June 13, 2025 • 9 mins
Australian music legend, Tim Finn spoke to Clinton Maynard as the founding member of Split Enz prepares for his new tour later this year.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
That's a faction. Much fiction, that's a faction.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
My guest today is the legendary Tim Finn, the founder
of Split Ends, of course collaborated with his brother Near
with Crowded House and solo performer. It's forty years since
his first solo album was released, Escapade, and he's going
to be touring the country in a few months time.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
And he joins me on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome Tim, nice to be here. I'm seeing you on
the video at the moment. It's a video call, and
I could I could hear listening to some of your
your legendary tracks there when you say recorded with Split
Ends six months in the leaky boat and you're there
and you're you're in the mixing studio and it's it's
the final mix is done.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Do you sit back and think we've got a good
one here?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I mean you do?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
You get excited, like you know, you work on them
so hard though, that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
It's been hundreds of hours, you know, if you.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Combine the writing, rahearsing and then recording, and so you
are a bit kind of worn out with there by
the time against the mix stage.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
But then went for some really good mechs and.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Eddie Rayner, our keyboard, played quite a big.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Part of this ex Usually the band would sit back
and let the engineer producer do most of the work,
but Eddie got rolled up his sleeves and got involved,
and so I remember the jubilant feeling that he was
having and it sort of spread.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
It was very infectious, and I had to admit, Yeah,
it was a rush this song.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And kind of the speed of it surprised me because
I wrote it as a kind of mid tempo song
and it just took off in the studio. Wanted to
be faster, you know, and so it had a lot
of a lot of excitement in it by the time
we finished.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
What does the song mean? That song?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Well, you know, I was reading a book about the pioneers,
the early days of people coming out and ships and
boats from Europe to Australia and New Zealand. Really those
boats were stinky and smelly and horrible. They were crowded,
there was no sanitation, and so I just kind of
got into that because the band was going through quite
(01:55):
a good time internally, but myself personally, my life was
kind of falling apart a little bit. Yea, I was
having having a rough time along term relationship was ending,
and I felt very fragile and exposed. So the band
was my kind of safe place, really, and so it's
a song about that feeling of having your your mates
(02:15):
alongside you, supporting you, you know, a difficult time.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Tim I was only I was only a little kid
in the early nineteen eighties, and I was born in
the mid late seventies, and my mom was a key
with though, so a lot of oddies feel affection for Kiwis.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What was the theatrical side.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Of Split Ends? What was the driver of that?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, to be honest, I mean we were very influenced
by sixties bands, particularly the Beatles.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
You think about the Beatles, every time they kind of
came out, they.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Had a different look. Yeah it's Sergeant pebers.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Thy wearing those really brightly colored suits.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It just seemed normal to us to kind of dress
up and put on a show, you know. And we've
adopted these personas because they just got.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Right become a bit of a trademark.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Very different to the the olds pub rock scene of
those days.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, well that's right.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
In nineteen seventy five, we were playing the pubs around Alvin,
particularly because we were signed to Mushroom Records at the time.
Mark Gooinenski and Frank Stabila and all those guys were
putting us.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Into the pubs.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And you know, we had a following of about six people.
They came to every show and the rest of them
were standing at the back of the room kind of
scratched it there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's a bit I think, what's going on here?
Speaker 5 (03:21):
But you know, they didn't forget us. I guess, you know,
if they weren't sure, they still remembered us.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I have read books about split ends and yourself and
your brother. But how did Neil join the band?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, we were looking for a guitar player.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
This was in nineteen seventy seven and the other founding
member of the band, Philip Judd, had left the band,
and so we needed a guitar player. He had supported
Spinanz when he was about sixteen through New Zealand, and
we just knew he was a good singer, good songwriter.
