people come to me and say that um I proposed to my wife when I was listening when we were listening to you know better be home soon or something and I said how's the marriage going they go really really well I go yes every now and again they say oh I've got my got got another wife [Music] now Neil Finn it's so good to see you again nice to be here I love the fact that we get to talk semi- regularly when you're ready to to put something new out
and oh man you know at this point in life I'm just grateful we're still here and able to celebrate you in music you know me too yeah music just means more and more to me all the time now it seems pretty special in this world because
it's just almost the only thing that just about everybody on the planet agrees on that music is good I agree I agree and it's to me it's also really important because it's it's one of the only unobstructed points of view in the
Modern Age exactly yeah um and it's not curated in terms of people's personal experience with it as well you just and that's why people feel so they hang on to their their Collections and so zealously and and the connections they
make with other fans and and the memories they connected to these songs too I've been seeing this with my mom in her dementia that the best communication we have is when music is playing my wife's mother has unfortunately got
quite Advanced demen I went to there I'm sorry um Care Facility the other day and with my guitar and played before we left Oakland and played some songs for them and man music just W woke that whole room up boom the eyes open up and they're in the room you know they don't necessarily know family members but they know the words to the songs that they learned when they were kids and it's actually phenomenal really there's some
power there that they could tap into yet and uh you know it could it could power your home at some point And yet when we all start this beautiful Journey you know to into the world of the Arts in particular for you and I
into music we have no idea what's in store we have no idea the power of the magic of it it's all Instinct at that point when you're young isn't it you drawn to it but as you get older you do understand what the term gravity stairs
means and ultimately what it is it it's such a great mystery that that's what keeps me interested in it really cuz I've figured out some stuff and my I've got a better observational ability nowadays about spotting where the potential gold lies but I still don't know where it comes from or how it happens just turning up yeah that's beautiful man I mean the more we go on the less we know and the more we give into that I think and um this album has
that has that real thread running through it I mean there is also sense of of self-awareness and I think um a better understanding of One's Own purpose it it starts very much that way um I begin to sense my own weight walking up the gravity stairs this is a powerful opening statement for the album and a beautiful sense of mortality is laid before us I feel yeah just the force of will um that should be applied or you try to apply it every day and
it's not just for music but for me personally that is the there is a real set of stairs the gravity stairs that we we have walked up and down many times um some times late at night after an extended visit to the TNA down below and
and they just feel like they've got some kind of extra iron deposit underneath them who they doubly hard to climb up and especially after a few yeah especially after a few but there's this um quite often people playing music at
the top because lovely Terrace that we have and there's bazookis or guitars and stuff and as you're walking up you hear these little bell tones coming out and uh that's what's referred to in the song as well there's the incentive to get to that elevated space um takes more effort as as time goes on I just love the idea of whoever's up there just jamming away playing stairway sees Neil Finn get to the top it's like holy
Stakes just got higher didn't they you know we better bring out weather with you real fast we had some parties we've had some good parties up there and some good guests um yeah uh but yeah the term got applied to these
stairs and I just always it just always resonated for me and I thought it was indicative of the the the force of will of getting out and making music and doing doing anything worthwhile you know and where does that come from Neil like
at this point in your life when and I'm not saying that you're not motivated to continue to live we all want to make the most of the time we have I feel the same way but when it comes to making albums versus when you started in there's a whole lot of different mechanics pushing you and pulling you where does the force of will to get up and say to the guys hey we should make music right now like do you know where it comes from well I
just think it's the it's the joy of Discovery um exploration and and the moment where you know often it's when I'm sitting in my room on my own and I've had a little breakthrough on a s I'm working on and I've got a tape and
I'm playing it back to myself at the end of the night loud soft you know used when tape I used to go half speed double speed and just Revel in that something that didn't exist um a few hours ago now as a living entity of some sort it's
pretty compulsive you know that's where that force of will comes from it's such a beautiful moment and and time for the band um you've had great Triumph you've been through real Challenge and some tragedy and I think to get to a point to make an album like this where you've got you know your son's in the band you and Nick he's come and gone you guys are Rock Solid it just must feel like a beautiful time to celebrate everything
that is crowded house but not have to celebrate what was Crowded House to be contemporary still we very much feel like a contemporary band now because we're getting better and I think the exciting thing about this lineup is that
it always um you know demonstrated potential um having Liam and alroy who had already gathered quite a lot of their own experience and but also come with quite a lot of their own viewpoints and they still developing as musicians
and having Mitchell who released from his role as a producer is now a a you know a jamming uh musician and and I have to remind him every now and again that we don't have to decide everything on the first time we playing a song He's already divided up the second verse and where it should change and I'm going just play the play the keyboard we have a producer mchet just enjoy it and um cuz when he jams he's he's a master you know he's got the best
