Neil Finn

Neil Finn has long demonstrated an exceptional gift for writing finely wrought songs that weave memorable hooks together with carefully observed words, beginning as the youngest recruit in Split Enz, continuing through his years guiding Crowded House, and extending across a notable solo catalog. Along the way he has secured substantial worldwide sales, admiration from fellow musicians, favorable notices from reviewers, and a loyal audience that awaits each new project.

Born Neil Mullane Finn on May 27, 1958, in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, he first performed publicly as a youngster, harmonizing with his older brother Tim for family friends. He took up the piano while still young, mastering Beatles numbers and soon composing originals, the earliest of which set music to a poem he found inside a Donovan album. During the early 1970s he closely followed the work of emerging singer-songwriters including Elton John, Neil Young, David Bowie, and Cat Stevens, all while observing Tim’s band Split Enz rise within the Australian music circuit. Neil obtained occasional support slots of his own, performing original material alongside carefully selected covers on piano, guitar, and mandolin. By 1976 he had started the After Hours with lyricist and drummer Mark Hough and guitarist Geoff Chunn. Hough left soon after, and Alan Brown joined on bass. Although the band showed promise, it ended abruptly when Phil Judd departed Split Enz and Tim invited Neil to take the vacant spot. Just weeks before turning nineteen, and despite never having played electric guitar previously, Neil joined Split Enz as lead guitarist.

He remained in the background on the first two albums following his arrival, 1977’s Dizrhythmia and 1978’s Frenzy, before stepping forward with the infectious “I Got You” on True Colours. That single became an instant success, rescuing the group from fading prospects and likely dissolution. Split Enz achieved modest global recognition over the ensuing years before breaking up in 1985. That same year Neil assembled an early version of Crowded House—initially using names such as the Mullanes and the Largest Living Things—with drummer Paul Hester and bassist Nick Seymour; guitarist Craig Hooper participated in the band’s very first lineup. Over the following decade the group surpassed Split Enz commercially and critically, scoring major international hits that included the U.S. number-two single “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” At the peak of their popularity in 1996, after completing a Finn Brothers side project, Neil chose to disband Crowded House in order to pursue solo work.

He devoted much of 1997 to writing new songs and exploring visual art at his New Zealand residence. Those efforts surfaced on his first solo album, 1998’s Try Whistling This, which mixed fresh compositions with several pieces originally intended for Crowded House. Later that year he recorded a version of the Johnny Nash classic “I Can See Clearly Now” for the soundtrack of the animated feature Antz. In 1999 he assembled and issued Afterglow, a collection of Crowded House outtakes, and closed the year with a one-time Split Enz reunion performance for the millennial New Year’s festivities. His second solo album, One Nil, appeared in March 2001; it featured contributions from Sheryl Crow, Lisa Germano, and Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie. The record reached the United States in May 2002 under the altered title One All. By the time One All arrived in America, Finn had already released another project in other territories—a live album drawn from New Zealand shows titled 7 Worlds Collide that included Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead. He later revived the 7 Worlds Collide name for the 2009 album The Sun Came Out, issued to benefit Oxfam and featuring Marr, O’Brien, KT Tunstall, Tim Finn, and several members of Wilco.

Finn paused his solo activities for several years, joining Tim for another Finn Brothers album, Everyone Is Here, and issuing an archival live set of Crowded House’s final concert, Farewell to the World, in 2006, an effort prompted partly by the death of drummer Paul Hester. Reconnecting with his former bandmates led to a reunion and the release of the new studio album Time on Earth in 2007. A follow-up, Intriguer, appeared in 2010. The next year Finn launched the side project Pajama Club with his wife Sharon Finn on bass; their self-titled debut came out in September 2011. In 2012 he contributed “The Song of the Lonely Mountain,” which played over the end credits of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Early in 2013 he undertook a duo tour of Australia with fellow Antipodean Paul Kelly; the performances yielded the live album Goin’ Your Way, recorded at the Sydney Opera House and issued in their home countries in November 2013, with a U.S. release following in December 2015. The year 2014 brought Finn’s third solo album, Dizzy Heights, produced by Dave Fridmann. In 2017 he posted a series of live recording sessions to his Facebook page throughout August; those recordings became the solo album Out of Silence, released September 1.

Finn collaborated with his son Liam on the 2018 album Lightsleeper. Its arrival was partly eclipsed by the announcement that he and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell would replace Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac. This version of the band made its debut in 2018 and toured throughout 2019.