He never played electric guitar, but we figured he could
pick it up pretty quickly when he.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Was a little boys to encourage him with his piano lesson.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
So he was stepped in a lot of musical knowledge
and very good singer, so you know, it was a
no brainer when we finally clicked on it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You know, fast forward to your tell the Crowded House,
and certainly I've heard the stories that it was you
and Neil writing songs together that would have been a
Finn Brothers album. Effectively, when you put wood Face together
and you end up joining Crowded House, did you want
that stuff to be work with just you and your
brother or were you're happy to sort of bring it
into Crowded House.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Well, we wrote it as as a brother's project, and
we just set out distinctly to write harmony styles and
so we were right weather with you and it's only natural,
and they were all sort of fitting into this framework
of the blood harmonies, you know, the two brothers singing together.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It was because of the fact that Neil was.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
Stuck between because he had started this Crowded House record
already already recorded for the two Feet a few of
the other songs handed it into the label, they said no,
we don't hear a single, So then we did our
project and then so he was going through the agony
of oh god, you know, because the worst thing you
ever want to do is listen to the record company.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
But you can't help it, you know, they your head
and so he was a bit tall.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Because we had all these other really good songs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
They just fitted perfectly in the end. But it was
a bit of a switch.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But I think, you know, both Nick and Paul particularly,
I'm not sure you know, they.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Handled it very well. They were very gracious.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
In fact, they were kind of excited to get into
those songs as well.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But you know, having two fins in the band was
a bit much.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Probably it was a bit of a power block.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I suppose we didn't intend it to be, you know,
but it just skewed the band a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
But it was a fantastic time.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
We had an amazing touring. The record stands, you know,
the test of time.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So I was going to mention that Tim because I'm
thinking back to the days when I was in it.
I was late teen, early twenties, and I think your music,
that's probably when you suck up. I reckon most of
your music, and breathing stays you for life. And so
it was that era of grunge out of Seattle, and
then there was you know, the hip hop stuff happening
at the same time. Would face I reckon stands the
test of time, even all these years later, there are
(05:54):
songs like that.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It's only natural, I think. Is such a beautiful song still.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah, yeah, well I love playing that live and Neil
does too, you know. So he's got his crewdit his
latest incarnation of Crowded House.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
They play that song. I go out and play when
I'm doing a solo show.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Ye.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I had my daughter singing with me in Adelaide the
other night. She's twenty two years of age now. The
beautiful voice.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So having having that blood harmony again, me and my daughter,
Me and Neil, Neil and Liam. You know, it just
works and it's a beautiful song to do live. People
just clicking.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, it's a stunning song.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
The two that you'll be embarking on in Australia, a
lady this year in August is to mark forty years
since Escapade. So your first solo album and what is
that that album?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Media?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It was a very joyous kind of you know, because
the band decides for the decided to decide to take
six six weeks off, which it sounds like we've been
touring our asses off, you know for years and so
six weeks in like a really nice time. It ended
up being about three months, I think, but I just
started writing. I had my piano there and house, and
you know, I'm always trying to write a song. So
(07:03):
it seemed to me that the most fun I could
have was to make a record.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
And then I met.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Rooky Fota because I heard him play drums on a
Renee Gaer track and I just thought, who the hell
is that?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
You know, it was one of the best drum grooves
I'd ever heard.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
And got to know Ricky and got Mark Moffert. You know,
they co produced the record, met a whole lot of
musicians through them. I mean, Vanetta feels I'm doing backing vocals.
You know, she taught me so much. She came from
a long, obviously long tradition of gospel and American R
and B and soul music, so she brought some of
that into the record. Richard t dropped in one night
(07:37):
to play piano. He was on tour with Paul Simon.
It was a liberation for me after ten years.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Of being in the band and again, and that album
is roughly a decade before would face and there are
still songs.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So I made my day.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Everyone still recognized that song all these years later, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Yeah, it's one of those songs, the finger pointing song,
like when you start doing.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
It and you hit that chorus, everyone in the crowds.
It's a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You'll be touring in August State Theater here in Sydney
on the ninth of August and Leaders Theater in Thrule.
It's Northern suburbs Wollongong. I saw a band you might
know from the tea party last year. And in Needers
Theater if you have if you haven't been there, it's
a really beautiful historic building. It's a great little venue
throughout August. Yeah, it's it's really great. Tickets through Ticketmaster.
