WOMAD: Tim Finn

Thu 25th Feb, 2010 in Features

Tim Finn is returning to Adelaide to play WOMAD after the success of North, South, East, West… Anthology album and tour last year. Apart from a few scattered dates this year Adelaide gets to feast on another two per\formances from Neil Finn this coming weekend.

Being the early stages of 2010 do you spend much time thinking about what you would like to do and achieve? “Um, not really! This year particularly, given I’ve put out the Anthology CD out just before Christmas and touring Australia and New Zealand with that marks a pause for me as I’ve done eight solo albums and eight albums with Split Enz. It’s not like I’d do anything else but I’d like to let it just float for a couple of months, which is a nice feeling really.”

Do you this period as a sabbatical? “In some ways yes, there is still some song writing going on but I’m not madly driven to rush in to another album just yet. I’m looking for more of a collaborative thing coming together organically with someone at sometime.”

So there are no plans for a Finn Brothers album at some stage? “Not this year, we both want to do another one but it is a bit hard to say when.”

I was reading another interview, which quoted you as saying the Anthology tour was up there as some of the best shows you’ve ever played, what made them so great? “I have a wonderful band and they are a band I’ve been playing with for a little while. It was great having Eddie Raynor coming out as well to play keys. We were able to do the Enz songs in their full glory. I think it was that connection with the crowd and digging in to the whole thirty five years and it was a fun, celebratory feel in the audience.”

Given the Anthology tour was so popular would you do it again? “I’m sure there’s going to be some more scattered dates such as WOMAD and we’d be looking at a few more. The tour I did recently were at some really great venues like The Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide, which I’ve never played before and some nice theatres in Melbourne and Sydney. I’d like to think I could do that tour every eighteen months or so and I’m up for playing songs throughout my thirty five year career. I like to do that show and that’s what people expect of me.”

Touring with Bic Runga and Dave Dobbins will make for some very special moments? “Definitely, there’s a lot of good chemistry between us and we did a tour together ten years ago, I can’t believe it’s almost ten years ago but it was really successful in the winter of 20000. Our mum was sick during that tour and passed away soon after so that will always be inextricably linked with an emotional time. It wasn’t sad somehow, mum came to a show six weeks before she died and it’s quite astonishing she did that. It was emotional and I felt very connected to that tour and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”

Do you think working with these people may lend itself to an album? “I’ve only half seriously talked about that with Dave. The whole idea of only having to come up with three or four songs each is really appealing because we can work fast and more of the sort of project I’m looking towards this year or running in to the following year. I’d be up for it but I’m not sure about the other two.”

When you said you’re happy to let things float, what else would you do to fill in time until you get in to album mode again? “My writing is done at home and I try and integrate that with family life, I’m a dad now and our kids are still young and I’m doing school drops and picking them up. Being available after three in the afternoon is something that I like with routine and family life so I fit writing around that. Obviously touring is a lot more disruptive and I don’t do a huge amount, probably only two or three weeks at a time. I’ve finally found that balance in my life at last and it works both ways as I love being a dad and I find that I’m more productive when I write.”

Tickets are selling like hotcakes to WOMADelaide 2010 and are available from Venuetix.