Four decades in with Crowded House’s ever-changing lineup, Neil Finn takes a trial-and-error approach to music — and guitar. “The mistakes make it interesting,” he says.
BY GARY GRAFF
CROWDED HOUSE’S RETURN five years ago was certainly a welcome one. The Australian-formed group had been dormant since 2016, when it played four shows at the Sydney Opera House and was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s (ARIA) Hall of Fame. So frontman and co-founder Neil Finn’s announcement of resumption and a new lineup — with original bassist Nick Seymour, original producer Mitchell Froom on keyboards, and Finn’s sons Liam and Elroy on guitar and drums, respectively — was greeted with great anticipation, even if the pandemic delayed the group’s return to the stage.
“It does feel like it’s got a really good future, because everyone is super excited,” Finn enthused during the spring of 2021, when the new Crowded House released Dreamers Are Waiting, the band’s first new album in 11 years. “We want to push it. We’ve got five people equally committed to exploring what it could be.”
That he meant business is proven by the new Gravity Stairs (Lester/BMG), Crowded House’s eighth studio album overall. Produced by the band with longtime engineer Steven Schram, its 11 tracks are brimming with the particular musical magic that Finn, Seymour and drummer Paul Hester — who committed suicide in 2005 at the age of 46 — began making in 1985 as the Mullanes, before Capitol Records insisted on a name change. The melodies are, as is Crowded House’s wont, rich and memorable, usually by the second chorus. The soundscape is intricately orchestrated with nuanced layers of guitars, Froom’s Hammond B-3 accents, and lushly executed vocal harmonies that have always been Crowded House trademarks but now boast a familial potency thanks to having three Finns onboard.
The House, of course, has a strong foundation. Construction began in New Zealand, where Finn grew up as the youngest of four children. Brother Tim’s musical aspirations rubbed off on Neil, who started playing guitar at age eight, after Tim went off to boarding school in Auckland. They wound up playing together in the band Split Enz when Tim invited Neil to join during 1976 to replace co-founder Phil Judd. Neil quickly became a dominant force, sharing lead vocal duties with Tim and becoming the group’s primary songwriter with tunes like the worldwide hit “I Got You.”
Finn formed the Mullanes in 1984 with Split Enz drummer Hest
