Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn was born on May 27, 1958 in Te Awamutu, a small town near Hamilton in the volcanic regions of New Zealand. His father, Richard, was a farmer's accountant, and his mother, Mary, was a Catholic daughter of an Irish farmhand. Neil has three siblings: Carolyn, Tim and Judy. Growing up, one of Neil's early dreams was to become a priest, but soon he got interested in music. He learned to play the piano and his parents encouraged him to sing with his brother Tim at their parties. When Neil was 12 years old he decided to become a musician. While studying at Sacred Heart College (a Catholic boarding school) and later at Te Awamutu College, he performed his music in prisons, hospitals and clinics in his hometown. While a teenager, Neil found an outlet for his music by joining the All'n Some Folk Club, which allowed Neil the chance to play with other musicians and write his own music.
In 1976, Neil quit school and began working as a hospital orderly in Auckland, and formed a group called After Hours. Other members of After Hours were Mark Hough (a.k.a. Buster Stiggs), later a member of Swingers, Geoff Chunn, a former member of Split Enz, and Alan Brown. After Hours' debut gig was in Auckland on March 15, 1977. In the audience was Geoff Chunn's older brother Mike, the bassist with Split Enz. He was in New Zealand to ask guitarist Alastair Riddell to replace the recently departed Phil Judd in Split Enz. Around two weeks later, Neil got a phone call from his brother Tim in London. Alastair Riddell had turned the offer down, and Mike Chunn had suggested Neil Finn to be the new member of Split Enz. Chunn was impressed by Neil's abilities as a singer and a songwriter and believed that he had potential as a guitarist. Neil arrived in London on April 7, 1977 to join Split Enz.
Neil spent seven years with the group and brought a fresh perspective to the songwriting. He penned many of the band’s major hits, most notably "I Got You", which virtually catapulted the Enz from obscurity to international fame. It was the biggest selling Australian Single that year and received the "Song of the Year" award at the ARIA's, Australia's biggest music award. When his brother Tim left Split Enz for a solo career in 1984, Neil briefly considered to keep Split Enz going, but eventually decided that it would be better to start from scratch with a new group. After a farewell album and a farewell tour in Australia and New Zealand, Neil, Paul Hester (Split Enz's last drummer) and Melbourne bassist Nick Seymour went on to form a new group originally called "The Mullanes." They moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and stayed in a cramped North Hollywood home while shopping for a record label, which inspired a name change to Crowded House.
Armed with producer Mitchell Froom and a record deal from Capitol, the band wrote and recorded what was to be their biggest commercial success. Their self-titled debut launched their most successful single "Don’t Dream It’s Over," which reached #2 on the US Billboard charts in 1987. This album was followed in 1988 by "Temple of Low Men," which drew rave reviews from the critics. In 1989, while Neil simultaneously worked on both the next Crowded House album and a project with his brother, Tim suggested a merging of Crowded House and the Finn Brothers projects, combining the best songs from both. Tim joined Crowded House for their 1991 album "Woodface" and the following tour. "Weather With You" broke Crowded House into the UK market, reaching #7 on their charts, and "Woodface" went triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in Australia.
Over the summer of 1992 and 1993, Neil returned to his native New Zealand along with Crowded House to record "Together Alone," the band's fourth and final studio album. Tim left before this album and Crowded House gained a new official band member, Mark Hart. In 1994, Crowded House won the much-coveted Q magazine award for Best International Act, beating out U2, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. After the Together Alone tour, Neil returned home to New Zealand where he spent time with Tim working on the Finn Brothers sessions again. The result was 1995's "Finn," an album which the brothers produced and played all their own instruments.
In 1996, Neil participated in Eddie Rayner's ENZSO project (the symphonic orchestration of the music of Split Enz). Not long after the decision to break up Crowded House, the band released "Recurring Dream," a compilation of greatest hits, live tracks, and three songs that had been written and recorded for what would have been a fifth studio album. Crowded House said "Farewell To The World" with a huge concert for charity in Sydney, Australia on November 24, 1996.
Neil spent most of 1997 in his basement studio, writing for his first solo release "Try Whistling This." He recorded the album in New York City in December 1997, collaborating with Sebastian Steinberg and Yuval Gabay from Soul Coughing. Neil debuted his new solo material on Paul Hester's "Hessie's Shed" show in Melbourne on April 2, 1998, featuring the first live performance in Australia of "She Will Have Her Way."
His latest solo album and second solo release is "One Nil", which
was released in 2001 in Australia. Neil remixed some of the songs
and changed two tracks for the American release of the album in 2002 called
"One All." Currently, Neil and his brother Tim are working on
their second Finn album which is expected to release in 2004.
Neil still brings a unique warmth and emotion to his music that has captivated listeners for twenty years and counting. Just as he has picked up new fans with every project, "Try Whistling This" and "One Nil" are sure to introduce and re-introduce Neil Finn to music lovers around the world. Neil Finn lives in Melbourne, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand, with his wife Sharon (whom he married on February 13, 1982) and their sons Liam Mullane (born on September 24, 1983) and Elroy Timothy (born on October 25, 1989) and their
new dog Miller, a Dalmatian. Their previous dog, Lester, also a Dalmatian
whom Neil wrote a song about, sadly died in 2002.
*Note: This info was originally written by Stefan Warnqvist.