um instincts and lateral thoughts and everything and I try not to get him to concentrate too much you know but there's it's just huge potential we really sense it and we're starting to jam on stage and trust each other in a
way that takes a while you just have to put some hours on the you know on the board and uh we just becoming a real hot band and we're going to go this time we get to put a record out and go straight out and represent like last time last
time it was a very strange disconnected thing yeah but it was probably good in a way for the looking back on it maybe you tell me to let the boys find their feet in the band from within the family Homestead with quarantine was very tough
and and we all know that Co was a life-changing experience for everybody from absolute tragedy down to discomfort and anxiety right no one escaped it but there were things about it that ultimately I think For Better or For
Worse allowed everybody to take some time and do you think having that time on the last album allowed the boys to find their creative space and Crowded House for real without going on the road and becoming hectic it was a a dichotomy of Co was that and I wouldn't want to be glib about it cuz some people just had a miserable time and but I did enjoy certain parts of um you know the being able to di dive into music together they
were we were all in the same area we were you know visiting each other every day we were doing little broadcast things on um I had a thing called fang radio going and Liam had a cool sound going the studio so we were really
developing quite a lot as you as you say which we might not have had the chance on the road you do get the the gigs obviously but there's something about sort of squirreling away in your own space well you know when you're on the
road and you're trying to fit into a band even even if it's a band that you know is is kind of founded by your dad and so no one knows each other better than family but still I think that when people join a band and they don't get a chance to have unbridled creative experience in an enclosed environment and there's more of that road time you still feel a bit like a highed hand for a while it's hard not to feel like I
kind of am just am I just a touring member here even though I'm in the Band like psychology is interesting right and a particularly complex because of family dynamic as well you know to get over that feeling that I'm in Dad's band or
you know I got my two sons there um that was very valuable time as you as you say because we were really getting in detail into arrangements for um songs and helping each other finish songs um which we may not have done had the you
know the touring thing started you don't I don't generally write very much on tour I get little ideas but it's hard to see through things and uh we were able to do that in all of that you know undistracted time so yeah I think you're I think you're right we became um tighter musically and we sort of got over the hump of it being uh a a family band we walk into rehearsal now and I really don't think about any everybody's contributing
everybody's putting ideas forward um so there's the you know obviously every family there's occasional time where there's a you know a long hard stare that that hits you right in the stomach but um you know uh it it doesn't happen too often I wonder whether or not there was moments for you where um you had to redirect your reaction or your instinct to respond to suggestions ideas or even or you know everyone has something that
in any Community environment where if they really believe in it they're going to take the pass out of their pocket and they're like no no no every part of my instinct is telling me we need to try this or we don't do this and I'm sure
it's been really valuable for you to sort of take your hands off the wheel even in that environment more than in with people that aren't necessarily family where it's like all right you know yeah no it's tremendous to have
that kind of support and it's it's a deep knowledge and understanding that they have because they grew up with it and Mitchell too you know he he was there at the very beginning of crowded house so and Nick everyone I trust everyone's Viewpoint I mean we don't always agree but it's incredibly valuable to know what they're thinking and that's what band should be about really um and I'm forthright with my opinions and in a way because most of
the songs of mine I'll I'll make some of the calls you know in the end but it was amazing because we were on this record we were sending files to each other from different part points of the globe um to finish and I was with the uh our
producer and engineer Steven at home kind of doing the finishing touches to the to the record and and a lot of things were changing at that point and the guys were sort of scratching their heads on a few occasions but we I think
got really obsessed with allowing everybody's Viewpoint right at the end um so the the numbers of remixes being done uh Mitchell would would would say I don't understand what you've done in the second verse that part doesn't seem to work so well now so stepen and going and fix that send it back and you know there was a real inclusiveness of it and nobody lost touch with the record you know I didn't run away with it yeah so
somehow that that relationship was preserved and everyone feels now very connected to every decision on the record you can hear it in the playing you can hear it in the right oh you can for sure I hear a band I there are times
when I've heard you step out in front of crowded house a little bit more just as a fan of the band and I really hear a band playing right from the beginning let's talk about the sbom gravity stairs it it 100% deserves a deep it's a
stunning 11 song Crowded House record it's interesting but never to trying too hard to be interesting it's very naturally interesting the way you've taken the songs and the production I mean even a song like magic piano which
starts the album to me is like just a beautiful wonderful unbridled kind of psychedelic little journey into the in in inner workings of a human being you know at the end ofie you're like wow I think I think I know this person you
know a little can you explain he who he is to me please yeah cuz that's I'm saying I'm not sure I know him but I I like him you know well that that's a is I'm really very fond of that song and and it deserves its place at the top of
the album because it was the first song we recorded and for some reason we decided to dig in we were at in Byron Bay about to start an Australian tour and we went in for an exploratory session in a little studio called Music
