JW: That was kind of it wasn't it, cos with Neil on the Woodface album, everything worked beautifully in terms of writing and recording, yeah?

TF: Absolutely yeah, we had two glorious weeks locked in a room with a couple of acoustic guitars, came out with 14 songs and 8 of those were the sort of basis of the Woodface album I suppose you could say, songs like Weather With You, Chocolate Cake, It's Only Natural, and er, it was just pure fun and games really, recording was a lot of fun but on stage really is where it began to unravel slightly. Not to the detriment of the relationship, just really that it was like the band plus me, it didn't feel any more like a true band. Crowded House was such a strong band and the last thing I wanted to do was change the chemistry in any way, you know. What they really needed was a guitarist/keyboard-player/backing-vocalist. They didn't need necessarily another strong-willed loon like me!

JW: So after you left them then it was to the mountains really...

TF: Yes.

JW: ... for some quiet reflection

TF: Off to the mountains, just like Julie Andrews and all that lot, yoadling away! No, I did need some space and I periodically treat myself to it, you know, after the mayhem of being on the road I went off to a place where you can meditate and just be quiet for a while and nothing especially mystical happened, but it was very refreshing and it cleared my head and I began writing songs after that.

JW: And collaborating with others, which is something you wouldn't have done before, perhaps?

TF: Not so much, no. I did a little bit of it in Split Enz, but hardly any really, and suddenly I was writing a song with Richard Thompson, a couple with Neil, Liam O' Maonlai from the Hothouse Flowers and Andy White who's a great songwriter from Belfast. Yeah, all sorts of collaborations. I think I'm much more open to it these days, you know, it seems to be that music is something that happens between people, it's not something that necessarily comes from me or from an act of my will-power, you know.

JW: It must be a lot easier too, I mean, if you're on your own and you get stuck, you are stuck, whereas if there's somebody else there suddenly there might be an idea come from that person's direction to chuck in the pot?

TF: Absolutely yeah. It keeps it moving and also you get past that initial "Is this any good?" I mean, because sometimes you can start off with what sounds like a feeble idea and talk yourself out of pursuing it, but if somebody else is there they might leap onto it for some other reason, you know, that you hadn't noticed. So yeah, it's very creative to do it and I think it brings the best out in people.

JW: Alright, what are you going to play this afternoon?

TF: Well we'll kick off with a song called Persuasion which was the first single from Before & After.

JW: Okay.

TF: Thank-you.

PERSUASION (live)

JW: Tim Finn, playing live with Dror on accordion, and that was Persuasion. Brought to you from a studio deep within the BBC, miles and miles of corridors. Did you enjoy the trip here?!

TF: It was like being a virus and having to crawl through an elephant's veins!

JW: I don't know what they're doing, the technicians are in, fiddling around with it!

TF: Yes I know, there's been some sort of bother with the phones or something.

JW: Is there? Is that what it is?

TF: That's what I heard, we can't have that, you know, we've got to have the phones working, don't we?!

JW: Yeah of course! It's all the beer spilt down the faders over the years.

TF: Exactly! Er, I wasn't going to say that!

JW: What's the radio seem like in New Zealand? Is there like an NZBC?

TF: Yes there is, although it's become an FM kind of circuit now, they've sold a few of them off and er, so it's slightly different, and unfortunately, I think unfortunately, they've started to incorporate some of this researching system that the Americans are so keen on. In fact they have, what do they call it, American consultants coming in and Australia, and I don't know why they do that because communication is surely best, you know, informed by its own culture, you know? But nevertheless it goes on, and there's some quite quirky stations, there's good Maori music stations where they play a lot of hip-hop and indigenous music and you get all sorts, but they're tending to go a bit the research way. Well they ring people up, you know, they're trying to have their dinner, and they'd say, "Well what do you think of this track?" I say, "Get off! You know, I'm trying to eat my dinner, aren't I! I hate it! I hate that song!" - "Right we won't play it..." you know - it's crazy, you know?!

JW: So how are the Finn family?

TF: They're very well. Yes, Richard and Mary back home in New Zealand, the matriaque and the patriaque, and dad's enjoying a bit of golf these days, he's retired now and sits gazing out at the mountains. He plays his jazz records, has a glass of whiskey and he's the king of the world. And mum being Irish is still quite a bit of a lunatic, you know, in her old age. Er, two sisters, one's on a farm. In fact I spoke to her the other day, this is Carolyn, she's on a sheep farm, I suppose we could make a few New Zealand jokes at this point! And she said to me, "I love your new record, I put it on in the morning and it makes me feel good for the rest of the day." And I thought, you know, good on ya sis! So they're good, they're all very well, and Neil's well. He's touring with Crowded House at the moment, doing a WOMAD tour in America so he's having all sorts of fun.

