“I’m still learning…” the 59-year-old OBE recipient says. “I’m still learning about what I can do in a room with musicians. Like, even with the way Joey Waronker plays drums [on this album], it affects how I’m singing, and how I phrase my piano playing. There’s an emphasis and a feel there that’s unique to him. And any musician I work with could challenge and stimulate me to approach things in a different way.
“It almost goes beyond music… Being a musician is how I learn about life. Making music with other people is inspiring, but other things happen too, on a human level. I think that’s the same for everybody; If you love your work, then it’s going to be the way you learn about other people, and life.”
After touring to promote his long-overdue career retrospective North South East West in 2009 – covering his work with Split Enz, Crowded House, solo and with brother Neil – Finn says he didn’t initially foresee another album on his horizon.
“I actually wasn’t going to make a solo record next,” he explains. “I’m pretty superstitious about the number eight; I’d made eight [solo albums], and then there was this anthology, my first in 35 years, so it felt like a natural pause. But then I just found myself sitting down to write… and off we go again.”
Helping to spur Finn on with his songwriting was securing the services of the very sought-after Jacquire King as producer.
“I seem to be on this mailing list that’s circulated amongst producers and engineers,” Finn explains. “I was just scrolling through it one day, saw Jacquire’s name, and recognised some of the things he’d done. I really liked the Tom Waits album he did, Mule Variations, and his Kings Of Leon albums. And I was keen to get back into a ‘band’ sort of sound, as opposed to my last record, which was very acoustic. I just thought I’d give it a go and send him an email, and he came back almost right away saying he was keen. That gave me the momentum to finish the stuff that I had, and a whole lot of new stuff started coming through too.”
For the album’s title track, Finn was assisted by the (already) well-respected Megan Washington, with whom he toured in 2009.
“We hit it off, there was good chemistry,” Finn recalls. “She was hilarious in the van, with anecdotes and stuff, and then she’d have conversation remorse the next morning. But she shouldn’t, because she’s delightful. I love her presence on stage… I just woke up with the chorus for that song one morning, but I couldn’t turn it into a song for some reason. So Megan and I got together one day, and she had a verse that worked really well with it. It was great to work with her, I really admire her.”
After a few months Finn and King convened at Roundhead Studios with a hand-picked team of six musicians, most of them mutual friends or past collaborators of both artist and producer. The only catch was having only twelve days in which to record the album (a limit imposed by Jacquire’s other commitments). Finn, however, says he wouldn’t have done it any other way.
“Jacquire’s one of the most in-demand producers around, so he couldn’t give me an open-ended arrangement,” Finn explains. “But I like working like that… Someone once said: ‘Freedom is absence of choice.’ Since you can’t be too indecisive, you’re free to trust your instincts and just go, ‘That works for me.’ And the fact that the musicians are very high-calibre means there’s still a sophistication about the arrangements. Even though they were done quickly, it sounds quite beautifully arranged, and complete.”
Had Finn not embarked on another solo album, one of the alternative projects he was considering was a movie soundtrack; a project he is now pursuing. “I’m beginning to experiment with some ideas for that,” Finn elaborates. “I haven’t done a lot of soundtracks yet, but it feels really good at this time of my life to serve a different narrative than my own life… to let my music support somebody else’s vision.”
Another potential project that occasionally crosses Tim’s mind is the idea of the ‘Finn brothers squared’, which would see the time-tested chemistry between himself and brother Neil complemented by Neil’s sons Liam and Elroy, who are currently touring together.
This, of course, seems to beg the question: What of Tim’s own kids? Are there likely to be any more musical prodigies to bear the name ‘Finn’?
“Well, my son is thirteen, my daughter is eight, and they’re both very musical,” he says. “Whenever I turn around, my son is playing the piano. I can see that he might want to do music… I’m not encouraging it or discouraging it; I’m just letting it flower. And my daughter can sing really well. She’s quite special, I think. If they do it, I just hope it’s for the right reasons, and that they get as much satisfaction out of it as I have.”