Farm up there um we didn't really know or have expectations we would necessarily get much and for some unknown reason we delved into one of the more complex songs of my demos took us 2 days to learn yeah but it enabled Steven
to get a really really good sound on the floor cuz we had all this practice time and um and we just really enjoyed getting around it sort of uh became this big sprawling Jammy kind of sound sound especially at the end and we sort of
discovered a new way of playing in the midst of it somehow and what way uh you know Nick's Bas got super sort of floral and but in a cool way and Li was so they were doing little dance guitar and bass together and what you hear on that track apart from the vocals which I redid um is pretty much the band playing on the floor with a couple of small additions but um it sounds like quite a sophisticated Arrangement but it's
actually that's the sound of the band that's cool what a great way to start a record what AED step we were excited when we heard it back it just was uh there was M little bit of magic to lead us on and the other songs weren't as
complicated though were we but it gave us great uh incentive but they but they live beautifully in the shadow of that of that song it's not like oh that's a standout interesting Arrangement and production experiment and now we're
going to go into a rock solid Crowded House record it's like I feel the album does actually bask in the in the the the Shadow or the the shade of magic piano all the way through well I would agree um I think that it set the tone for the record and um people have said that it's a there's a dreamy at sort of semi psychedelic atmosphere that runs through the the record it's not something we ever discussed but it was something that
was kind of laid out by that first track a little a little bit um and so we were you know we were excited about um having layers and atmospheres um through the record there's a song like uh you know blackwat um white circle that's a really dreamy uh uh we are becoming more interested in layers and textures Mitchell is very is brilliant in that regard he'll lay out for longer than you would expect him to and all of a sudden
a little sound will pop out it just gives that extra Dimension to the listening experience you know you know there's also some of the most you know direct and Brilliant pop moments I've heard from you in a while teenage
Summers just an outright Smasher and um you know lady Hawk helping out with some background vocals which is cool and it just it's hard to explain what this song means to me but you will get it someone said to me in an interview yesterday
what do you miss about New Zealand and I because I haven't lived there for like a long time and I said um I miss New Zealand's ability to be able to somehow take the entire summer off or at least the feeling that you can take two months off in the middle of the summer and not really do the job you do normally to the same degree and just extend this it's like we sort of check out it's annoying sometimes when you need to get you know
need to doctor's visit in late December or early you know January forget about it forget about it don't get sick at that time of the year I'm really only working Tuesdays and Wednesdays till mid-February you know what I it's kind
of hilarious and I feel like and I feel like we've always when I was growing up everything centered around around the summer cuz this is also a little known fact about New Zealand is for the rest of the year it can be really
miserable and and unpredictable and grumpy yeah and and people get D pretty down down on things in the winter yeah a lot of rain we're not built for it you know it's get gets cold we don't really have probably do now when I was growing
up it was like still radiator heaters hangover of that Commonwealth British approach to dealing with cold and I'm like what is this no houses are even insulated that's what I'm saying pink bats ain't going to do it they get
well they're getting on to it now but yeah some of those houses there really cold you're really cold right so so we would hang out for the summer I've got a point here we'd all hang out for the summer and some would happen and you get
these advertisements for whatever the you know ice cream is where there Rachel Hunter in the back of a you know the back of a VDB you know to the Eternal Sunshine of the three month summer and you've made a song that
just it was like I was in a DeLorean experience and just like back to my my youth you smashed it I mean can you tell us a story about making that because it really is that sound of New Zealand Summit to me it has conjured up some
Nostalgia for a few people I've talked to about it actually uh and and I you know which I'm not normally I'm not don't like bathing in Nostalgia but it is good it's to have a bit of Yearning uh and it's more about an attitude
really anyway than you know thinking I wish I was back there it's about it ain't Boys of Summer it's a in a slightly New Zealand version version Boys of Summer yeah we're not I don't mention rayb bands um I I think the the song Grew
From a really strange if you heard the very first demo of that song you'd recognize a tiny piece of it but it actually evolved quite a lot and um it had a series of really good Strokes of Fortune a little sound that popped out
little um which I found on the Megatron near the end that actually really powered that that sense of you know anticipation that summer has and what you were referring to you know the the excitement of the last day of school
you know I remember still you know and the smell of Summer and the cut grass and the all those things that the first day of summer is always it never gets better than that first day when you get out of school everything just starts to
slow decline over 2 months until you go back but that first Melancholy sits in sort of towards the end of the holidays but but yeah um yeah and I but isn't it's the same like I think it's the same in a lot of places you know the English when you go to England or or Scotland and and after that desperately Long Winter there you get that first and everyone go lies on the grass there's a kind of a feeling of and soaks the first race and get
totally sunburnt and and pain for two weeks um but it's New Zealand is a little bit more aw of the Sun and not you know putting on the old sunscreen though I remember my my friends used to go back when they had like more flexible
job opportunities they would and up before kids would go back for like three months I'd be stuck in the UK working at the BBC I get like you know like one week summer break you know what I mean there no wonder I really felt sorry
