Tim Finn Visits Nashville To Say It Is So

Tim Finn has reinvented a side of his life he likes - playing live. The founder of cult band Split Enz is back in Auckland from Sydney and he is here to stay.

Next month, fans will get a rare opportunity to hear Finn perform for three nights in the intimate Dans Paleis as part of Festival 2000. The performances will be a showcase for his new album, Say It Is So. Finn recorded it in Nashville last September and it will be released on March 2.

Finn and country music? "No not at all," says Finn. "The producer Jay Joyce is from Cleveland and he hates country music." Finn says he went to Nashville on a whim. "It was the last place on earth that I would ever have thought of going to record so, of course, it became irresistible to me."

Finn admits to enjoying "some of the old stuff like Hank Williams" and the Hillbilly side of country. "I just went searching for the underbelly of Nashville if you like and I found it in Jay Joyce, who wouldn't even let me put any pedal stell on the record."

The great thing about recording in Nashville, Finn says, was that it was full of good studios and good old analogue recording gear. He also loved collaborating with a new producer.

"He had as much to do with the sound of the record as I did. I wrote the material but a lot of the guitars and whole atmosphere of the record was Jay."

The two men worked hard and fast. The result was no second guessing and tracks set down pretty fast. "It wasn't slapdash but it's got a spontaneous and very organic atmosphere."

Finn says the album has no particular theme but the songs are like signposts.

"It's all to do with journeying and being on the road, not on the road touring but just being on the road."

In his Dan Paleis performance, Finn will play acoustic and electric guitars, piano and drums. He plans to have a couple of other musicians jumping up to join him and will call on a couple of local guests each night for a jam. Music will be from his new album mixed with older songs.

"I'm sort of mixing it up with some very early Split Enz songs. Some of the first stuff that we ever wrote has somehow come back to me and demanded my attention and I'm enjoying that."

He has also rediscovered live performances. "I'm certainly enjoying playing live again, I've reinvented that whole side of my life and getting a lot of pleasure out of it. At the end of the day there is nothing more powerful that a live performance, it's more powerful than any record, film or any book. It's the same with acting and theatre.

"Going to see a play if it is well done and well written is more powerful than any film you could go and see, it is very naked and confronting but the pleasures are so great."

But Finn says live music has still got to be done in a good way.

"You can't just go out there willy-nilly and hope for the best. You have to take so much care with every gig technically. It is not like I can just do it at the drop of the hat any night of the week, but I will be doing it more than I have done."

Finn has also moved his studio back to Auckland where he hopes to work on more collaborations. Last year was busy for Finn, he hadn't long been a father - his son Harper is two - he recieved an honorary doctorate from Waikato University, shifted back to New Zealand and reformed Split Enz for a damp millenium concert in Auckland.

Finn says the New Year's Eve performance was brilliant. "It was one of the best Split Enz shows I've ever done. The drizzle softened everything down and it became quite emotional, it had something about it. When we were playing Six Months In A Leaky Boat just before midnight, I remember looking across at Neil and screaming, `I can feel it, I can feel it', it had a transcendence about it that I don't always get in a gig." Playing with Split Enz is great because the members are no longer a band, says Finn. "We don't have to get serious about it. Whenever we do it, it's just hugely emotional and all over, quick gone and on to the the next thing." As for the future? Finn plans more recording, more writing, more family stuff with his wife Marie and Harper and he has other projects on the boil.

"I'm glad to be back in New Zealand it feels like the right thing."