Neil Finn has consistently proven his knack for crafting high-quality songs that combine irresistible melodies with meticulous lyrical detail, from his beginnings as the precocious junior member of
Split Enz, through his leadership of
Crowded House, and, finally, in his distinguished solo career. He has also earned considerable international commercial success, respect from his peers, praise from critics, and a devoted fan base that hangs on his every release.
Born
Neil Mullane Finn, on May 27, 1958, in Te Awamutu, New Zealand,
Finn cut his musical teeth as a child by performing for family friends, harmonizing with elder brother
Tim.
Neil took to piano early on, learning his favorite
Beatles tunes and eventually writing his own songs, the first of which was putting music to a poem enclosed in a
Donovan album. In the early '70s,
Finn intently studied emerging singer/songwriters like
Elton John,
Neil Young,
David Bowie, and
Cat Stevens, while watching his brother
Tim's band,
Split Enz, become a force in the Australian music scene.
Neil secured a few supporting slots for
the Enz as a solo act, mixing his own originals with some well-chosen covers, accompanying himself on piano, guitar, and mandolin. By 1976, he'd formed his own combo, the After Hours, with lyricist/drummer Mark Hough and guitarist Geoff Chunn. Hough departed shortly thereafter, and Alan Brown was recruited for bass duties. The group showed a great deal of promise, but came to a relatively quick end when
Phil Judd left
Split Enz and brother
Tim offered the slot to
Neil. Just before his 19th birthday, even though he'd never played electric guitar before,
Neil joined
Split Enz as lead guitarist.
Neil stayed in the background for the first two albums of his membership -- 1977's
Dizrhythmia and 1978's Frenzy -- but emerged with the infectious "I Got You" for
True Colours. The single was an immediate hit, saving the band from obscurity and, most likely, from an imminent breakup.
Split Enz enjoyed moderate international success for the next several years until disbanding in 1985.
Neil formed an early version of
Crowded House the same year, under a variety of names like the Mullanes and the Largest Living Things, with drummer
Paul Hester and bassist
Nick Seymour (another guitarist, Craig Hooper, was also in the earliest incarnation of the band). Over the next ten years, the combo eclipsed the success of
Split Enz, finding both critical acclaim and massive commercial success internationally, including a number two single in the U.S., "Don't Dream It's Over." In 1996, at the height of their success, following a
Finn Brothers side project,
Neil decided to dissolve the band in favor of a solo career.
Finn spent much of 1997 working on new material and dabbling in visual art at his New Zealand home.
Finn's musical efforts emerged on his debut solo album, 1998's
Try Whistling This, which featured new
Finn compositions as well as tunes that were written for
Crowded House but never recorded. Later the same year,
Finn recorded a cover of the
Johnny Nash oldie "I Can See Clearly Now" for the soundtrack of the hit animated film Antz. In 1999,
Finn compiled and released
Afterglow, a set of
Crowded House rarities, and he closed out the year with a one-off reunion show with
Split Enz for the millennial New Year's celebration.
Finn's second solo album,
One Nil, was released in March 2001; featuring guest appearances from
Sheryl Crow,
Lisa Germano, and
Midnight Oil's
Jim Moginie, the album wasn't released in the United States until May 2002, in a revised edition titled
One All. By the time
One All came out in America,
Finn had already dropped another album elsewhere, a live album from a series of New Zealand concerts called
7 Worlds Collide that included guest appearances from
Eddie Vedder of
Pearl Jam,
Johnny Marr of
the Smiths, and
Ed O'Brien of
Radiohead. (
Finn would revive the 7 Worlds Collide rubric for the 2009 album The Sun Came Out; released as a fundraiser for Oxfam, the album included contributions from
Marr and
O'Brien as well as
KT Tunstall,
Tim Finn, and several members of
Wilco.)
Finn put his solo career on hold for the next few years, teaming with
Tim Finn for another
Finn Brothers album,
Everyone Is Here, and releasing an archival live album of
Crowded House's final show,
Farewell to the World, in 2006, prompted in part by the death of
CH drummer
Paul Hester. As
Finn reconnected with his former
Crowded House bandmates, they decided to reunite, and released a new studio album,
Time on Earth, in 2007. A second reunion effort,
Intriguer, was released in 2010, and the following year
Finn unveiled a new project,
Pajama Club, featuring his wife
Sharon Finn on bass; their self-titled debut was released in September 2011. In 2012,
Finn was invited to contribute a song to the soundtrack of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and "The Song of the Lonely Mountain" played over the film's end credits. In early 2013,
Finn teamed up with another Antipodes pop icon,
Paul Kelly, for a duo tour of Australia; the show spawned a live album,
Goin' Your Way, which was recorded at the Sydney Opera House and released in their homelands in November 2013, while a belated American release arrived in December 2015. The year 2014 saw the release of
Finn's long-awaited third solo effort,
Dizzy Heights, produced by
Flaming Lips and
Mercury Rev collaborator
Dave Fridmann.
Finn returned in 2017 by posting live recording sessions to his Facebook account throughout August. The sessions became
Out of Silence, a solo album released on the first of September.
Finn teamed up with his son
Liam for the collaborative album
Lightsleeper in 2018. Its release was somewhat overshadowed by news that he and
Heartbreakers guitarist
Mike Campbell would be replacing
Lindsey Buckingham in
Fleetwood Mac. This incarnation of
Fleetwood Mac was unveiled in 2018 and toured throughout 2019. ~ Chris Woodstra