for the people in the UK particularly during the lockdown because pubs when pubs went out I mean it they rely so heavily on that whole cozy Pub sort of it became a stoop party I know a lot of people that would just you would find a way to kind of come together and it was always on a stoop and everyone just had if you had a little stoop outside or a little seat or a little something or a wall it became a little neighborhood
thing but you're right it was very tough it was very tough that's a big important part of getting through the winter over there but I remember in New Zealand when when Co first hit and wasn't the biggest uproar that they when they closed McDonald's there was like a huge uproar in Orland because they' closed to McDonald's I man I was cheering I bet you were I just remember my dad sending me a news report that was like Fury as Orland
closes Donald yeah well the the front page of the herald is sometimes pretty funny like what people get upset about over there yeah and when you think of the state of the world it it's kind of reassuring in a way that it's still
pretty Norm you know normal over there to have you know like there was front page news when Sam Hunt's dog died years ago um Minstrel dies and that was actually quite a sweet moment you know but where else in the world would would
a poet's dog die and it becomes Front Page News you know yeah I think it's beautiful it it was beautiful yeah yeah um and Sam's still going still going yeah amazing I mean New Zealand has poetry as part of its well it certainly
back in the day they had poetry as part of its you know normal um life which I thought was pretty cool as well I don't know if it's like that quite so much now but you know I just always remember that these these people who would who would
um Express themselves were such characters I I remember you know now I've traveled I've seen the idea of poetry it can be such a tasteful experience in in a small club with low light and and the words are amazing and you're enthralled and then you leave these were car these were people you felt were literally roaming the countryside 365 days a year just kind of searching for a audience one or 100 James K Baxter in his bare feet
wandering the country with a yeah his big beard and yeah I don't know I think that's set New Zealand is a very conservative country but in amongst it you can be eccentric like no no other place you know very true um it's very true The Outsiders are always really interesting down there but yeah and it's a long it's still it's a hard winter and it's a lovely time when that summer comes around yeah it really is so working with the with with the boys
getting back to to Liam and alroy who have obviously like everybody on the band but some really strong songwriting credits on here Liam and particular I think you know right a full one uh was it the how or was the H yeah we just
made a video for that actually um coming out and yeah it's a it was a song that I picked up off his of that um little protool selection he he lent me and uh he's done it as well he's done a collection of songs himself he was off
to the side it's it's on his record as well in a slightly different state but we grabbed it and made it a Crowded House song and it's just got an atmosphere that is different again it's opened up a new pathway for us to follow
it must be nice as well when you hear a song and you go that is a Crowded House song and I didn't have to write it and so I get to play it and be a fan of it and it's and it's sits in our collection as a band our Legacy of a band but it's
not a Neil fin copyright yeah I mean Bring it on I I'm looking forward to the day when when they're all bringing when we make the next record yeah which I'm sure we will next I think we're going going to spend 6 weeks in one continuous burst and do it the oldfashioned way because I really enjoy the dynamic and bringing and you know they should bring their best stuff forward El Roy and Liam and I I would look forward to expanding
our Horizons that way you know cuz that's it's that's what's exciting about bands when you feel like every record is a new discovery um I I'm not one of the I'm Restless in that regard I don't like you I'm trying not to repeat and there's always things that you keep going back to because they tickle some nerve that you like having tickled but generally speaking and that's where now the possibilities are endless with these
these other writers and has that been a um a process of growth for you because if I may um present what I would think if there's any kind of misconception about who you've been as a writer throughout your career from real fans
who read the books and read the articles and hear the stories is that you were very you had a singular Vision on what you wanted to write and how you want the songs to come out there was a determination in your process that that
you know was very valid but also a strong opinion strong opinion as you kind of hinted at before has have you gotten better at kind of letting go or did we miss the point all the way through you always like that I I would like to be much courage I had to ask that question I've known Neil Finn for like 40 years he's like one of my biggest Heroes and I finally asked the question I've been wed to ask him for 30 years I'm proud of
myself you let anybody you let anybody else into your process basically yeah I know you do now but you know well no but it isn't easy you know like I I do have a singular idea well actually I don't really know what I'm doing you know I
preface it by saying that U most of the best people don't really know what they're doing they're kind of making it up and relying on instincts and and making judgments all the time playing like a child and you know editing like
an adult is as much as you can explain really and I keep things in a fluid state for as long as I can as well and um in the hope that they'll drop in a really nice order you know some at some point they fall to the ground and it'll
be in the right order and everything will start working but the great thing about having and I letting people in more um in this environment uh than I have done ever before probably but certainly Liam and all of the band
actually are um at Key moments able to inject their um their views and it really helps me not to create something that's got no cracks cuz when you make something yourself you usually cover up all the cracks any flaws you don't want
people to see them adverse yeah but you don't have that choice when somebody else plays on your track that's the way they play is you know opening up a little bit of light so I think that the it's a far more interesting more
