‘It’s that blood harmony sound’: Tim Finn is still keeping it in the family
Half a century into his musical career, Tim Finn doesn’t mind playing the hits. Returning to Adelaide to perform alongside his daughter Elliot, the Split Enz and Crowded House veteran is moved that his songs have soundtracked the big moments of people’s lives.
It’s been a while between Adelaide visits for Tim Finn, and the Kiwi music legend knows it.
“It’s been a long time — Split Enz played their reunion tour more than 10 years ago now. I literally haven’t played solo there for many, many years, either in the late ’80s or the early ’90s was the last time.
“I don’t know why because Split Enz always came to Adelaide back in the day — we had a following there and we used to play at the Arkaba.”
Now the 72-year-old is making up for lost time with a headline set at the 10th — and potentially final — Adelaide Beer & BBQ festival. Headlining alongside psych rockers Wolfmother and pub rock trio The Chats, it’s a festival and lineup he admits he wasn’t entirely familiar with at first.
“But I looked them up and I thought there’s guitars and storytelling and songwriting going on here and so I jumped on and it’s a chance to play in Adelaide,” he says.
Spread across the King’s Birthday long weekend, the festival will showcase local brewers including Pirate Life, Coopers, Prancing Pony, and Big Shed Brewing, along with wrestling, BMX and skateboarding demonstrations, axe throwing and more. Finn is also joined on the lineup by a roster of Oz rock mainstays including Custard, Rocket Science and a Henry Wagons-led Johnny Cash tribute, along with local acts Mondo Psycho, Pelvis and Free Golf.
These days Finn is primarily based in New Zealand, but he and his TV-presenter wife Marie Azcona split their time between there and Sydney. At 72, Finn says he feels “pretty fit” and swims every day.
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“Naturally, as you get into your 70s, you start to think about your mortality more,” he says. “And I think that’s probably a good thing, you know, to remind yourself life is precious.”
Finn says he’s been fortunate with music, having started playing at school in his mid-teens. It was a few years later, when he met the “like-minded souls” who would later form Split Enz, that he gained the confidence to throw everything into music.
“I didn’t know it would last, you know, and I didn’t know the songs would last,” he says. “I mean, when Split Enz broke up, it was all the way back in 1984 and I remember this radio guy said to me that these songs will still be getting played on radio in 20 years time. Well, here we are 40 years later.
“They are still out there in the ether, you know, like Six Months in a Leaky Boat or Dirty Creature or Poor Boy or Weather With You from Crowded House. These songs are really old now, but it seems like as time goes by, they become more rich to the crowd, just layers and layers of meaning.
"It’s tremendously moving, because those are big moments in those people’s lives with our songs."
“People say, ‘We played that at a wedding, we played that at my sister’s funeral’, or something like that. It’s tremendously moving, because those are big moments in those people’s lives with our songs.
While some rock veterans baulk at being expected to “play the hits”, Finn counts himself lucky that he can “dip in and out” of his Split Enz, Crowded House, and earlier solo eras like his 1983 debut Escapade.
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“Playing shows where I play all the hits, it’s just such a great vibe between me and the crowd,” he says.
“It was probably about 25 years ago, I started to realise that that’s what it’s all about. When you play, it’s not about, ‘Well, here’s my new record’. It’s about, ‘Let’s find those songs that we both know and let’s have a hell of a lot of fun doing them together.’
“You change as you get older in those kinds of regards. You know, you realise that playing live is really all about that joy, that happiness that you’re creating in that moment, whatever you can use to bring that.
“It’s not just nostalgia, because people hear the songs and they think, ‘Oh, I remember that when I was in the ’80s or the ’90s’. It’s not just that, it’s actually what’s happening right there and then.”
The passage of time will also be evident when Finn takes to the Beer and BBQ stage joined by his 22-year-old daughter, Elliot. It’s the latest chapter in a family tradition that dates back nearly half a century, when Tim’s brother Neil first joined Split Enz in 1977. The brothers later collaborated as the duo The Finn Brothers, and during Tim’s short stint in Neil’s band Crowded House.
Tim Finn performs alongside his daughter Elliot at Woodford Folk Festival in 2014. She’ll join him again in Adelaide next month. Photo: Christian Bowman / Creative Commons
“She doesn’t play with me very often but occasionally she’ll get up and sing,” Finn says of Elliot. “She knows all the songs and she’s got a lovely voice so it will be nice because our voices intertwine really nicely.”
Finn says he’s been listening to Elliot sing from an early age.
"She knows all the songs and she’s got a lovely voice so it will be nice because our voices intertwine really nicely."
“She would sing in the car, and she’d sing along with things, and I just watched it develop. It’s been wonderful,” he says.
“And so when we actually learn songs together and do harmonies that weave in and out, it’s just that blood harmony sound, you can’t beat it. I mean, I sing with Neil, obviously, and that’s the same but different, but it’s that similar blood harmony sound.
“Our son, Harper, is a good singer as well. I’ve sung with him, so it’s very special. And you know, there’s something about a father-daughter relationship that is really special.”
Tim Finn will perform at Adelaide Beer & BBQ festival on Sunday June 8 at Adelaide Showground