JW: So the Irish blood in you helps do you think when it comes to the craft of writing and just being involved in music?

TF: I think so, I mean, you know, Irish people are steeped in music and in words, you know, poetry and you've only got to go over there to realise it, I mean it's immediately apparent and it just comes very naturally out of the air or something, so I think it's there in the genes somewhere, that propensity for melody and poetry.

JW: Time for song two, I think?

TF: Yes, well we'd like to play a song now that's from my last solo record, it's called Not Even Close.

NOT EVEN CLOSE (live)

JW: Tim Finn on vocals and guitar, Dror is playing accordion live here on 1FM this Saturday afternoon at five minutes to five. Tim Finn wouldn't be described as the most, you know, sartorially dressed gentleman, but he prefers the kind of relaxed, casual look! But even I was surprised to discover at a nightclub in Dublin you were too scruffy for them to let you in, basically?!

TF: Yes! Well exactly. It was called Mozart's this place and belying the sort of Bohemian nature of its name, it was a rather a fussy kind of starchy old place, and you know, in Dublin that's rare. But they threw us out and you would of thought in fact they would have paid us to come in...

JW: Who were you with? Who were you with?

TF: Sorry, us being myself, Liam O' Maonlai - singer with the Flowers - and Andy White. The three of us, you know, became this kind of club if you like, this carousing glee club. And er, you would have thought that they would have paid us to come in because the place was scruffier than we were, we thought, but anyway they realised belatedly who Liam was and ran after us down the street and it was like, "Liam! For God's sake what can we do for you? Boys, boys"! And they gave us a pint of guinness of course and a cocktail which had umbrellas and bits of fruit sticking out of it, one of those Club Med sort of things! And er, it was just completely ludicrous and we went home and wrote a song about it.

JW: But I mean, didn't you have a bit of a discussion there, 'cos I'd have been tempted to say, "Sod you then! Too late, if you don't let us in as people, then if you find out what, you know..."

TF: I know what you mean, but they weren't like those vicous kind of bryll-creamed bouncers that you sometimes find. They were these kind of rather lovely Irishmen who were just trying to do the right thing, you know, and they were kind of apologetic so we let them off the hook!

JW: And several pints of guinness and cocktails later!

TF: Absolutely!

JW: So a bit of a sing-song happened when you got back home?

TF: Well it did, that's right. We were staying at a big house over there in Dunleary which is near where James Joyce used to write and it was a wonderful neighbourhood, and there were about 20 people in the house when we came back home. We sat around and wrote this song together called Many's The Time which is on Before & After, and everybody started joining in without knowing the song because it was just emerging as we sang it, you know, and there were these wonderful choral harmonies happening, you know. In the morning, I mean, if we'd taped it we may have found that some of them were a bit suss!

JW: A bit wayward!

TF: But at the time it sounded like the heavenly choir!

JW: That's the only snag when you're a bit legless, you get into something like that, you think, "Wow, this is brilliant!"

TF: I know - it gives you that courage to go on, though!

JW: Yeah! Alright, well we'll play from the record to give you a break from playing live for the moment. From the album, this is Many's The Time In Dublin.

MANY's THE TIME (album version)

JW: Tim Finn, from the album Before & After and Many's The Time In Dublin. Tim Finn with us in the studio playing live this afternoon. Just to mention some tour dates, September 20th and 21st at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, the 22nd at the Forum in London, the 23rd at the Wolfrum Hall in Wolverhampton and the 24th, Manchester University - Tim Finn's UK tour. Looking forward to that?

TF: Very much, yes. Actually the Forum show is sold out now, so they're going fast all these tickets and it's exciting for me. My first solo tour with band of the UK and there's a Dublin date in there as well, on the Saturday night I think, so yeah, it's a great thrill.

JW: Well you'll pick a different club to go to for the Dublin party?!

TF: Yes, I don't think we'll be doing Mozart's for the after gig party either yeah, exactly!

JW: Alright, another song Tim?

TF: Yes, this is the current single, a song called Hit The Ground Running.

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING (live)

JW: Tim Finn playing live, his new single from the album Before & After, Hit The Ground Running. That come from the mountains that one, the inspiration, or is it...

TF: They all come from the mountains one way or the other! Yeah!

JW: Good. Well great to see you looking so well and in such fine form.

TF: Thank-you very much.

JW: Thanks for coming by, and thanks to Dror, too, who played accordion.

TF: It's been fun.