textured more you know more dimensional um being the song after everyone's had their go yeah so I'm learning it it's it improves yeah know and then and I'll come in if I don't like something say no I reserve the right yeah I mean I can only change so many spots you know I mean at the end of the day I'll still rip your face off with my claw if I to I yeah no kind of you have to be ruthless at times with music you have to you know
slap it around a little bit and there's a bit of skull duggery and a bit of bluff goes on as well with every song okay we can talk about this now because Tim shows up on one of the most beautiful songs on the album writes SM
dab in the middle I mean it's either the end side one or the starter side 2 but it holds its place by Design there uh called some greater plan for CLA and um so before we get into that song let's just talk about the dynamic between the
two of you and this is for split ends fans and Crowded House fans and Finn brother fans you know is does that say a lot about why you two choose to collaborate at various moments in your time because you work very differently
has he got a different approach to you I think we yeah we do have different approaches and they're quite compatible um when we get together and we we probably should um do it more often why don't you I I don't know just life is go
just goes on and you get involved in things and I feel like you've teased us on and off throughout your whole lives it's like he's in the band ah he's moved on he's doing his other thing and it's never you break up he just comes and go yeah and we'll do something again soon I think we've talked about it got plans we have uh that that song was actually hangover from a musical that we were attempting to write and the lyrics were
completely different but we we rewrote it after Tim reminded me of my dad's War Diaries and um a particular story where he wandered into a ballroom in Florence um the bagioni ballroom after a night out in the Lash with his mates um
towards the end of the war and spied this glamorous looking girl across the other side who he wrote in his diary which she he was way out of my league but I thought I'd ask you to dance and she said yes and they had a glorious
twoe romance at the end of the war in Florence and it was a thing growing up it was like dad's you know wistful other side that the other to his nature and every now and again at a restaurant he'd speak to the the Italian waitress you know in Italian the five words he knew in Italian and Mom would roll her eyes and go I suppose that's what nard used to say was it that was the girl's name NADA and this is a great account in his
diary um so began the song the first verse is very much in that bleon ballroom and then it's a more Universal song uh Tim and I wrote it together so obviously having him sing it with me was a was a a no-brainer and um it was a
beautiful um little session got it very easily and it's a beautiful song and and and I think also the band has brought it to life in a in a wonderful way it feels almost like a a distant relation to Magic Piano in a sense it takes you back
to a more kind of a grander approach to Arrangement and and sound I think well it was recorded in the same session in Byron Bay and um so it did had some of that atmosphere for sure and I think it may have been a first take cuz we we sort of Messed talked about it sometimes you don't but that was a very simple song so we went I yeah this is e that's a simple song to learn so I gave Nick wrote the word the chords out he never
normally does wrote the chords out and we I think we got that first take so that was a really nice it's always a good one to get do you think about if split ends ever goes again or how you feel about the last time that the band
came together in order to honor what you've achieved and do it for fans and make it did it feel like okay we're good like I can I can make peace with this now there's various things happening with split ends at the moment which I'm
really happy about we finally found somebody that um that has got the energy and the vibe to sort of organize our Affairs cuz it's been languishing we' have no manager for years and you know there weird records that are not
available in in in uh some countries and other countries yeah I know cuz I search for them yeah the only record that for a while I would going it was depressing I would going to a record store in the US and find uh best of that we hadn't
approved but it was just you know had all our the hit songs on it but had the worst cover like one of the worst photos of us that you could possibly imagine and it was really really depressing I think the records now because of
streaming they're probably mostly available but um but it's been ignored and sort of left to languish a little and this guy is really helping uh so there'll be various releases happening and some supporting mat and the band are
talking quite a lot so who knows something might even happen wow in the next year I think it should it's like 50 years the thing is like they still wonderfully weird records amazingly strange I don't think there's one straight down the line pop Smasher maybe even one step ahead is weird like it's just it's just you couldn't help yourselves you take us to the top of the pot mountain and then you slide down and it would get all super
dark clown well that was comparatively straight when you listen to the early early stuff like which I have been quite a lot lately the uh mental notes and the beginning of the ends have just the most amazing songs on
them and um they sound really good you know they were well recorded and it's kind of blows my mind that they did the new faces in New Zealand one of those early um you know I guess it's like X Factor in 197 uh two I think 73 was called new
faces they only came in the final I think Phil Warren said that too clever he was right um but those songs they're so sophisticated we played them through actually a few of us got together and played them through and it was a real joy for me to play to play those songs I ever listened to them but I was a devotee to that band and they were my greatest influence you know so before I even joined and I remember the story so
famous I mean you came in as you what you 17 I think I was 18 when I joined the band I got I was a hospital lordly and Tim rang me in Oakland I actually rang Mom first to see it was all right if I could join sweetest thing ever and uh mom said okay rang me I think she rang me and said oh Tim your brother rang and he wants you to join the band so I was in London three days later it was pretty exciting what was the first song you
wrote for them can you remember the first song I wrote with Tim was give it a will yeah for the band yeah and I had been writing a few bits and pieces and I lived with nol and we just in a chy wood just out of London and we were on the
