DH: As promised I have been joined by formerly of Split Enz, formerly of Crowded House, now of Neil Finn.
NF: Huh!
DH: Neil Finn.
NF: Hi.
DH: How are you Neil?
NF: I'm well.
DH: We've belted over from a TV studio, having a very multi-media afternoon actually.
NF: It has yes, very impressive really that you are able to command both mediums!
DH: Yes I intend to paint you later!
NF: Huh!
DH: If that's alright? You've managed to get food between our last port of call and here.
NF: Yep I did indeed - a little Chinese joint around the corner from MTV.
DH: So, you are in town, in the UK for what have you been here since Monday, or something like that?
NF: Been here since Monday, yeah. I'm leaving again tomorrow.
DH: And you did a bit of a show the other night at Abbey Road?
NF: I did. I had a strum on my guitar and sang a few songs down at Abbey Road Studio 2 for a few people. In fact quite a few people really - 250 or so.
DH: 250 very attentive people as you were pointing out.
NF: They were yeah. Well I mean, given that it's what you would call an industry crowd, you'd expect like at least a hundred of them to be down at the back clinking glasses and having a good old chin-wag, but um no, in fact people were very quiet and it was a really enjoyable place to play.
DH: It's er, have you been in that room before?
NF: Er only once in 1977, and I wasn't in the main studio. I was upstairs in the control room.
DH: Right.
NF: I actually got introduced to, to Macca there and Linda, and I was, my mind was blown as a young 18 year old.
DH: I bet it would be!
NF: Yeah.
DH: Genuinely though, do people feel though, they talk about the vibe in rooms like that, that it's a bit special, or is that just tosh made up for journalists?
NF: It's a nice room, I mean I think the space and dimension of a room is probrably got more to do with if you feel a vibe in it than what necessarily went on in there.
DH: Right.
NF: But um, but no it was a really nice room to play in. It sounds great. Big, high ceiling.
DH: OK, so we're gonna be, I've actually got a copy in my hot little hand of your album Try Whistling This, which dosen't come out for a couple of weeks, and I'm not actually gonna let the record company take this away at the end, so you know we are just gonna play the whole thing basically!
NF: Good on you! It will be down at Camden Market by Monday won't it!
DH: Yes, probably get a very good price for this and er, in between Neil's going to be playing a few numbers. He's even gone so far as to say he might do requests!
NF: OK well you know...
DH: If any one wants to call in and request a song.
NF: We're pretty open these days.
DH: OK good!
NF: Very accommodating!
DH: Well we're gonna talk about this album in more detail but er, we'll start with the er, the current single which we've thrashed quite a bit on this programme in the last few weeks. This is "She Will Have Her Way".

SHE WILL HAVE HER WAY (album version)

DH: That's the first single from the album Try Whistling This by Neil Finn, that's called "She Will Have Her Way". Now Neil was that an obvious single? Was there any argument about that?
NF: Well I suppose it was really. It was the most straight-ahead song on the record and er, you know, the fact that it er, to some extent I suppose provides a connection with the past, was er, you could say that it was the obvious choice. You know, I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing necessarily, but I like the song, and I'm very happy to have it out there.
DH: Well is there, do I detect a certain nervousness on the part of the record company and so forth? I'm saying this cos record, oh where has record company gone?
NF: He's grovelling on the floor down there!
DH: Grovelling on the floor, grovelling on the floor down there in an appropriate posture.... about you know, connections from the past, you know, and they've sold you know *millions* of Crowded House greatest hits records haven't they, and then suddenly, you pop up and then 'Who's this chap Neil Finn?'
NF: Well there would be some natural inclination towards reminding people of where it's all come from I suppose, and you know I, I'm happy with everything. All the songs I put on the record so, to some extent I'm kind of willing to let the people who have to go out and flog the thing, you know, have a big say in what goes out really. But if I have a particularly strong objection to something I'll put my hand up, but um yeah, there's plenty of variety on the record. That one's pretty straight ahead.
DH: So you're gonna play a tune for us now.
NF: Yeah I am, yeah!
DH: What are you gonna play?
NF: Yeah I thought I might play a song called "King Tide", and yeah what can I say about this? It was written on a west coast beach of New Zealand, amongst all the negative ions.

