Neil Finn:  Friends & Family Welcome

By Jennifer Scott

Neil Finn has learnt an important lesson making solo albums - collaborators canmake you sound better!

"The old collaboration thing is just so appealing. Being completely on your own, I don't think you generally come up with the good stuff as you do with someone in the room that you're trying to impress. You reach for different things because you've got somebody else giving you something foreign, so you respond to that and it brings new things out of yourself. I'm firmly convinced that everybody's better off with somebody else than they are completely on their own."

There are plenty of helping hands on his second solo album, 'One Nil', yet with his distinctive voice and incomparable talent for melody there is no doubt whose talent drives the album, released on EMI at the end of March.

One name that litters talk about 'One Nil' is Wendy Melvoin. The US-based musician is one half of former Prince cohorts Wendy & Lisa. (Lisa Coleman also features on 'One Nil'). The duo released two albums as Wendy & Lisa and have worked on film soundtracks. Melvoin has also worked with Seal and k.d. lang.

A chance meeting with Melvoin in Los Angeles soon revealed her many musical talents to Finn.

"I met her through Tchad Blake who's an old friend of the family and longterm
producer dude. I met her in the studio just by chance when I was in there one day. A little later on Wendy and I sat around with guitars at Tchad's place and wrote a song which is Secret God on the record. I thought 'Well that's pretty good, that doesn't happen everyday with anybody', and she plays drums, bass and guitar equally as definitively, so I thought she'd be great to work with on the album. She came down to Auckland and it was just her and I to start off with then Tchad joined a little later with (guitarist) Jim Moginie.

"I don't know if she's done anything yet with Bob Dylan but he rang her up a while ago inviting her to come over and have a play. That would be a good
afternoon wouldn't it? Going over and playing with Bob," adds Finn.

Melvoin's contribution was primarily musical, a contrast from Finn's experience writing with brother Tim.

"Every time you write with somebody it's a different dynamic and people bring different things to the table but with Wendy it was was definitely a musicianly kind of thing. I was doing the melodies and lyrics and we were collaborating on the music, on the chords and riffs and progressions and things like that. With Tim it's more of an even-handed thing really, both throwing lines and humming melodies at each other."

Also encouraging Neil Finn to push his musical boundaries was producer Tchad Blake.

"He has an approach, and not many people do. He has a way of looking at everything you're doing, and he gets really excited about bending it out of shape somehow, never really taking the most obvious route with it - whether it's a sonic thing or an arrangement thing - he's great like that ... not that he's always right! It's good to have someone going 'Yeah but if you turn that ribbon and you put the bass drum on three instead of one you get this great half tone', you know, he's really good with those kind of things. And he gets a really big crunchy sound - I love it."

The album was mainly recorded at Finn's home studio, Roundhead, in his Parnell basement and at Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles last year, with a final session at Auckland's Revolver Studios "... to make sure we'd covered everything well."

The benefits of having a well-equipped home studio (Finn has a 24-track Euphonix desk and Pro Tools set-up with a collection of "nice mics" and various instruments he has picked up over the years) is that you are making music on your own clock, something Finn says is crucial to creativity.

"More than anything else, I think you're just trying to follow the grain of whatever you're on and be in the moment in the studio. A lot of the time you get caught up in how to perfect things and you're not actually doing what you want to be doing that day. You're just trying to fix notes or polish something which sounded good yesterday but doesn't sound so good today.

"I think the best thing you can do in the studio is to be in the moment, and if you are not enjoying a piece of music on the day be prepared to leave it until you are. Follow whatever mood you're in and you'll get better music that way.
Whether it's doing something brand new or taking the bass track of a song that you've worked on and rejected and going 'Well, this is not working but I really like that bassline so let's see if we can do something with that' and sticking it into a loop or something and all of a sudden you've got a different song. Those kind of tangents and diversions to me make much more interesting records."

This love of tangents extended to recent live forays, including auditioning and playing with strangers on a nationwide orientation tour (NZM reviewer Tony Parker was one of the chosen few - click here for his story) and a sell-outweek long concert season at Auckland's St James Theatre with international guests.

As an album, 'One Nil' tells the story of where Finn is at professionally and
personally so much more than my half hour of questioning could do. There is genuine feeling of un-smug and unpretentious contentment conveyed in the songs, particularly towards his wife, Sharon, and their family - dogs included. The video for first single Rest Of The Day Off, features Finn walking his dogs along Auckland's Piha beach and waltzing on the sand with Sharon. It's casual but heartfelt, and put into music, compelling.

Helping achieve this intimate feel is a prevalence of female voices on the album, including Sharon Finn, Melvoin, Coleman, Sheryl Crow and Lisa Germano. Driving Me Mad, featuring Crow, leaps out as being an obvious hit single, Crow's contribution understated and used as a tool to colour the song rather than a Gwyneth and Huey type duet.

"There are a lot of women on the record, lots of women's voices. I really enjoyed having women in the studio - not just because they're women but because of the atmosphere created by having a balance. It's been a very male world for me up to that point, I've always worked with other men and I sit comfortably with other men with music. But I just think it is a healthy atmosphere when women are around. Especially as you get older, you don't crave that boys club at all. For a lot of young bands, that's what's part of the thing is to be the boys out together and be a bit of a gang kind of thing."

Finn says he feels 'One Nil' is a more connected album than his first solo effort, 1998's 'Try Whistling This'.

"As a musical journey it was very good, (but) it was a bit convoluted and I think this record, in a way, is more consistent, more of an even record because I've not been chasing so many different approaches, I've narrowed the field a bit. The first time I had so many options and I went down quite a lot of different paths. I think there's some very successful moments on it but overall it's probably a little schizophrenic."

He estimates that 'Try Whistling This' sold about half a million copies worldwide - less than the last Crowded House album but a figure he was satisfied with as a first solo effort. He says he expects 'One Nil' to surpass this.

"I feel good about it and I think it is a definite step forward for me. I'm already, in my head, considering the next album and in that regard it's been good, I feel positive about playing music. I think this year's shaping up as a very interesting year which I think will help the next album. So I'm happy with it. In terms of sales expectations, I have no real way of judging that other than I'll go out and put my hand up and say 'I did this' and try and get people to listen to it. I would expect that it will potentially sell more than the last one but that remains to be seen."

Being so well known has its ups and downs when it comes to releasing new material. There will be some people who will snap up the new album because it has the Finn moniker on it. There may be others who will pass it by for the same reason.

"It's a blessing and a curse because it's easy for people either to like you or hate you, or they might have the Crowded House albums and the last album and feel like they don't need this one. But that familiarity also works for you because a lot of people look forward to a new record because they kind of catch up on another chapter if they've brought into it.

"I sense that there's a really lovely feeling amongst those people that write in to me at the website. I think the general reason that people are interested in what I do - and that I'm really flattered by - is really musical and not, at this point, based on anything other than that they've made a real connection to the songs. You just feel great about that. What more could you want?"

One Nil Gear
Slingerland drumkit (picked up for $700)
Hofner & Fender P Basses
Harmony Bass y Gibson Gold-top guitar
Gretsch Firebird duo jet y Matchless and Fender Twin amps
Various keyboards including Wurlitzer, Hammond, piano
Ukulele