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Tim Finn

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FEATURED SONG
Going Going Gone
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Going Going Gone
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Released: Aug 5, 2011
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  1. Tim Finn

    and another shot of Ingrids boat. I have the best fans #leakyboat http://t.co/qRqZNXnOcg

  2. Tim Finn

    A gift from a fan, Ingrid, delivered at the Between the Bays show last weekend. Very nice little leaky boat. http://t.co/iuYTaQQhlx

  3. Tim Finn

    I'll be playing Port Fairy Folk Festival 2013 this March, tix still available http://t.co/w3c1t6h1. Are you going?

  4. Tim Finn

    Thanks! RT @Dorito4life: Listening to imaginary kingdom by @timfinnmusic it truly is a good album one of the best.

  5. Tim Finn

    I will be headlining the inaugural Okere Falls Festival this weekend in Rotorua, NZ. The venue & ticket details http://t.co/Mv0w4e4J

General Info

  • Genre: Alternative / Pop / Rock

    Location New Zealand, Ne

    Profile Views: 491581

    Last Login: 4/17/2012

    Member Since 8/7/2006

    Website www.timfinn.com

    Record Label Independent

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    "Years ago in an Auckland flat..This odyssey began..Motivates me still..." Haul Away, Split Enz (1982) Tim Finn's odyssey has been our own. For that is the beauty of music. We surrender to it and we ride in the slipstream. Born under a Long White Cloud, setting forth from the now mystical Te Awamutu, dust of a thousand roads on his shoes, salt of the seven seas on his face, unwavering, unbowed, ever questing into waters unknown, uncharted, chasing horizons, propelled by his own billowing imagination, regaling us with tales of faraway places: strange and familiar. A cartographer for the unmapped hinterland of heart and soul. From nascent days at Sacred Heart and Malmsbury Villa to concert extravaganzas at His Majesty's Theatre in Auckland circa 1974 to the Sydney Opera House to London's famed Royal Albert Hall and countless stages across the globe in between, Tim Finn has long sailed upon a sea of surging fans swept up in his music from Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, ALT and myriad solo voyages. What a journey it has been. See his unitard-clad pantomime creep with Noel Crombie in the early Enz clip for Sweet Dreams, the eye-twitching harlequin with the jester's hat hair channelling a demented doo-wop singer in Lovey Dovey, the endearing ghost of Stan Laurel in My Mistake – these are the instinctive performances of a great European clown; a fool in the Shakespearian sense, telling the truth disguised in outlandish dress. You can't take your eyes off him; unleashing the id, the epitome of extroversion. Behold the frenzied gyrations of his electrified man in I See Red, the coiled mania and cartoon widow's peak of Bold as Brass, the jaunty platform-heeled cool of Fraction Too Much Friction, the barefoot Peruvian traveller of Not Even Close, the unabashed bliss as he glances across stage to brother Neil during It's Only Natural, strumming their guitars as one, gazing into the ether, in complete accord, in perfect harmony. Is there anything more natural than Tim Finn conjuring music? As organic and intuitive as the elements that pulse inside his songs: stars, skies, trees, mountains, rivers, oceans –standing the test of time, offering sustenance and solace, gathering beauty and meaning with each unfolding evolution. Brian Timothy Finn grew up in thrall to The Beatles and The Kinks. He speaks still of Ray Davies' Waterloo Sunset with the misty-eyes of first love; a three minute slice of pure pop – a classic art form he too would come to master with Six Months In A Leaky Boat and Weather With You among so many others. Early forays into songwriting with his Split Ends co-founder, Phil Judd, were often more epic endeavours; maverick youth pushing the boundaries, testing the water with exhilarating high dives rather than a timid toe. As a boy, tucked up in bed in the dead of night, listening to these phantasmagorical recordings through the headphones of my dinky cassette player, I was transported on kaleidoscopic aural adventures, grand and intrepid. Listening to early Split Enz felt like being lured spellbound through an enchanted forest towards a secret circus of your dreams. As the band evolved so too did its ringmaster and spiritual leader; Tim Finn's compositions growing exponentially in accomplishment, evidenced by the exquisite Charlie and Stuff and Nonsense. There followed heady days in the white-hot spotlight when radio and an adoring pop public 'discovered' Split Enz and gorged themselves on the music: Poor Boy, I Hope I Never, Dirty Creature, Shark Attack and – from Tim's 1983 solo escapade – Made My Day and In A Minor Key. The wanton vicissitudes of fashion would later decree that ensuing solo albums Big Canoe and the eponymous Tim Finn be overlooked where Escapade most certainly was not. There can be no rhyme or reason to the machinations of taste and trend. Hidden gems contained within remained gifts for the faithful only. Which isn't to deny the occasional navigational error. But Tim Finn was never lost, merely finding his way, forever in search of deeply-felt music, of what he once archly referred to as "the voluptuous muse". The morphing of a mooted Finn Brothers album into what would be Crowded House's classic Woodface unleashed upon the masses a sublime cavalcade of songs for the ages: