Crowded House

Crowded House
Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Liam Finn, Elroy Finn, Mitchell Froom.

From the very beginning, Crowded House has been a shifting landscape, befitting of the name. A cast of characters have inhabited the house, elevated our endeavours and been part of the evolution: Paul Hester, Tim Finn, Mark Hart, Pete Jones, Matt Sherrod, much love and thanks… they brought spirit and style that cannot be replaced. 

The whole time through success, disappointment, break up or make up, we believed in the concept of a band being the sum of parts, the interesting rub that occurs when strong and differing personalities get to add their character to the songs. I was drawn into my solo world on a few occasions and had wonderful collaborative experiences outside the band, but there remains in my heart a flame that burns for what we began in 1985.

Mitchell Froom was right there with Nick and Paul and me back in 1985 and we were all learning how to make records together… we didn’t know what Crowded House sounded like, we were operating on part instinct, part inspiration, part bluff… in any event, we made a record that captured people’s attention and began this epic, part dreaming, part scheming, mostly just stumbling along in thrall of a song. He was a mentor, now Mitchell's in the band… hooray!

I’m so excited to have Liam Finn and Elroy Finn take their place too. They are two of my favourite musicians in the world, both brilliant songwriters, and we play and sing really well together… no surprise there. They grew up around the music, the band, the ethos, the humour, and have made so much beautiful music of their own. They won’t let us settle into a comfy retirement.

The potential of this lineup is what draws me once again to start another chapter of Crowded House. We have just gathered to play new songs this week and are thrilled to find that, already, there is a fresh sound emerging and much exuberance for that discovery. I can feel Paul’s presence, I think he would smile to see us all together.

New music is on the way but we will be giving the old songs much love and attention for the shows upcoming. I know the best is yet to come. Thanks for tuning in, good folk.

Neil 

See the latest Crowded House European Tour dates for Summer 2020 on the Live page and at crowdedhouse.com

Amore Ricardo

A special Fangradio session to honour Ricardo Finn, around 8 pm Saturday night NZ time. That’s 8 am U.K. Sat morning. I will be answering questions and doing requests via Skype but also spinning some of my father’s favourite songs…

Don’t miss it !

Neil

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Visit the Fangradio page for technical tips and archived shows.

REQUESTION

I’m back in Auckland for a few weeks after a joyous experience touring Australia and NZ with up and coming band Fleetwood Mac. I think we hit some great heights as a band and I was overwhelmed by the warm reception I received from the home audiences. Thank you one and all!!!

I don’t sleep very well on tour, sometimes needing sleeping pills for assistance. They are comforting to a degree but leave me feeling a bit prickly and discombobulated after a few days. I drift around in a less than optimum state for the afternoon and then luckily by showtime my equilibrium is restored and neuron pathways all clear. This show requires a different kind of concentration to my own shows. I feel the importance and real worth of being a cog in the wheel where details and nuance really matter. Perhaps theatre actors feel the same dedication to the repetitive form of the show and can find pleasure in the interlocking strength of the ensemble when everyone is focused. I do have the odd overwhelming compulsion to go rogue but that will have to wait till next year.

Fangradio has started well. I have made some discoveries and enjoyed the process. I think I will do a request session for my next one so you can Skype with a question and request. The show will be called Requestion of course. I’ll give you a little warning in the next few days. I think I might make it an evening session here in NZ so that the U.K. and Europe can listen live in their morning.

Parting thought... Every grown up that mocks Greta Thunberg is, without exception, a complete moron.

Stay tuned

Neil

Medicated flowers

Hi people,

Since I last wrote, I have had 2 lengthy Fangradio sessions with some of you. Mixlr has proved to be a pretty great format to do the one man operation, enabling me to lean into my laptop and make things up as I go along. I intend to keep up the broadcasts (some may term them podcasts but I never liked that term, nor blog nor selfie nor hashtag nor meme for that matter). I’ve enjoyed the Skype calls - works well to ask questions (about anything) and "keep it short” is the key (as Peggy Dawson once said). Seems like within this format is the potential for me to stay connected to you, have some back and forth and provide some entertainment and subversion (on good days).