KING TIDE (live)

DH: I think we are allowed to clap actually. I think that's about as much noise as we can make. There's 3 people in here at the moment.
NF: I should probably clap myself. It sounds like more.
DH: Yes, add to it, I mean Brian you can come in here, you know we want atmosphere. OK. Neil Finn from his upcoming album Try Whistling This and that's called "King Tide". And more from that album performed both live in the studio and off the album coming up, but I've asked you to choose a Beatles song actually, I've brought in more or less the entire back catalogue of The Beatles here, and the Beach Boys, and Beck.
NF: Yes it's a good looking little pile you've got there.
DH: Yeah it's not bad, it's not bad, so you've chosen...
NF: "Sexy Sadie".
DH: Why?
NF: Ah, just always a favourite and I haven't heard it for a long time. It was kind of slightly obscure cause it was on the middle of the third side or something.
DH: Yes those were in the days of, that's in the days of third sides really.
NF: Yeah.
DH: That's all gone now.
NF: I know, I used to love the, the er two sides of a record, or four as the case may have been. But er yeah, I suppose people can always take the CD off but, you know, you have to push a button.
DH: It's a different relationship these days isn't it with remote controls and all that kind of thing.
NF: Yeah I mean I'm not really good on remote controls though, so I sort of have to get up and walk to the stereo still.
DH: Oh right?
NF: I'm waiting for a voice command house you know, I know there are people that have got voice command houses where you just walk in and.... lights...... stereo....
DH: So you'll be able to shout back at CD players.
NF: I'm sure you will yeah.
DH: 'Shut that row'!
NF: It's already here with computers and you know, when they get that really down, that's when I'm gonna join the computer age in a big way I think!
DH: Alright, this is the Beatles from the White Album with "Sexy Sadie"!

SEXY SADIE (album version)

DH: Yeah the Beatles there with "Sexy Sadie", chosen by Neil Finn as a favourite Beatles record and Neil is in the studio at GLR 94.9. I'm David Hepworth, now Neil let's talk about this album. Do you still get pointed at in the street by, you know, do parents still pull their children away from you and say "That's the *evil* man, who broke up one of the most popular groups in the world". Do they do that?
NF: Well actually I got the hardest time of anybody from Jools Holland when I was doing the Jools Holland 'Later with Jools'. I was probrably a bit vulnerable. It had been a long day and he asked me, "Well you know you've got a fantastic, a great band and you're you know, at your peak and there's another few good albums in you. Why did you break it up"? And I just couldn't answer him actually on the night. But no not really. People are fairly accepting of it, especially back home. I think people understood that I had been in bands for 20 years and you know, time for a change, and er, you know I think we stopped also before, we had a really good time, before any of us fell out with each other and before we'd really made a bad record.
DH: So tell me, tell me how you embarked upon this thing, because you built, you had a studio at home for a start!
NF: Yeah I built a studio at home which took me the best part of 5 or 6 months. I mean I didn't actually lift a finger personally, but er my engineer Sam who actually engineered the whole record, took spade to earth, so erm you know!
DH: This in the back garden kind of thing?
NF: Underneath my house in my basement. I just embarked on a whole bunch of indulgent um work in my basement for about 3 months until I had a body of songs there which were sounding really good and atmospheric, but just seemed a little reserved, and hence I decided to take it to New York to kind of, just see how it was in the context of a more intense place really I suppose!
DH: Music does respond to that kind of thing does it?
NF: Yeah it does definately, pump it up a little bit maybe.
DH: So how does this, how does this working at home thing operate? I'm fascinated by the life of the Rock'n'Roll husband and father, you know, "darling I'm going to the office"...
NF: Yeah...
DH: ...and goes down stairs.
NF: Yeah it was novel. I've never been in that situation before where you know they've been seemlessly intertwined, er the two lives, the personal and the musical, and I actually really enjoyed it. It was at times, you had to give yourself over to one or the other um, but normally I go away to work um at least down the road to a studio, but often times overseas for a month or so, and it's always been a, you know, a tug, one way or another, and so this was really good and it allowed me to indulge. I had Sam, young eager willing Sam was willing to come round at any time of the day or night, er a fantastic way to start.
DH: So you could nip upstairs and make yourself a cup of coffee and...
NF: Ah yeah and er actually stay up there sometimes for even longer and I'd return, the best hours actually were between 10 and midnight, when all the family were tucked up in bed and er, there were just those magic couple of hours, I actually got most of my work done during those times, and in the morning as well. The afternoon you know was nap time. I would just go downstairs, sit in my leather chair and have a nap.
DH: (laughs) Is it possible for the family to sleep while there is a studio underneath the house? It's a bit difficult to envisage actually.
NF: Well it's fairly well sound proofed although the dull rumble was somehow comforting to them I think, you know dad was here, actually there was a presence there. It's always the bottom end that travels you know. And in their beds they would have just heard what resembles dub or something coming through the foundations.
DH: Now youve got a son who's what, 14?
NF: 14.
DH:Who's interested in music, was he down there kind of sitting there going "Oh no Dad, no!"
NF: Yeah, he put his head in there, and generally aprooving you know. A few things he would sought of raise his eyebrows at, but um, you know he hasn't had a broad experience of life yet! So he's got, he's got really good taste so I must say I can trust his opinions. He ended up partaking in the record a little bit. Played a bit of drums.
DH: Really?
NF: Yeah, that was really good.
DH: Now we've got a track lined up to play now called "Twisty Bass".
NF: Um!
DH: Why?
NF: Well it's just um an onamatapaeic title, there you go, because the song is, the first thing I wrote on the song is the bass line. It just had a working title by the way of "Twisty Bass", and it just never changed throughout but I'm sort of fond of it cause it came about in a much different manner than anything I've ever written. I was messing with a sampler, and just kind of bunging a whole lot of things down really fast and, before I knew it there was a song where I thought I was just messing around and, very fond of it!
DH: This is Neil Finn from the Album Try Whistling This and "Twisty Bass".

