Tim Finn

Known for his part in legendary Australasian bands Split Enz and Crowded House, as well as for Finn Brothers with younger sibling and frequent bandmate Neil Finn, Tim Finn is also recognized for witty, insightful solo material that often negotiates warm jangle and smooth singer/songwriter pop. Having led chart-topping art rock/new wave outfit Split Enz since 1972, the success of his solo debut, 1983's Escapade (a number one hit in New Zealand), signaled the end of the group, whose remaining members -- including Neil -- issued their final LP in 1984. It gave Neil the opportunity to step into the role of singer and main songwriter, and he subsequently launched the even more successful Crowded House in 1985. Tim briefly joined that group as guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist for 1990's Woodface and associated touring, then resumed his solo career with popular albums including 1993's Before & After (New Zealand Top Three, U.K. Top 30), 2006's Imaginary Kingdom (New Zealand Top 20), and 2011's The View Is Worth the Climb (New Zealand Top 30). After working on the stage musical Ladies in Black, Finn returned with a pair of wide-ranging full-length collaborations with Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, Caught by the Heart (2021) and The Ghost of Santiago (2022). Brian Timothy Finn was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand in 1952. It was while enrolled at the University of Auckland in 1971 that he started jamming in practice rooms with friends including Philip Judd. Inspired not only by British Invasion acts like the Beatles, the Move, and the Kinks, but also his Catholic upbringing and the communal singalongs of the native Maori people, Finn dropped out of school the following year to pursue music, forming Split Enz as singer and pianist, with Judd (guitar, vocals), Miles Golding (violin), Mike Howard (flute), and Mike Chunn (bass). Finn and Judd were the main songwriting force of the band's early years, with Judd drawing his inspiration from a wide variety of often non-musical sources. After months of rehearsals, the group went into the studio to record their first single, "For You"/"Split Ends," in February of 1973. After a short tour, Golding left the group to study in London. At Mike Chunn's urging, the band went for a new, electric sound, adding brother Geoff Chunn on drums, Wally Wilkinson on guitar, and part-time saxophonist Rob Gillies. In 1974, former Space Waltz keyboardist Eddie Rayner was added to the band and they embarked on a series of radio-sponsored "Buck-a-Head" shows -- rather than play the more traditional pub circuit, they played theaters, which seemed more suited to the band's style. The group's shows took on a theatrical tone, as the bandmembers wore wild, colorful costumes and sported a variety of hairdos. Finn acted as master of ceremonies, giving odd spoken soliloquies. By the end of 1974, spoons soloist Noel Crombie became a full-time member on percussion, and soon after, Geoff Chunn was replaced by Paul Crowther and Rob Gillies left the group. In March of 1975, the band traveled to Australia, where they earned a small cult following and secured a contract with Mushroom Records. Their debut album, Mental Notes, was recorded in two weeks. While their inexperience in the studio combined with an unsympathetic producer led to a less than satisfying result in the band's eyes, the album encapsulated the project at its artiest and most ambitious and made a brief appearance on both the Australian and New Zealand charts. By November of 1975, Wilkinson was fired and Gillies rejoined. In the meantime, Split Enz had caught the attention of Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, who offered to help the band with their next album; they arranged to meet him in England to redo Mental Notes. Before leaving, they recorded a new single, "Late Last Night." Despite the complex song structure, the single showed the group moving toward a pop direction. "Late Last Night" was accompanied by a video, which was an uncommon practice in 1976; the band would continue to make conceptual clips from that point on. In April of 1976, Split Enz joined up with Manzanera in England and signed to Chrysalis for worldwide distribution. Second Thoughts, essentially a reworked Mental Notes, was released toward the end of 1976 (it was released internationally as "Mental Notes"). Before the group supported the album with a U.S. tour in early 1977, Crowther was replaced on drums by Mal Green. Judd, fed up with uninterested audiences and the demands of promotion, left during the tour, and Chunn left two months later. The band returned to England to regroup -- they replaced Judd with Tim's younger brother, Neil, and recruited bassist Nigel Griggs. Tim Finn assumed leadership of the new incarnation of Split Enz, and they began to move away from its arty, theatrical beginnings on their next LP, 1977's Dizrhythmia. In Australia, the album went gold and the single, "My Mistake," became their first Top 20 hit. By early 1978, Split Enz had been dropped by Chrysalis but continued writing new material at a feverish pace and rehearsing constantly. Gillies was fired and Judd rejoined, but he found himself unable to fit into the new direction of the band and left the group shortly thereafter; he later found limited success as the leader of the Swingers and as a solo artist. The New Zealand Arts Council came to the band's aid with a $5,000.00 grant. A studio in Luton was booked, and the group knocked off 28 songs in under five days. Around the same time, they recorded a new single with producer David Tickle -- a straight-ahead rocker called "I See Red" -- which reached number 15 in Australia. Split Enz went back to Australia to make their next album, 1979's Frenzy, which returned them to the Top 20 in New Zealand. They teamed up again with David Tickle for their next album, True Colours, in 1979. With Neil Finn's seductive "I Got You," the band finally broke through to the upper echelons of the charts -- the single and album hit number one in Australia and New Zealand, with the album marking their first appearances in the Top 40 of the U.S., Canadian, and U.K. markets. The success led to an