It has been a pleasure to speak to you. Thank
(08:24):
you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Tim, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Tim Finn.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
One of the crackers from Split End six Months in
a Leaky Boat, written by Tim Finn. If you want
to go and see it's a few months out from
when Tim Finn is touring. He's touring in his first
solo album, which was Escapade. You'll be playing all the
hits August nine State Theater. The tickets are available by
a Ticketmaster
That's a faction. Much fiction, that's a faction.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
My guest today is the legendary Tim Finn, the founder
of Split Ends, of course collaborated with his brother Near
with Crowded House and solo performer. It's forty years since
his first solo album was released, Escapade, and he's going
to be touring the country in a few months time.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
And he joins me on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome Tim, nice to be here. I'm seeing you on
the video at the moment. It's a video call, and
I could I could hear listening to some of your
your legendary tracks there when you say recorded with Split
Ends six months in the leaky boat and you're there
and you're you're in the mixing studio and it's it's
the final mix is done.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Do you sit back and think we've got a good
one here?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I mean you do?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
You get excited, like you know, you work on them
so hard though, that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
It's been hundreds of hours, you know, if you.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Combine the writing, rahearsing and then recording, and so you
are a bit kind of worn out with there by
the time against the mix stage.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
But then went for some really good mechs and.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Eddie Rayner, our keyboard, played quite a big.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Part of this ex Usually the band would sit back
and let the engineer producer do most of the work,
but Eddie got rolled up his sleeves and got involved,
and so I remember the jubilant feeling that he was
having and it sort of spread.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
It was very infectious, and I had to admit, Yeah,
it was a rush this song.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And kind of the speed of it surprised me because
I wrote it as a kind of mid tempo song
and it just took off in the studio. Wanted to
be faster, you know, and so it had a lot
of a lot of excitement in it by the time
we finished.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
What does the song mean? That song?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Well, you know, I was reading a book about the pioneers,
the early days of people coming out and ships and
boats from Europe to Australia and New Zealand. Really those
boats were stinky and smelly and horrible. They were crowded,
there was no sanitation, and so I just kind of
got into that because the band was going through quite
(01:55):
a good time internally, but myself personally, my life was
kind of falling apart a little bit. Yea, I was
having having a rough time along term relationship was ending,
and I felt very fragile and exposed. So the band
was my kind of safe place, really, and so it's
a song about that feeling of having your your mates
(02:15):
alongside you, supporting you, you know, a difficult time.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Tim I was only I was only a little kid
in the early nineteen eighties, and I was born in
the mid late seventies, and my mom was a key
with though, so a lot of oddies feel affection for Kiwis.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What was the theatrical side.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Of Split Ends? What was the driver of that?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, to be honest, I mean we were very influenced
by sixties bands, particularly the Beatles.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
You think about the Beatles, every time they kind of
came out, they.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Had a different look. Yeah it's Sergeant pebers.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Thy wearing those really brightly colored suits.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It just seemed normal to us to kind of dress
up and put on a show, you know. And we've
adopted these personas because they just got.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Right become a bit of a trademark.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Very different to the the olds pub rock scene of
those days.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, well that's right.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
In nineteen seventy five, we were playing the pubs around Alvin,
particularly because we were signed to Mushroom Records at the time.
Mark Gooinenski and Frank Stabila and all those guys were
putting us.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Into the pubs.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And you know, we had a following of about six people.
They came to every show and the rest of them
were standing at the back of the room kind of
scratched it there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's a bit I think, what's going on here?
Speaker 5 (03:21):
But you know, they didn't forget us. I guess, you know,
if they weren't sure, they still remembered us.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I have read books about split ends and yourself and
your brother. But how did Neil join the band?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, we were looking for a guitar player.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
This was in nineteen seventy seven and the other founding
member of the band, Philip Judd, had left the band,
and so we needed a guitar player. He had supported
Spinanz when he was about sixteen through New Zealand, and
we just knew he was a good singer, good songwriter.