There Goes God, All I Ask and Four Seasons in One Day among them. While Tim joining brother Neil's band ultimately proved to be fatally flawed, nothing could nor should detract from the sheer joy and rhapsodic heights of that collaboration – a rare and precious pearl. Leaving the Crowded House juggernaut behind to set forth on solo passage once more, the wayfaring troubadour would create Before & After, inspired by the Zen saying: "Before enlightenment, chop wood. After enlightenment, chop wood." The album, however, is replete with deftly carved wood: Hit the Ground Running, Persuasion, In Love With It All and Many's the Time, the latter leading to a future side-project in ALT with Irish musicians Andy White and Hothouse Flowers' Liam Ó Maonlai. The collective's one and only album, Altitude, is an obscure diamond in the rough; exuberant and melancholic. From the singalong ebullience of Penelope Tree to the unadorned grace of The Refuge Tree, the album possesses a raw, rollicking, one-take spirit of joie de vivre. Finally in 1995 the long-awaited fabulous Finn Brothers album arrived, bestowing yet more treasures upon the ears of eager listeners, including Suffer Never and Angels Heap. To see Tim and Neil Finn play these songs and others from their bounteous repertoire live was an experience to cherish; both brothers moving between instruments like children in a toy room, voices seamlessly and intuitively complementing one another. During the last gasp of the millennium, Tim Finn set off surprisingly for Nashville to record his fifth solo release, Say It Is So. The album, featuring the irresistible Underwater Mountain, was his first outside the major record company system and its companion piece Feeding the Gods followed in 2002. The latter in particular – right from ripping opener, Songline – found a silver-haired Tim cutting loose with a rock 'n' roll vigour that unequivocally rejected any notions of genteel retirement or resting on laurels. Another reunion ensued with Neil Finn, Everyone Is Here celebrating fraternal bonds with beguiling songs such as Disembodied Voices and A Life Between Us. The latter's chorus of two brothers "staring at each other/like the banks of a river/and we can't get any closer/but we form a life between us" remains a glorious encapsulation of the elusive and unknowable bonds of family. Whatever differences transpire, what matters is the river flowing in between. It is a profoundly honest and poignant metaphor. The river imagery would recur again in the elegant and tender Salt to the Sea on Tim Finn's next solo album back with EMI: Imaginary Kingdom. Here was a song to break your heart, reflecting upon the tragic loss of Paul Hester. Tim's poetic ability to succumb to the flood of grief yet simultaneously proffer a healing hand to the suffering embodies his unique gifts as a songwriter. The album itself contains an embarrassment of riches: Astounding Moon, Winter Light and the extraordinarily moving and stirring closer, Unsinkable. It seems the mysterious and primal power of fatherhood and discovery of an abiding soul mate in wife Marie have unveiled even greater depths in Tim Finn's confessional songcraft. His most recent solo release The Conversation is a mature and masterly minimalist offering, characterised by a delicate humanity and graceful intimacy. Songs such as Straw to Gold, Invisible and The Saw and The Tree ache and caress; weaving bittersweet lyrics with effortless melodies and ranking with his finest work. As a live performer – be it stripped back acoustic or leading a full-band assault – Tim Finn remains mercurial and magnetic: his pure tenor voice plaintive and yearning; his energy boundless and infectious; his ethos always to engage and entertain. And he does. For more than 35 years now. Over 20 albums. And counting. The legacy is immense. A lifetime of songs for us to sing to. To cling to. Songs to live and die by. Songs of the heart as predator and prey. Songs of dark nights and glory days. Triumphal flags thrust upon the highest peaks; beacons for the soul; guiding lights sweeping over jagged coastlines, reminders of great wrecks and dashed hopes and human frailty, washed up on distant shores with new beginnings. There is a generosity of spirit to Tim Finn. An eclecticism of expression. All points of the compass bravely explored. Instinct his guide. Truth his calling. Music his reason for being. This double album feast harbours it all, including brand new songs (Nothing Unusual, Light Years Away) alongside the reborn and revisited (It's Only Natural, So Deep, Weather With You, Stuff and Nonsense, How Will You Go), proving yet again Tim's yen for creative invigoration; his willingness to breathe new life, shed new light. Since he was a boy the vast, infinite enigma of the cosmos has captivated Tim Finn, firing his poetic imagination and existential ruminations. Pioneering astronauts speak of journeying all the way to the moon and feeling as if they had discovered the earth – gazing back on this blue marble suspended in space, seeing their home profoundly anew, humbled and awed by the revelation of perspective. For me, this Anthology is the moon and the artist's entire body of work the earth – each inextricably linked, earth's natural satellite a companion locked in orbit, affecting tides and moods with its mysterious gravitational pull. North South East West shines upon us, luminous and wondrous, like a hypnotic full moon, ripe with inspiration, a celebration of all that has gone before and all that is still to come... ...Long may the odyssey continue.

