THE MOJO INTERVIEW
THERE HE IS. IT’S EARLY ONE TUESDAY morning and the lobby of London’s sprawling Landmark hotel (if you have to ask the rates, you can’t afford it) is teeming with well-heeled tourists, very important business folk and, tucked in a corner, underneath some stairs, hunched over what is clearly not his first coffee of the day – and it won’t be his last – Neil Finn.
Rather like his music, he’s in plain sight, but somehow invisible.
Unlike many 65-year-old pop stars, Finn looks like an older version of himself: sharp, pixie-like features, a wicked grin and a torso that still hasn’t spread. The hair might be grey and a little spikey, but it’s not thinning. “A full head of hair?” he grins, running his hands through it. “Can’t say I’m not pleased.”
Hair is not the only thing the New Zealander has to be pleased about. There’s a new Crowded House album: the majestic Gravity Stairs, their eighth and the latest in a line which began in 1986 with a self-titled album that broke America, before 1991’s still-revered Woodface did the same for them in Europe. Finn’s deep but accessible songwriting carved out an unusual niche for the band, but his decision-making was also unusual, and when they split in 1996, following the departure of drummer Paul Hester, they were on the cusp of next-level success.
Since then, Crowded House has been rebuilt and disassembled at Finn’s command. Hester’s shocking suicide in 2005 prompted the first reformation, lasting until 2011. Eight years later, shortly after Finn’s unlikely touring stint as part of Fleetwood Mac, Crowded House Mk III emerged with Finn alongside ever-present bassist Nick Seymour, 65; keyboardist (and very first Crowded House producer) Mitchell Froom, 70; and Neil’s sons Liam, 40, on guitar, and drummer Elroy, 34.
“Some parenting you get right, some you don’t,” says Finn, “but Liam and Elroy are good, compassionate, empathetic people, with great values and a huge amount of skill.”
It’s no real surprise: it’s usually been about family for Finn. As a teenager he was drafted into older brother Tim’s band, Split Enz. Returning the favour, Tim joined Neil’s Crowded House from 1990 to 1991 and the pair have made two Finn Brothers albums since then. Then there’s the missus. Neil’s wife Sharon shared 2011’s Pajama Club project, before Neil and Liam collaborated on 2018’s Lightsleeper. Completing the circle, Tim appears on a Gravity Stairs track, Some Greater Plan (For Claire), based on the World War II diaries of Dick Finn, Neil and T