I’ll have some time over the weekend to get a new Fangradio session going. I’ll try to give you some kind of warning.

I don’t miss Twitter or Instagram and I never did Facebook anyway. I know some good stuff gets posted on those platforms and I’m missing out on a few things, I guess, but I’m happy to have a bit more time to daydream and think about family and music.

Here’s a thought to consider. I’ve been noticing there’s a few singers out there who sound very tired, are mangling their vowels and even seem to have trouble finishing off their words. I’m wondering whether this has anything to do with the proliferation of pharmaceutical opiates? Perhaps they are just playing to a whole new “stoned” audience. There are some strange affectations around. I may do a review of contemporary singing styles in my next show as well as flowers.

Stay tuned and thanks to everyone……. except you Cyril Rathbone.

Neil

For technical tips on listening, chatting and Skyping with Fangradio, see the Fangradio page.

Fangradio

Hi there good folk,

Hope this newsletter finds you curious, kind hearted and a little bit cheeky. I am soon going to start broadcasting a very intimate radio show from wherever I am, through my laptop direct to you, no middle men, no technical staff, just play some music, talk a little and hopefully include a few audio-only Skype chats with you. (Audio-only is best so that I don’t have to floss my hair up or have a shave.)

I am using a platform called Mixlr. My station name is Fangradio (here is the link). I will send alerts for those who have signed up for live broadcast times ahead of time. The shows, however long or short, will be archived on my website and on Mixlr’s Showreel. If you would like to Skype me to ask a question or present a radical notion, I will invite you during the show. You can search my Skype address, Fangradio. Remember to push the phone icon for audio only.

This is a home made outing and an experiment in progress, so some patience may be required. Exciting prospect though.

Stand by for an alert in the coming days.

Hooray

Neil

UPDATE: The first Fangradio live audio steam will be broadcast on Saturday 17th August at about 11am, Sydney time (1am GMT). Use the Time and Date converter link here. If you sign up to Mixlr (for free) and click Fangradio’s follow button, you’ll get an alert when Neil’s live on air.

Team NF

UPDATE: The archived audio is available to play now on the Fangradio page.

fangradio is on Mixlr

Holiday musing - caught in a trap

I’ve been on holiday and not looking at the world through the narrow frame of my computer so much. How glorious is a wide horizon. It took a few days, but my senses became tuned in to the rhythm and resonance of cicadas, water lapping on stones, the laughter of children, a soft dreamy piano soundtrack from the cafe below, all sounds merging to induce a sleep that’s gentle and forgiving, bringing to mind my favourite L words, lilting, languid, languorous, listless, lethargic, lazy, lolling, lederhosen. I see intricate golden patterns appearing behind my closed eyes, rich blue amorphous shapes bearing fanciful thoughts with no apparent order or sense.

In the local bar the other night, however, I was confronted by a truth telling about the idyllic place we are currently enjoying. A long term summer resident is fighting to stop the dump burning plastic at night. Out in the deep water, the government are considering oil exploration and, all over the island, large villas are being built. The place is losing its charm for her. I didn’t want to think about it too much, so I excused myself and left, but some of those seeds of doubt are now floating in the murky tide of my conscience that ebbs and flows between realisation and denial.

One morning, a bumble bee flew right into a spider’s web. My grandson Buddy seemed alarmed and we were compelled to free it. The spider was already moving in, reaching out his spindly legs for that fat tasty treat but, with a delicate flick, my broom handle broke through his sticky trap and delivered that stricken bumble bee to his freedom. Moments later, the bumble bee flew overhead in a giddy zig zag victory lap. We all cheered his release, but we have interfered with the natural order as humans do, made a choice… there may be consequences! At the very least, the spider has some major repairs to make and it will take several mosquitoes to add up to one succulent bumble bee. Well, at least no living creature died though our interference.

I feel like we should talk soon. Let me figure out a good way.

I leave you with a clay head, revolving balls and a dancer on the rock… happy holidays.