TWISTY BASS (album version)

DH: It's Neil Finn, and that's called "Twisty Bass", from the album Try Whistling This. Now Neil were you, were you trying, definitely trying to make a departure from the traditional I suppose, Crowded House sound of, people tend to refer to it as 'Classic Pop Music' don't they, which always seems like the kiss of death to me?
NF: Yeah well I mean it doesn't matter, what they, what they call it. I suppose I was looking for new angles on what, on what I could do, and for sure some of the songs on the record um, are definitely dressed up in a new set of clothes, new methods and being forced to improvise because there wasn't a rhythm section there, to start of with took me into new angles, but there's certain continuous and consistent things about the record as well. I can't stop you know, change the way I sing. I'm attracted to the same, to some of the same chord sequences and the way melodies fit, and er so those things are consistent but, I did attempt, or I did want to go and find, find a new way, and I think I succeeded to some degree.
DH: What sort of artists were you listening to as you were trying to form this...
NF: Well I...
DH: ...were you drawn to?
NF: all sorts of things. I was greatly encouraged by the Beck record, not that my record is remotely like that but, in the sense that it has a certain garage aesthetic to it but its made with computers, and as I was heading into the domain of computers I was very concerned lest it become too sophisticated and too slick and um, I drew some comfort from Beck's record, that it's possible to blend the two and come up with something that still sounds organic.
DH:There's an unbelievable irony in the fact isn't there that years of technology has gone into getting rid of the sound of surface noise off records, and now it's being re-introduced, deliberately.
NF: They put it on yeah! I know it's completely mental really.
DH: And you, you...
NF: Crackcles are re-assuring!
DH: Funny isn't it?
NF: Yeah.
DH: ...and it went away for a while, and suddenly you just can't move for it can you?
NF: Well I know hiss, apparently people like hiss, it's actually, there is a certain level of hiss that people find comforting and that too much silence, like you know some of the classical CD's where it gets down to you can almost here a pin drop, I think people start to feel a bit uneasy.
DH: Right. You're gonna play another song now?
NF: Yeah.
DH: From the album.
NF: I hadn't figured it out...
DH: Oh sorry.
NF: But I think I know what I'll play... no I'll play the title track from the album, "Try Whistling This" and, this was the first track I actually finished on the record, co-written with Jim Moginie, um he's an old friend of mine, he's the guitar player with Midnight Oil. Here it is....

TRY WHISTLING THIS (live)

DH: Tumultuous applause from all three of us. Has record company, is he still down on the floor there?
NF: Yeah.
DH: Contributing towards the...
NF: In his shorts and his little bird-watching sandles.
DH: Uh Neil Finn from uh...
NF: Of course that won't resonate for anybody who hasn't got a TV set tuned to us.
DH: There are enough people that know the individual in question I think!