bones of our ass actually eating apple apple crumble morning noon and night for a few days been there but having some quite wild psychedelic moments out there and um and got some really good songs written in that in that environment
became a songwriter there really what was the song that you brought to the band when you real and you saw in them that that they recognize now that they had a real songwriting force in the band do you remember the one that they were
just like holy well I mean give it a world probably was the Revelation because it immediately sounded good and it was a completely different kind of song similar to the way that Liam songs and Eloy stuff is informed a new angle
for the band yeah um I think they understood that there was a new angle emerging there and I mean actually when I got you came along even though I'd written a few by then um yeah that was what was on my mind we did rehearsal
with David tickle and it I when I wrote it I thought the chorus was like I thought that's sort of what the chorus should be like but I'll have to do something better than that cuz it's just corny or something and cuz it does have
like a I don't know I thought it has to be sort of like that but that's just I like the verse you know and I thought the verse is dark sneaky this song is like one of the most jackeline hide pop songs you'll ever hear the start is just like it's like I got you it's creepy and then it gets into the chorus and it's just like woo it's the it just it opens up it's amazing it's like but then when the band played it I it it you
know we all set up and cuz they must made the chorus sound so good it was undeniable I can't believe that I actually thought it needed to be changed but and I and I think we played it in the playroom and the Gold Coast and uh
as we went out before we recorded it and Tim related this to me later he went out the front and listened to it and he kind of had one of those whoa chills up the spine moments God that's something really powerful about it still is it
signaled a new phase for the band but you know in the whole album reflected at things like poor boy and that yeah yeah yeah I just remember I put on a playlist the other day cuz I was searching around for particular type of song to do do a particular type of thing and I was like oh that's going to work brilliantly and I listen to it again and and I listen to SPL all the time I mean I listen to crowd house all the time I listen to a
lot of New Zealand music that's something that's really happened in the last 10 15 years for me as I've rediscovered a lot of albums I loved as a kid from New Zealand and it reminds me just not only how great the art is but
to your point how eccentric we are down there at writing you know and I I put that song on and uh especially when it goes into like I suppose what you'd call the bridge where it's just like strange bridge where am I going here God it's
just so weird but you know you were enormously successful and got to still be weird very few people and you know what's crazy too and then we'll get back to the album because we're halfway through that but you know what's crazy for me too is now I've gotten to know Eddie Vera relatively well getting to know him better finally and love that band just and you probably will will pull pull up from making this observation or maybe you've got enough
self- awareness now to hear it the level of influence not just of your songwriting on on him but also particular split ends on some of those pill Jam records now I just hear it I hear it it's probably not for me to to comment um about that but I know he was a very a very passionate split ends fan and he came to see us we came to see Crowded House play early on our first tour I think when he was just working at a hotel in um San Diego as a night
janitor I think in San Diego yeah uh in fact I was really sick when he came so I didn't really get to hang out with but Nick hung out with him and he came on the bus actually and said hi and crazy this is even probably before he was in pil Jam or before no he hadn't gone to but he made his way onto the but this is a fascinating story because it shows that Eddie for all of his incredible balance of shyness and and wonderful
Charisma still without even being in pill Jam made his way onto the bus he's a real fan of Music in fact if he's a fan of every anything he gets into it big time you know baseball um basketball yeah and bands so the who you
know he his whole house is his whole corner of his house is a shrine to The Who and like you know that's a level of um you know respect and fan worship for things that's you know quite remarkable and it it it you know and he's genuine
with it and he's a really wonderful close friend now so it's um been a good relationship this album man gravity stairs I told you when I saw you for the first time in a long time today straight away how much of a fan of this record I am I I agree with you I feel that it it it opens a whole new era for the band it doesn't feel like an extension of what's come before I almost feel like all roads led to this moment and now this is your
latest point0 whatever you you know what I mean it's like it's you're at 4.0 now this is a whole new thing I mean I'm I'm excited to hear you say so and I've had really strong reactions from quite a few people who I respect so uh we we we
knew it was good when you're making it but you never know you know you don't know whether it's going to connect with people but we get the sense that it is connecting already and we know it'll be an amazing record to play Live we've
already learned some of the songs and they just they just sort of bouncing bouncing around the stage with them so I think of blow grass and I think of like that is a sound to me within Crowded House that I haven't heard before where
it's it's got elements of like the the sort of subs and the kick and the clap and everything and the guitar is very beautiful and cool but it doesn't do what I normally expect a crow house song to do it finds a new space to
exist well it's elroy's music um and I I mean it's very much his song actually I've helped him I helped him on a few of the details of it but um he he he came out with a demo uh and we sort of worked on the demo cuz it had certain bits of atmosphere and you you would know well yourself that sometimes the magic of a demo is really hard to recreate if you just start from scratch so we actually modern times mean you can actually much