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  • Stefanie Hernandez

     Happy Fall on the other side of the world!!  Still waiting for the coffee position! (Hee Hee!)

    11 months ago
  • archie

    Hi Tim, God I love the new album. It's got so many layers to it. All the playing is so inspired. It's cool that got to record it at Neil's studio as well. Please keep making music. I'm beginning to rely on your output every two years. Also, not sure if you've heard The Kooks new album Junk of the heart but I think you'd really like it. Anyway all the best! Your friend Archie.   

    1 year ago
  • Suzanne

    Love your music Tim Finn.
    Pass by my page sometime.
    Suzanne 

    1 year ago
  • light2theworld

    Happy Christmas and New Year Tim Finn!! Love your music - such a gift... 

    1 year ago
  • Gerard

    I love the Going Going Gone song and video. Reminds me of me driving around with my daughter Madison. I'm still hooked on "Out of this World" too. Keep up the great work and bring a show to Detroit, MI sometime. We need the business!

    1 year ago
  • 12 ROOSTER ALARM CLOCK

    HEY TIM WE JUST LOVE YOUR NEW MUSIC !!!WONDERFUL, INTELLEGENT , HONEST  and  TRUE !!! HITS THE HAMMER RIGHT ON THE NAIL IN FACT ITS "OUT OF THIS WORLD" !!! YOU ARE A REAL JOY TO LISTEN TO, JUST WONDERFUL !!! BEST WISHE TO YOU MY FRIEND and MAY THE SUMMER OF 2011 BE WONDERFULLY HAPPY !!! PEACE and BEST WISHES YOUR FRIENDS IN CHINA CHRIS and YAN !!!

    1 year ago
  • Stefanie Hernandez

     any bird droppings lately??  

    1 year ago
  • Chanél Lebrun

    Thank you for being my friend! Sending you the best wishes and have a great day!!!  

    1 year ago
  • Stefanie Hernandez

     You should have a show with your kids and their friends playing music, would be a blast, so cute and funny, something new!  Guest could be Snoopy, Woodstock and Shrek. Just a thought. 

    2 years ago
  • Penny Beaumont

     Any chance of getting the song list from your Byron Blues festval gig? Loved it!

    2 years ago
10 of 14More

THE NEW ALBUM

THE VIEW IS WORTH THE CLIMB

“Imagine there is an old stone wall at the bottom of your garden, beyond which is a beach and further out a volcanic island. You are sitting on the wall drinking coffee. It's a radiant winter morning and you feel passing through each moment the exquisite rhythms of friendship and disappointment, encouragement and love.” Tim Finn on the mood of, The View Is Worth The Climb, Auckland 2011

Tim Finn stands barefoot at the studio microphone. There's a music stand within arm’s reach and a holy picture sits next to a lyric sheet. The studio is littered with old analogue gear and reels of fresh tape. Producer Jacquire King looks at Finn from behind a high-tech console as the band adjust their volume. The singer takes a deep breath, looks back at the producer and smiles. Then the magic begins.

For Finn, the magic has been happening over a long period: across generations, beyond horizons and around the world. One of the new century's great classicists, Finn has a formidable reputation as a singer and songwriter. His lineage goes back to the group he co-founded in New Zealand in the early 1970's, Split Enz. Alongside that is his acclaimed solo work, as well as tenure with Crowded House. Now he’s returned with a new solo album, The View Is Worth The Climb.

Jacquire King’s credentials are almost as equally impressive. King’s CV includes crafting hit records for the likes of Norah Jones [The Fall], Modest Mouse and Kings Of Leon.

“I was idly sitting around one day,” begins Finn, “and I got one of those generic mail outs from GPS, which is a global production service, all these producers and mixers are represented on it. I noticed Jacquire King’s name there and I noticed what he’d done. I saw he was on [Tom Wait’s] Mule Variations, and then I saw he had also done the Kings Of Leon, which I was currently listening to [Come Around Sundown]. He seemed so eclectic in his choices, and so I reached out.

