GETTING MIGHTY CROWDED

Rip It Up, Issue 168, 1 July 1991, Page 22

GETTING MIGHTY CROWDED

Phone interviews can come in several forms. There's the don't phone us we'll phone you type that can keep you by the phone until night turns to day only to discover that some record

company employee has forgotten the time differences. Then there's the catch the star on tour where the phone rings in Hotel Plush but the famous person is still on the town terrifying the local livestock. Ring back at 10 minute intervals for the next four hours. The best is where you're ringing the star in his / her home and you're the only one

scheduled for that day and the time is right and the line is good and the star speaks English.

This Neil Finn phoner falls into the final category—the assembly line phone interview session where the famous people are in the record company suite and your call is

sandwiched between ones from the Bendigo Bugle and the Woolamaloo Weekly and they're running late and can you phone back in two hours. Sorry. No problem, it'll give me time

to think of some questions. That was pretty much how it went, nobody's fault but if it's frustrating for the interviewer then how can Neil Finn sound so affable and chatty after facing streams of inane questions?

"We haven't done it for a while

and so it's time again for explaining and owning up to ourselves. And another good thing about doing interviews after having put an album out you find out a bit about yourself by having to explain it."' .. Temple of the Finn Men' It's been nigh on three years since Temple of the Low Men, so what's been happening? "We intended to take longer to prepare for our new album, Woodface. When Temple came out we'd only just stopped touring the first album and we got shagged out and that affected the personality of the band — we were less than the happy, wacky lads from Down Under that we were painted as on the first album." . "So for this album we wanted to . be less boringly whingey and have

more energy for the rigmarole of being in a band like touring and interviews. And my wife had a child and so I wanted to clear some time out for that.

"We started recording the new album at the beginning of last year and we were three-quarters of the way through that and suddenly

these songs that Tim and I wrote turned up and we decided to incorporate Tim into the band. Then we went and recorded almost another whole record so we chose the best from the two sessions.

Originally we wanted an album out last August." - r

Aside from the new album the biggest news for Crowded House is the re-uniting of the Finn Brothers. Was Tim's joining the band discussed with the other members?

'Yeah, he'd already started contributing to the record and he and I were well through what was going to be a two part harmony duo record. The difference between the two projects became less and less and Tim did a few shows with us

where we played our songs and

they started feeling like Crowded House songs. The realisation came after the actuality — we were really a four piece with Tim before we

acknowledged the fact." Tim Finn's solo career never got off the ground mainly because his solo albums never lived up to the songs he wrote with Split Enz. "He was disappointed that his albums didn't do better commercially but more importantly he was pissed off about being on his own and he was craving that support feeling you get from being in a band. And so when we wrote songs together this time it was far easier than it had ever been before."

Did you like his solo stuff? "It's hard for me to answer that; certain things I liked and certain I didn't. It's hard for me to judge anyone's stuff from Split Enz — it's the same with Eddie's stuff. I hear his and Tim's and I think their best work is with Split Enz as it lacks our input. When Tim is on his own he tends to be very introspective and the good things about the songs on this record is that both he and I have been

lyrically looking out and there's now humour." •.

What has been the general response to Tim's joining? "I think some people expected it because we're brothers and

because of Split Enz. People's expectations will be laid asunder

when they see us live as it's quite different to Split Enz. Tim's playing keyboards and that's a substantial role for him as a musician. We didn't want him just standing there with an acoustic guitar or tambourine waiting for the songs we'd written together to come around. He's a good keyboard player—he's

grungier than Eddie which is good because sometimes I think we've

been too slick on stage." With Tim as part of the band you must be expecting pressure to exhume some of the old Split Enz material?

"We're not planning to at the moment. If we do it will be off the

cuff and only if somebody makes a novel spirited request for a certain song. We are going to do a couple of Tim's songs — like 'Show A Little Mercy' which wasn't done well on his last album and we do it much

better. "We are committed to being loose on stage but Tim can be a scarily intense performer so there might be a bit more drama. But we intend to be as varied and spontaneous from night to night as possible."

Piece of Cake Woodface is a good record with Finn collaborations like 'Four Seasons In One Day' and 'Whether With You' complementing the best of Neil Finn's solo compositions like 'Fall At Your Feet', 'Tall Trees' and 'As Sure As I Am'. All high grade tunes capable of being fine singles but the opener, 'Chocolate Cake' got the nod for seven inch status, and if initially it sounds like ungainly funk ordinaire the chorus starts nagging as if trying to ward off excessive sweetness.

"In New York Tim and I witnessed this woman eating this huge, huge meal and she had this piece of chocolate cake to finish and she turned to her husband and said 'I dunno honey, should I get another piece of chodate cake or the cheque?' Tim was amazed at her consumption and I just started singing the line 'can I have another piece of chocolate cake' and we had the verses written in about two minutes.

"It conjures up visions of American excess and it seems we're having a go at the Americans and the Australians are quite concerned for us as it's going to be the first single there. But I think the humour of it • easily outweighs the malice." ; So the record company's worried that you'll alienate your buying public? "I don't think the public would really care but there's a line there about 'the excess of fat on your • . American bones' that radio in America may be sensitive to. But we don't care because it's got humour and it's Tim and I singing all the way through so it's a good introduction to the new line-up." ;<??, 5,?.. In style and mood, Woodface falls between the poppiness of the first t • album and the more low-key,

introspective Temple . , "On Temple there were a couple of songs that were very dark in . . character and this album is just what the songs are. The songs Tim and I wrote are simple melodies and the stuff I wrote are . pretty immediate songs. Maybe there's a subconscious reaction to the last album, but you're right, I think there's a little bit of our last two albums in there." . ' ' 7 In Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock ' and Soul: 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made Crowded House get two entries with 'Something So Strong' J and 624 and the superior 'Don't ' Dream It's Over* at 706. Neil Finn is also described as "the most gifted .' songwriter to appear in the laste • 80s". Neil, have you read the book? _ "No, who's Dave Marsh?" Weeeell where do we start — let's i just say he was founder/editor of Creem, writer for Rolling Stone and Springsteen's biographer. < "I was blissfully ignorant of that. These best of lists don't mean a lot but it's good to be noticed. . 'Something So Strong' isn't huge on my list of favourites so I'm surprised he put it ahead of 'Don't Dream It's Over'." 1 Crowded House are busy men. A North American tour beckons, then . Europe and at the end of the year a visit to the old homeland.- : "It's a good time for us because in America at the moment they're , ' beginning to tire of the sheer enormity of dance music and people are turning to bands and songs and things they can hum along to. Tim is into dance music — being a confirmed bachelor he goes out to clubs and there's some of it I really like — De La Soul and Urban Dance Squad and I like the Happy Mondays stuff too. But it's good to leave those sorts of things to the - people who're on the cutting edge of it. "I like the idea of people listening to a Crowded House record the | morning after they've been to a club." • ' - i. > 7

GEORGE KAY