more easily integrate those little magic things on demos and um so we chased that thing and then we added it we made it bigger we moved a few things around uh and created a uh you know vocal that you know and a lyric and stuff so but it was very much elroy's and that's what we were talking about before he's now added another shade he is a different thing than Liam going on it's a little Liam's stuff is more well known to people
within the the community because he's been releasing stuff but El is this dark quiet achiever and he's got amazing um skills as an arranger and he plays a beautiful nylon string guitar he has a a um little project with a friend Joel um
M Holland uh and they write these little guitar Suites acoustic guitar Suites um so which there's a record out called Pablo Vasquez and I would recommend it thank you I will listen to it it's beautiful dinner he he he's happy to
call it dinner music which I love by way delighted to have um people listen to it over dinner oh I've just all the things that I mocked as a child I'm in love with right now I'm like ambient music which I was like who wants to listen to
tone I'm like obsessed with tone I just listen to tone all the time well this is a glorious um it's a glorious dinner music piece and also lovely for going to sleep too cuz it's very calming man this is the dream new I mean for
everything that you've achieved in your life to be able to go out on the road and share these memories and experiences with your family and and let them build their experiences too not live in in the wake of yours and be young you the young young kids on the road that's one way of doing it but this is a whole other thing I want them to have a stake in it and it only seemed worthy if because it's a nice idea on paper to hang out with your
family and be a family band but um I can't think of anyone in the world I'd rather play music with and I want them to have had to drop a bomb on that it's too good that's a great statement I mean that's that's love that's life yeah and I think they're feeling starting to feel the same way um but I want them to feel like they've got a stake in the band as well and that's why getting their material on the album and
at earning its place there's not there's nothing token about their presence um yeah is is giving them aake in it and I I think that's going to develop more and more there's only one other element on this album aside from the people who
made it the family and yourself that really comes through for me and I think you'll take this in the in the spirit in which it's intended which is complimentary because the artwork suggests it to some degree as well I
feel like you've gotten to a place now where that influence that the Beatles have always had on you as a writer and you've been very open about that um it's starting to kind of come through in A really lovely even maybe subconscious
way some of the arrangements some of the instrumentation I don't know if the artwork is directly connected to yeah you know it's a homage yeah Nick would Nick would accept that it's a when he was a teenager the the album cover and
for those who haven't seen it is a pen a pan and ink kind of uh drawing of us with various um little other pictorial thing elements I'm in a boat or there's a person in a boat in my hair and um but it was definitely a homage to the revolver um album covered by Claus Foreman which Nick fell in love with as a teenager when he started to to do art and um draw he was obsessed with pen and ink drawings and he thought that cover
was just so I think he probably sat around and copied it so it's a yeah he's openly admits that it's a nice homage to that and it's not so much to suggest that we are um bowing down um to our influences too much but I think they're always going to be there I'm not self-conscious at all about it I I I you know having seen the get back films um it just you know redirected my love for that band um into a place that you could relate to you
know like after all that m Amazing Music they gifted us then to gift us that after this long I know this Glimpse inside what it was like to be in The Beetles and to make it relatable cuz it was you know as as they were they had
scaled the heights by that point but I watched them and the dynamic of and it just felt like a band so okay so I got a to take I got to take on that I got to take on get back on on the real reason why the The Beatles couldn't get it to
keep it together right but I want to know did you did you did you did you have a did you take get a takeaway from that in particular on the dynamic and why it kind of separated why why it didn't last much longer after that you
mean uh uh well I think if it hadn't been for McCartney it must it might may not have lasted even that long cuz he was obviously um D driving it yeah and and it annoyed the out of them at times you could sort of see it you know
and he knew he was annoying them um he openly says it but his energy and and dynamism was just extraordinary he was on such a tear at that point and and the just the talent just you know just oozing out of I mean what was he playing
at the at the piano he was writing at the piano was it um long and Winding Road and he's trying to figure it out at the piano during downtime yeah and there's people from Apple Core just sitting there reading the sports papers
like looking Tottenham hsbor wi against against West Ham 3-0 and they're not even looking at him he's like long and Winding Road they would have been their iPhones now which is just crazy to me and and that's when it dawned on me it might takes a little more direct it I think I think McCartney just was on such a songwriting wave yeah that and John was like well I'm in love and this is my thing now and I'm obsessed with this
relationship so I don't really have much going on beyond that and George is like well I'll step in where John was but Paul's like but I want John to show up yeah and Ringo's like can we not all just get this together yeah Ringo
was so so love he's so lovable in that film and obviously was just so consist and solid and stoned so stoned oh yeah but they didn't they didn't actually did they show any joint smoking I don't think so but tell me he wasn't the most
baked human being on the planet I think they all they were um but yeah they didn't that that was the one thing they didn't reveal directly anyway it was just beautiful to watch I I got to watch some of it in um Wellington
because we were touring at the time when Peter was putting it together and he invited us into get to have a little sneak list and and look when they were in early stages and in a way it was more extraordinary cuz you could actually uh