“I sent him an email and said, ‘Do you want to come to New Zealand and make a record?’ Pretty well straight away I got a reply, so it was nice to not go through all the usual gatekeepers. I thought, ‘Shit I better write some songs now.’ [laughs] I never thought I’d get a response.”

With the release of The View Is Worth The Climb, the Finn canon of great songs has been expanded. Alongside such perennials as I Hope I Never, Persuasion, Charlie, Weather With You and Stuff And Nonsense now comes, The Everyday, Wild Sweet Children, Keep Talking and the title track, which is a co-write with Megan Washington, The View Is Worth The Climb.

Have you ever tried to hold back the tide? Well, that’s the thing about Tim Finn and songs. After the release of the recent Anthology, North South East West, Finn thought, for a moment, that his career making albums might have hit a full stop. But, as they always have, new songs arrived.

“The Anthology felt like a natural stop,” he admits. “I’d done eight solo albums. I’ve always liked the number eight. We live at number eight, and so I thought that might be it; I’ll do other things but I don’t think I’ll do any more solo albums, but it came along I guess.”

“After Jacquire and I made contact, [the idea of an album] was out there in the distance, but almost a year went by before we finally got together, so I had a lot of time to write and also somebody to bounce off. I would send demos out and it became quite a nice organic process, which I’ve never really had. I think nearly every other time there’d only be a period of a couple of months or so where you’d send songs out and then all of a sudden it would be all on. Jacquire became part of the writing process in a way and it was really fun.”

As late night emails were exchanged with King a plan was hatched to record in Auckland. Studio time at Roundhead was booked, musicians were brought into the fold and an impressive studio band that features Joey Waronker (Beck/REM/Thom Yorke), Zac Rae (Beck/Thom Yorke/Cold War Kids), Brett Adams (The Mockers/The Bads), Tony Buchen (Andy Bull) and Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle) was assembled.

Still, it always comes back to the songs. As a writer, Finn’s genius has been his gift of melody pitted against his novelist’s eye for detail. He sees the world at close range with a keen interest in the human condition. There’s something ethereal in the way he discusses his process, which stems from his widescreen universality.

With an inbuilt sense of sonic navigation, Finn seeks out material in his surroundings. Pressed on the matter, he produces a scrap of yellowed newspaper that he possibly trimmed from a New York newspaper two decades ago. The forgotten author writes in two sentences what could very well be applied to Finn’s process today.

"Redemption in art is not what happens after the story is over and the subject ends up strong or successful or sober or, in every simple and complicated sense of the word, happy. Redemption is the work itself (the book, the movie, the pop song, the painting, the poem, the Grecian urn) that finds beauty in its subject, no matter how terrible or how homely, and transmits that beauty, as well as truth... one and the same thing as the poet says."

Like many of the great poets: Finn’s autobiography is in his set list. His current vantage point includes a young family and a life well lived. Still, there’s angst and yearning pitted against the bliss

“I think it’s very much about what I love,” he says of the new work, “what inspires me, what brings me joy. There’s a lot of that in the record. [There’s also] difficulties in friendships, still, that go on over the years, [there’s] people I love, people I’ve loved and tried to get close to… and either it’s working great and I’m getting a lot of stimulation, inspiration, and joy from it or it’s not working out and I’m still kind of wrestling with that. [I’m also inspired] by the place I live in which is a beautiful part of Auckland, near the water, so there’s some of that neighbourhood feel in there too, the simplicity of that, the day-to-dayness of that. Being a family guy, being a parent now, just all of the above.

Finn and King opted to record the new work quickly. The album was cut in twelve days, with further time put aside for mixing in the USA.

“I was getting so much [good] energy,” continues Finn. “I worked on the songs for a long time, so I’d kind of dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s and I knew that they were ready to sing. The lyrics? I’d honed them so that I felt completely confident. Then it was a matter of the pure excitement of playing them with great musicians and only having two weeks and capturing all that: it’s all very live and some of the vocals are live vocals with very little overdubbing. I think that’s partly why it sounds so fresh.”

Half a lifetime ago he sang ‘acknowledge no frontier’. Thankfully, that’s what he’s done. Finn keeps moving forward, creating new jewels from his enclave at the ‘bottom of the world’. With The View Is Worth The Climb, Tim Finn has created a modern classic. Now, put on your headphones and listen to it.

Sean Sennett 2011

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