international deal with A&M Records. Split Enz quickly recorded a follow-up during a mid-year break in touring. The result -- called Corroboree in Australia and Waiata internationally -- was released in March of 1981. On the strength of two hit singles, "One Step Ahead" and "History Never Repeats," it went to the top of the charts in New Zealand and Australia, a feat they accomplished for a third time with the next year's Time and Tide, their most personal album to that point. In the meantime, Split Enz shared billing with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on a North American tour, and Mal Green left the band to work on solo projects, while Crombie took over on drums. Around this time, the advent of MTV and the channel's commitment to new wave acts helped the band's growing cult status in America -- both "Dirty Creature" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (as well as earlier videos) saw heavy airplay on the channel. Early in 1983, Tim Finn took a break from Split Enz to work on a solo album of ultimately brighter, more mainstream material. The album, Escapade, was a big success in Australasia, hitting number one in New Zealand and spawning several hits singles including the Top Ten "Fraction Too Much Friction." The album's success effectively delayed the follow-up to Time and Tide and stalled the momentum Split Enz had built over their previous three albums. Conflicting Emotions was finally finished by late 1983. Prior to this album, Tim had been the primary contributor, but for this effort, he was overshadowed by brother Neil, who had written a majority of the songs for the first time. The album, while predictably successful in Australia and New Zealand, saw a delayed release in the States, where it stalled in the bottom half of the Billboard 200. A new drummer, Paul Hester, was added, shifting Crombie to percussion. Before work began on Split Enz's next LP, Tim announced that he was leaving the band. With Neil Finn as the leader, Split Enz carried on for one more album -- 1984's See Ya 'Round, an uneven set that was released only in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Neil decided to fold the band following a farewell tour, Enz with a Bang!, for which Tim rejoined the group. Neil Finn and Paul Hester went on to form the internationally successful Crowded House in 1985, and Tim released his more ambitious second solo album, Big Canoe, on Virgin Records in April 1986. Featuring songs co-written with playwright Jeremy Brock and with ex-Enz member Phil Judd on sitar and guitar on select tracks, it went to number three in New Zealand and 31 in Australia. (It remained unreleased in the U.S. until the success of Crowded House stirred up enough interest by 1988.) Finn returned in 1989 with a self-titled album for Capitol Records. Produced by Mitchell Froom, it again charted in Australasia but did little elsewhere. He then joined Crowded House, whose first two albums had charted worldwide and gone to number one in their base of Australia. The resulting, more upbeat third Crowded House album, 1991's Woodface, featured songs co-written by Tim and Neil Finn, including U.S. alternative radio hits like "Chocolate Cake" and "It's Only Natural," and the Hot 100-charting "Fall at Your Feet." This new lineup didn't last for long, as Tim bowed out mid-tour and went to work on his fourth solo album, the critically acclaimed Before & After. Issued on Capitol in 1993, it featured over two dozen contributors, including Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, keyboards) on two tracks, and cracked the U.K. Top 30 in addition to reaching the number three in New Zealand. That year also saw a short 20th-anniversary reunion tour by Split Enz. Tim and Neil Finn soon reunited for Finn, their duo debut as Finn Brothers. Recorded in Auckland with producer Tchad Blake, it was released in 1995 (a year later in the U.S.) and reached the Top 20 in New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. Tim Finn resumed his solo career in the latter part of 1996, eventually delivering his fifth LP, Say It Is So, in 1999. Recorded with Nashville-based producer Jay Joyce (the Wallflowers, Patty Griffin), it was independently released and failed to chart. He nevertheless returned to the studio with Joyce for his next album, June 2001's Feeding the Gods; it landed in New Zealand's Top 30. That same year, Together in Concert: Live documented his highly successful tour of New Zealand with Bic Runga and Dave Dobbyn. A second Finn Brothers album, the New Zealand chart-topping Everyone Is Here -- which also hit number two in Australia and number eight in the U.K. -- appeared in 2004. In 2006, following another brief Split Enz reunion, Tim Finn returned with a New Zealand Top 20 entry, Imaginary Kingdom, which also marked his return to Capitol Records. The label also released his eighth solo album, 2008's intimate The Conversation. It was produced by Daniel Lanois mentee Ethan Allen (Better Than Ezra, Melissa Ferrick) and featured appearances by former Split Enz violinist Miles Golding and keyboardist Eddie Rayner. After leaving Capitol, Finn signed with ABC Music/UMA for 2011's The View Is Worth the Climb, which included three tracks written with his wife, onetime MTV host Marie Azcona. (Their son Harper Finn went on to become a singer/songwriter in his own right.) Finn's next large project was a musical adaptation of Madeleine St. John's 1993 novel The Women in Black, about the independent-minded employees of a women's clothing store in the 1950s. The musical, titled Ladies in Black, featured music and lyrics by Finn and a book by Carolyn Burns. It premiered in Brisbane in late 2015 before moving to Melbourne early the next year. It won a 2016 Helpmann Award (Australian Tonys) for Best New Australian Work, and Finn was nominated alone for his score. Following in 2021, Caught by the Heart reunited Finn with Phil Manzanera. Produced by them both, it was recorded while isolating during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and spanned a wide range of styles (rock, chamber music, pop, reggae, Latin). Just a year later, they returned with the follow-up, The Ghost of Santiago.
© Marcy Donelson & Chris Woodstra /TiVo