The Finns are coming!

Through happy accidents and genuine interaction with their audience, Neil and Liam Finn are reinventing one another’s songs in an intimate setting.

Father Neil made his breakthrough beside his brother Tim in the New Zealand band Split Enz, and in Crowded House he made the finest pop gems of the pre-grunge age. His solo career and regular reunions keep his releases lively and new. His son Liam often joins him and occasionally also brings along solo records of his own. After several duo shows in LA earlier this year, they will now perform together in Brussels and London. These intimate family concerts – Liam’s brother Elroy and mother Sharon join them to play drums and bass – were prepared on a family holiday in Greece, where we were allowed to interrupt their enjoyable routine of singing, swimming, and wrestling.

The tour was announced with the video to “Wrestle with Dad”.
Liam Finn: That is the tongue-in-cheek final track of my solo record The Nihilist, which was released last year.
Neil Finn: Like many fathers and sons, we enjoy wrestling one another. I taught Liam a few judo techniques when he was a child, and he picked them up very fast. At first, we wanted to stage a traditional fight with the right outfits, but because we couldn’t find any, we just battled it out topless.

Loudon Wainwright III wrote the song “Rufus Is a Tit Man” because his son Rufus loved breastfeeding from his mother so much. Have you ever written a song about Liam?
Neil: No, but when he was a baby I got him to sleep with the Split Enz song “The Devil You Know”. It is on Conflicting Emotions and I still play it live.
Liam: [Teasing] It still works today!

The Wainwright family often perform together as well.
Neil: It’s in the genes. I grew up singing with my cousins and brothers. And I was able to turn my hobby into my job. 50% nature and 50% nurture: I really believe in that.
Liam: Those blood ties help you to intuit and understand each other better on stage.
Neil: It is especially striking in these concerts because we perform in such intimate spaces. A lot of people “experience” music via their smartphones. Concerts are often only seen on enormous video walls. By contrast, unexpected things can still happen during our shows thanks to the direct interaction with the audience.

Liam, was the name Finn a heavy burden to carry?
Liam: Not at all, I’m proud to be able to contribute to the catalogue of Finn music. I soon discovered that rebelling against my parents, who had always supported me, was completely pointless. Whenever I did do anything annoying, they just said “Good job!” and I thought “Dammit!”
Neil: Liam only rebelled by growing a beard.

What about the plans for a new Crowded House album?
Neil: I’m doing what I always do: writing songs. What exactly happens with them depends on the musicians you share them with. The Crowded House album Time On Earth (2007) was a solo album until one month before it was completed. I realise that it is often difficult for fans to know what’s going on, but I enjoy the variety. The performance in Brussels will be very special. We’ll be playing hits, songs that we have barely performed over the past few years, recent work, and even some Split Enz songs from before Liam was born. We probably won’t play the “The Devil You Know”, though. It would only put him to sleep. (Chuckle)

NEIL & LIAM FINN
18/9, 19.30, Botanique, www.botanique.be