Neil Finn is set to play seven shows across New Zealand with Crowded House this November.
The moment Neil Finn walks into the dressing room at London’s O2 Arena and sits in his padded armchair, something isn’t right. He shuffles slightly, looks around the room, and then looks up. A lightbulb moment – or rather just a lightbulb.
“I’m just going to move around a little bit,” he announces as he stands up and drags his chair away from the room’s harsh overhead lighting.
“Actually, I’m not sure that’s any better, but it doesn’t matter,” he laughs.
For a man who’s about to go on stage and perform to 20,000 people, with countless spotlights in his face, the act is rather humorous, but it speaks volumes about the type of person Finn is.
Despite being offered to swap seats, the Crowded House frontman, 66, proves he may be one of Australasia’s most successful musicians, but the secret to his five-decade-plus career is less about loving the spotlight and more about staying true to himself.
He may tell you otherwise, though; in fact, he may be quite coy when asked.
“It’s a great mystery,” he smiles. And that’s that, but regardless of the truth, there’s no denying Finn’s lengthy career is an inspiring one.
Having started out in 1972 performing as part of the iconic Kiwi band Split Enz with his brother Tim, the pair dominated the charts with hits like I Got You and Six Months in a Leaky Boat, and the tunes still have a strong hold on New Zealand today.
But all good things must come to an end, and once their run was over, or more precisely, when they were performing their goodbye tour in 1984, Crowded House was formed.
Now, 40 years after their establishment, the Aria Hall of Fame-inducted band, which originally included the late Paul Hester, Nick Seymour and briefly, Finn’s brother, is back together.
They have a new line-up comprising Seymour, the band’s original producer Mitchell Froom and Finn’s two sons, Liam and Elroy. They also have new music, more than 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and if social media is anything to go by, plenty of young fans.
“Yeah,” Finn nods, amused. “It’s mad, but it’s very cool.”
Their newfound fanbase came about after their hit 1986 song Don’t Dream It’s Over was used in Ryan Murphy’s true crime series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the catchy tune earning a place in the hearts of younger generations much like it did with their parents and grandparents – only this time, instead of playing it on the radio, they’re playing it on TikTok.
“Music’s so mysterious, but TikTok even more so,” Finn says with a slight upturn of his lips. “I’m not on TikTok, so I don’t really know how it all works, but I know when things take off, you just stand back and watch it.”
Over 90,000 videos featuring the song have been made, with some calling it “too good”, others sharing their upset that they didn’t get to experience it in the 80s, and some app users declaring music isn’t made “like this anymore”.
Upon hearing this, Finn seems slightly chuffed, and when asked if he ever dreamed of having such an impact on pop culture, he is humble in saying while the band had goals, its members didn’t expect this kind of success.
“We were ambitious to get an audience, to find an audience and to get our songs heard,” he explains, confessing when they released their self-titled debut album in 1986, they were just enjoying the ride.
“You never really imagine the trajectory of any particular song. In fact, it wasn’t like that when we handed that album in. Nobody at the record company was going, ‘This is a guaranteed smash’ – nobody picked the song, no, not at all.”
He smiles as he says it was only when the track began topping charts all around the world, including reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, that everyone went, “Ah, it’s obviously a hit.”
While the award-winning band’s older songs are having a moment, Crowded House is in a new era, something Finn reveals was inspired by his brief stint with the legendary band Fleetwood Mac.
The star joined the Stevie Nicks-fronted band fulltime in April 2018, taking over from Lindsey Buckingham and playing with them until November 2019. While it was a great experience, seeing the crowd’s enthusiasm for such a classic band made him yearn for his own.
“I’d come off the back of the Fleetwood Mac tour with a new respect for classic bands and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got one of my own’ – not that it’s to the same level as Fleetwood Mac, but nevertheless, there’s not that many good bands in the world,” he states matter-of-factly.
Finn knew before raising the idea he wanted his children to be part of the new era, along with Seymour and Froom, admitting the five of them have found a “soulful line-up” together.
“Everyone’s deeply connected with the history, and we are becoming better and better. And there’s an intuitive kind of family, familial thing that comes with singing, the way that we understand the feeling – it doesn’t have to be explained, it’s just inbred. I think it makes it more interesting for the audience.”
In the years since the Crowded House revival, they released the band’s seventh studio album Dreamers Are Waiting in 2021, and most recently, Gravity Stairs, a record quite different from what fans are used to.
“I think there’s a certain lushness to what we like now,” Finn says, explaining the themes and feelings behind the album are dreamy and psychedelic. “We hadn’t heard the band sounding like that before. So we’re just trying to explore the extremities of what we can do.”
It’s clearly working, as critics responded favourably to the record, and Mojo magazine’s Andy Fyfe even called it “the most Crowded House thing that Crowded House have made in 30 years”. In addition to the critical reception, the band’s near-sold-out world tour is a sure sign fans are welcoming their return.
With 13 dates in New Zealand and Australia alone, the band is booked and busy, and much like the spotlight in this poorly-lit dressing room, it’s not always a glamorous affair.
“You have your moments,” Finn reveals. “The travelling is the tiring part, and you just end up sleeping whenever you can, on bunks and couches that might not be big enough, and then you just work your energy up for the show, and as long as you can get that two hours of good, intense energy, it feels like it’s worth it.”
Part of getting their energy up for the show comes from getting stage-ready. Recently, the star has been spotted wearing a marble-patterned orange shirt which he pairs with a matching orange blazer. It’s a handsome ensemble, and as it turns out, it’s also a little bit of home on the road.
“It’s Zambesi,” Finn smiles, referring to the brand we Kiwis and our pay cheques know all too well.
The discovery is a perfect segue to our next and final topic, the hotly debated question: Is Crowded House a Kiwi or an Aussie band?
“Well, it’s been a perennial argument,” Finn chuckles. Still, he can’t help but entertain the masses and delivers his verdict. “I don’t think it’s really worth getting too worried about because I know where I’m from, and I know where the songs come from, so New Zealand can rest easy.”
Crowded House’s New Zealand tour kicks off in Wellington on November 9.
This old-fashioned pie is a classic for a reason.