He never played electric guitar, but we figured he could
pick it up pretty quickly when he.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Was a little boys to encourage him with his piano lesson.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
So he was stepped in a lot of musical knowledge
and very good singer, so you know, it was a
no brainer when we finally clicked on it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You know, fast forward to your tell the Crowded House,
and certainly I've heard the stories that it was you
and Neil writing songs together that would have been a
Finn Brothers album. Effectively, when you put wood Face together
and you end up joining Crowded House, did you want
that stuff to be work with just you and your
brother or were you're happy to sort of bring it
into Crowded House.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Well, we wrote it as as a brother's project, and
we just set out distinctly to write harmony styles and
so we were right weather with you and it's only natural,
and they were all sort of fitting into this framework
of the blood harmonies, you know, the two brothers singing together.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It was because of the fact that Neil was.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
Stuck between because he had started this Crowded House record
already already recorded for the two Feet a few of
the other songs handed it into the label, they said no,
we don't hear a single, So then we did our
project and then so he was going through the agony
of oh god, you know, because the worst thing you
ever want to do is listen to the record company.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
But you can't help it, you know, they your head
and so he was a bit tall.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Because we had all these other really good songs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
They just fitted perfectly in the end. But it was
a bit of a switch.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But I think, you know, both Nick and Paul particularly,
I'm not sure you know, they.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Handled it very well. They were very gracious.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
In fact, they were kind of excited to get into
those songs as well.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But you know, having two fins in the band was
a bit much.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Probably it was a bit of a power block.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I suppose we didn't intend it to be, you know,
but it just skewed the band a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
But it was a fantastic time.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
We had an amazing touring. The record stands, you know,
the test of time.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So I was going to mention that Tim because I'm
thinking back to the days when I was in it.
I was late teen, early twenties, and I think your music,
that's probably when you suck up. I reckon most of
your music, and breathing stays you for life. And so
it was that era of grunge out of Seattle, and
then there was you know, the hip hop stuff happening
at the same time. Would face I reckon stands the
test of time, even all these years later, there are
(05:54):
songs like that.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It's only natural, I think. Is such a beautiful song still.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah, yeah, well I love playing that live and Neil
does too, you know. So he's got his crewdit his
latest incarnation of Crowded House.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
They play that song. I go out and play when
I'm doing a solo show.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Ye.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I had my daughter singing with me in Adelaide the
other night. She's twenty two years of age now. The
beautiful voice.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So having having that blood harmony again, me and my daughter,
Me and Neil, Neil and Liam. You know, it just
works and it's a beautiful song to do live. People
just clicking.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, it's a stunning song.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
The two that you'll be embarking on in Australia, a
lady this year in August is to mark forty years
since Escapade. So your first solo album and what is
that that album?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Media?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, it was, it was.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It was a very joyous kind of you know, because
the band decides for the decided to decide to take
six six weeks off, which it sounds like we've been
touring our asses off, you know for years and so
six weeks in like a really nice time. It ended
up being about three months, I think, but I just
started writing. I had my piano there and house, and
you know, I'm always trying to write a song. So
(07:03):
it seemed to me that the most fun I could
have was to make a record.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
And then I met.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Rooky Fota because I heard him play drums on a
Renee Gaer track and I just thought, who the hell
is that?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
You know, it was one of the best drum grooves
I'd ever heard.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
And got to know Ricky and got Mark Moffert. You know,
they co produced the record, met a whole lot of
musicians through them. I mean, Vanetta feels I'm doing backing vocals.
You know, she taught me so much. She came from
a long, obviously long tradition of gospel and American R
and B and soul music, so she brought some of
that into the record. Richard t dropped in one night
(07:37):
to play piano. He was on tour with Paul Simon.
It was a liberation for me after ten years.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Of being in the band and again, and that album
is roughly a decade before would face and there are
still songs.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So I made my day.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Everyone still recognized that song all these years later, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Yeah, it's one of those songs, the finger pointing song,
like when you start doing.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
It and you hit that chorus, everyone in the crowds.
It's a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You'll be touring in August State Theater here in Sydney
on the ninth of August and Leaders Theater in Thrule.
It's Northern suburbs Wollongong. I saw a band you might
know from the tea party last year. And in Needers
Theater if you have if you haven't been there, it's
a really beautiful historic building. It's a great little venue
throughout August. Yeah, it's it's really great. Tickets through Ticketmaster.
It has been a pleasure to speak to you. Thank
(08:24):
you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Tim, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Tim Finn.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
One of the crackers from Split End six Months in
a Leaky Boat, written by Tim Finn. If you want
to go and see it's a few months out from
when Tim Finn is touring. He's touring in his first
solo album, which was Escapade. You'll be playing all the
hits August nine State Theater. The tickets are available by
a Ticketmaster
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