just fitted perfectly in the end, but it was a bit of a switch. But I think, you know, by Nick and Paul particularly, I'm not sure, you know, they handled it very well. They were very gracious. In fact, they were kind of excited to get into those songs as well.

But, you know, having two Finns in the band was a bit much probably. It was a bit of a power block, I suppose. We didn't intend it to be, you know, but it just skewed the band a little bit. But it was a fantastic time. We had an amazing touring. The record stands, you know, the test of time. I was going to mention that.

Tim, because I'm thinking back to the days when I was a late teen, early 20s, and I think your music, that's probably when you suck up, I reckon, most of your music and it probably then stays with you for life. I agree. That era of grunge out of Seattle and then there was the hip-hop stuff happening at the same time. Woodface, I reckon, stands the test of time. Even all these years later, there are songs like It's Only Natural, I think is such a beautiful song still.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Well, I love playing that live and Neil does too, you know. So he's got his latest incarnation of Crowded House. They play that song. I go out and play when I'm doing a solo show. Yep. I had my daughter singing with me in Adelaide the other night. She's 22 years of age now with a beautiful voice. So having that blood harmony again, you know, me

Me and my daughter, me and Neil, Neil and Liam, you know, it just works. And it's a beautiful song to do live. People just click in with it so well. It's a stunning song. Now, the tour that you'll be embarking on in Australia later this year, in August, is to mark 40 years since Escapade. So your first solo album. What does that album mean to you?

Well, it was a very joyous kind of, you know, because the band decided to take six weeks off, which doesn't sound like much. We'd been touring our arses off, you know, for years. And so six weeks seemed like a really nice time. It ended up being about three months, I think. But I just started writing. I had my piano there in the house. You know, I'm always trying to write a song, so I...

It seemed to me that the most fun I could have was to make a record. And then I met Ricky Fittar because I heard him play drums on a Renee Geyer track. And I just thought, who the hell is that? You know, it was one of the best drum grooves I'd ever heard. And got to know Ricky and got Mark Moffat. You know, they co-produced the record. Met a whole lot of musicians through them. I mean, Vanita Fields, I'm doing backing vocals. You know, she taught me so much.

She came from a long, obviously long tradition of gospel and American R&B and soul music. So she brought some of that into the record. Richard T dropped in one night to play piano. He was on tour with Paul Simon. It was a liberation for me after 10 years of being in the band. And again, I mean, that album's, you know, roughly a decade before Woodface.

And there are still songs, you know, Made My Day. Everyone still recognises that song all these years later, you know? Yeah. It's one of those songs, the finger-pointing song, like when you start doing it and you hit that chorus, everyone in the crowd starts pointing skyward. It's a good feeling.

You'll be touring in August, State Theatre here in Sydney on the 9th of August, Anita's Theatre in Thoreau. It's northern suburbs of Wollongong. I saw a band, you might know them, The Tea Party, last year at Anita's Theatre. If you haven't been there, it's a really beautiful, historic building. It's a great little venue. It's good to hear. Yeah, it's really great. Tickets through Ticketmaster. It has been a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you so much for your time, Tim. Thank you very much. Tim Finn. There's a wind in my sail

One of the crackers from Split End, Six Months in a Leaky Boat, written by Tim Finn. If you want to go and see, it's a few months out from when Tim Finn is touring. He's touring his first solo album, which was Escapade, but he'll be playing all the hits. August 9th, State Theatre. The tickets are available via Ticketmaster.