Glass Half Empty

Here I am in London, about to play Wembley Stadium for the first time. I had to explain myself yesterday, or at least explain how I came to be in Fleetwood Mac (the words seem to flow when the camera is on but lead to a mystery when the camera is gone.) I haven’t said much about it, have I? There are quite a few things I haven’t said much about.

But none of you seem to need much of an explanation. I salute you for that and truly appreciate that your interest is more focused on the deeper connection we have shared through songs and those precious communal gatherings, reaching back into our young lives, and now we are stretching our necks ahead with some feeling of kindred spirit and comfort into the uncertain future. The music works somehow to form a bridge. How much more do you need to know?

For instance, do you need to know that I can’t find my iPad tonight which I use for reading? (The Shape Of Ruins, FYI.) No, not really, but this has led me to write you a newsletter because it’s too early to sleep, too late to attend the theatre. There must be something left to offer a day that’s treated me well. So, I have now set the mood lighting in my hotel room (an option on my lighting panel by the bed), poured myself a wine, and I am pondering the meaning of a glass half full, a glass half empty. Which kind of person am I?

It occurs to me, seeing a glass as half empty is actually a positive view. You have already enjoyed the refreshing taste of cool water or the first rosy glow of a good wine, and it has played a part in some good cell division and neuron activity that may have led you on to create something, perhaps, or say something kind to your loved one. A half empty glass can make us remember and appreciate the gifts we have already been given.

Conversely, regarding the glass as half full means looking into the future with an expectancy that you will get to have another drink, but you may not; someone might clear your glass away, a fly might land in it. What say your optimistic future is suddenly dashed by a random event? A glass half full person thinks he has control over the second half of the glass… ha!

Optimists will happily leave a party with their glass half empty. It is the hopeless drunk who circles the room at the end of the night looking for leftovers who sees the same glass as half full.

Hooray, my glass is now full again… cheers

Neil

Walls, Tunnels and all the Rest

Hi there,

I’ve been travelling here and there for the last two weeks, ended up here, halfway round the world to perform more shows with up and coming band Fleetwood Mac. We opened the tour in a beautiful outdoor arena in Berlin, surrounded by a forest, a place which had been originally built as a place for Nazi rallies to be held. We walked to the stage along an underground corridor which was built in the shape of an arc in order that no one could get a clear shot of the Fuhrer from either end. The back of the stage was a formidable stone wall which had once been fitted with gun turrets for picking off rabble-rousers.

Over the years, many great artists have played in this arena and resurrected it for good and peaceful purposes, but being there in that place does remind you in a sobering way of the extraordinary transformations that can take place in the zeitgeist over decades.

While in Berlin, we visited a famous bunker near the train station which was designed by Albert Speer. It was built in a grand architectural style with marble panels (now residing in Russia) applied to concrete walls three metres thick, meant to withstand the aerial bombing and be a lasting monument to the might of the German Empire. Such was their supreme arrogance and grandiose vision. The building did prove to be resilient, unlike the Empire.

During the following years in what became East Berlin, the bunker was secretly used to house bananas which only the upper echelon of the Communist Party could enjoy. Ordinary Germans might only get to have a banana once a year but those privileged defenders of the state were slicing them up for their cereal every day.

Once the wall came down, this building for a short while was the most famous techno, rave, fetish and sex club in Berlin. Those flat concrete walls must have amplified those oonst oonst beats, shrieks and howls into a soundtrack worthy of Dante’s Inferno, sensory overload, transcendental horror and euphoria? In any event, all were welcome, a good night out if you were in the right mood, so I am told.

The bunker has now been transformed into a private art gallery showing the contemporary art collection of Karen and Christian Boros. The interior has been remodelled into an amazing exhibition space and there are many fascinating works of art on display. Most of these carry conceptual layers of meaning for which it is helpful, or in some cases essential, to get a guided tour to understand. This inspired reformation of the building’s original intent is, from the outside at least, a “readymade" artwork. You can really feel the intensity of the structure and its purpose and history as you wander the corridors inside.

On the top floor is an exhibition of work by a Brazilian artist by the name of Paulo Nazareth. He has spent many years walking though Africa and other continents in bare feet with no money, no bank account, no phone. He wants to have no choice but to connect directly with people everywhere he goes, to find work, to find shelter, to be fed. Every now and again he sends postal packages of work to his art dealer, e.g his worn and weathered tunic on which he has stitched a few words and a simple route map of his journey. His life and his choices are an impressive artwork of uncompromising, single minded will. I thought of him the next morning as I complained to room service about them not having sent up any butter with breakfast. This contrast of choices and circumstances had never seemed so apparent.

So this letter is in a part a travelogue, but mostly I’m just passing on a realisation that we need to be vigilant, self aware, always looking to make art that is transformational, allowing all the people to share a vision and pursuing a vision that’s good for all.

Sie kommen, sie kommen
um eine Mauer zwischen uns zu bauen
Wir wissen, dass sie nicht gewinnen werden

Thanks

Neil

Elroy

Hi there,

This week I will enthuse about an album of beautiful songs that was created by our son Elroy and is released on Friday. Somehow I must steer a course between natural pride and admiration for what Elroy has achieved and not overdo the praise to the point of embarrassment. Let me just say that I do truly marvel at the unique textures, chords and melodies that grace his record. It's a really deep album with mysterious and alluring atmosphere. I love it and I think you might enjoy it too.

Elroy is launching his record tonight at Neck Of The Woods in K Rd, Auckland, with a wonderful 6 piece band. I know it will be a brilliant show (I heard them rehearsing) and I dearly wish I could be there but alas we are in LA.

Sharon, Liam and I have performed a cover of one of Elroy’s beautiful songs, “Worth The Wait“, in honour of the occasion.

I’ll embed his new video here next week (EDIT: It’s here now. See below.) I am also including links to the album stream for your listening pleasure: iTunes/Apple Music , Spotify, and Bandcamp.

…...Oh, and a random incident, half time at the Aria Music Awards 2016.

Love

Neil

The Game of Small Gains

Hi there,

I thought I would give you a few insights into my personality, not giving away all the juicy stuff which I will save for my memoirs, but some context for why and how I make decisions.

I have come to realise I can behave in unpredictable ways when greeted with approval or disapproval. Sometimes I recoil from praise and embrace scorn. Why on earth would I be that perverse, but there’s something empowering about knowing the worst anyone can say about you, getting annoyed about it, imagining some withering sarcastic response but then consigning it to the trash.

With my own music I often seem to sabotage my best laid plans. Why would I ruin a good chorus with an arrangement that conceals the hook. Crowded House is a brand that conjures up good will, we made it with hard work and good spirit, but I have had a contradictory relationship with the success and perception it created. We were the band that some reviewers felt compelled to make excuses for liking. We weren’t consuming enough drugs or projecting enough drama or darkness or something but we liked the idea that your Nanna could enjoy us. In fact, Run DMC made the comment when we had a rap battle with them that their mothers were big fans. It may have been a diss but we were delighted.

I have a real suspicion of holiday resorts. That kind of luxury, detached reality, cocktails by the pool, cool music playing, an air of sophistication that seems to whisper “You're going to die one day,” with spa attendants in white uniforms bearing fluffy towels.

Steely Dan has the same effect on me, an overabundance of major 7th chords and super slick arrangements. I know it's good music but it disturbs me.

Yes, I have a degree from the university of perversity. If you tell me "You should just do Crowded House music all the time,” I will start work on Pajama Club. I also have a mild phobia of group activities. If I go to a yoga class, as I once did, and everyone has to introduce themselves to each other, I won’t go again.

The Game Of Small Gains is a great way to pass time in crazy gridlock freeway traffic. You spot a prominent vehicle in another lane and set about making a series of small manoeuvres from lane to lane in order to get ahead of that car. At no point are silly risks taken, but with skill and patience, small gains can be made and immense satisfaction taken. It's much more enjoyable with a passenger on board. They can be of great use with a well timed “Now!” The ultimate prize is to pull off a “sneak“ down an exit lane, just returning to the traffic before the off-ramp. The Greenlane exit “sneak" on Auckland's Southern Motorway is a kilometre and a half of plain sailing… it’s glorious!

OK, a couple of new musical obscurities for you.

Go well good folk

Neil