you could hear all the mistakes and the um it was only one nagra and it didn't sound what they did with the sound on that was extraordinary um it was yeah we watched six hours of it wow and uh you must have been emotional at the end of that I felt very emotional yeah especially that scene uh where they were just finished playing on the roof and they were listening back and it was just such a beautiful moment of uh Brotherhood and
with all the women their wives there as well uh that was a that was a glorious moment I think that they got to enjoy they probably hadn't really got to enjoy themselves in to that manner for a long time it seemed you summed it up beautifully when you said it was a gift for us all because in the absence of any kind of clarity we've all built our own ideas as to what happened and why they didn't continue and I think it's all
right there I think for us to to sort of draw minor discrepancies in our in our sort of viewpoint but it's kind of the same story they just drifted apart and Paul was ready to go and George was ready to go and it was like you know was
pretty Roar in places which is yeah like I said that's the gift really because people are Cur trying to curate their their View and their um you know especially these days it's like a curated reality that people are getting
it is um and they were to some extent I mean no film is going to completely reveal everything but that one got pretty close I think so the tour it's there man I'm seeing the dates right in front of you and I and you know you've
always loved to play live I mean it's a Hu even when you're not touring you've got you always had great reasons to put on awesome benefit shows or pull lots of musicians into together you know the world's collide shows and you know it's
it's like I I think it must be nice to think that you're going to be able to go out there and and add this new album to what you've already established and I wonder how you're going to sort of make it make sense to the catalog because it is like such a fresh sounding Crowded House experience well we already know it's going to sound great on stage and it's going to be easy to play um on stage so it's going to be difficult to
write a set list cuz there's a lot of albums now well we figured out number one I can't keep up with you we did me and Mitchell figured that one out for you well yeah that that that could become a starter this Ely you see Neil Fin's singular Vision start to get in the way of this idea and tell us no that's a terrible idea we're not going to well we'll see we'll see I it's a it was it is funny you said that though because Mitchell was really big
on that idea yeah we got to start he thought we should start the album with it so that didn't happen there's three elements as to way you've got an incredible psychedelic thing which you can lean into for 5 minutes if you want and I think we're long beautiful slow building psychedelic wonderful things that allow lights to build and anticipation to build and take the lights down so slowly and make a mood and then it and then you come on in the
dark it's great and then you do the magic thing you get to open the song with your voice and we're off well you know two you're selling it pretty well here I got to say that's what I do M it's Gathering steam as an idea that's what I do yeah I'll let you know yeah please please do um but then where do you go from there because you've got so many songs that people will want to hear and and they'll be thrilled there's a
new album and it's you they will love every song on this album but you must be at a point now where you've got to think about leaving things off or are you just going to keep going we won't play for more than 2 hours Sharon and my wife
will not let us um she says no no I mean this is going to be um apologies to a lot of really great artists but no one's good after two hours um we went to see Prince PL I love him and um at at the Country Club after one
of them MTV Awards we went to years ago and it was incredible and Sheil was there and it was just you know it was one of those started at 1:00 in the morning I think yeah yeah we made it to 4: and he was still going it didn't look
like he was going to stop anytime soon but we let we had to go I just you know I went to I think probably the last prince full Prince show that he played yeah it was in London at CoCo beginning of 2015 and he started with purple R and
was like I'm going to play 20 hits and then I'm going to come back play some more hits and then maybe a few more hits and I'm just going to keep playing and we were like okay and he just the SE list is just bunkers right just it's
just he's just going off and same thing after about 3 hours he was like I'm going to keep let's just jam it out and me and my wife are like we got to go yeah I know I mean there's only I'm in that club as well it's not a
particularly respectful or respected Club I felt guilty going out I sort of picked my moment what kind of are we to leave a prince show earlier what's wrong with us good seats to and that prominent dude you know like that
was hard to get out front they were giving us free what the is wrong with us like I think I think Sharon and I left separately so it looked like we were going to the bathroom you did the keep we exit yeah but um so it'll be a 2hour
show maybe you'll sneak over every now and again and uh a 210 or something yeah like she it escapes her notice if I just bring it in at 215 it is hard now cuz there's a lot of songs we want to do we don't want to just do we I'm I'm thankfully I really like all the songs that became popular I don't have any um problem playing them but um we the songs that have become um popular with the audience that weren't singles and there
weren't hits you want to cover those and um there's a few obscurities that we really enjoy playing so how to fiddle that in on one said I don't know I'm going to have to go home and write that I'm sure there's a lot but there's the
one that particularly catches you off guard at times because um even for you it's it it strikes a cord like I'll give you an example like whenever I hear fall at your feet I'm done like I'm done there's probably half a dozen songs
in my life that doesn't matter of I could beat a barbecue in my board shorts three six beers down having the greatest time ever and fall fall at your feet comes on and I'm I got to leave the room right for a few minutes good we want we want you to weep is there one like that for you that that that you that really catches you off guard to some degree when you play it or has done it historically well I really enjoy that singing that song so I'm
really happy it resonates for you cuz it's one of the ones that's the most enduring for me and um uh and I have become emotional singing that song cuz sometimes I look out and see people having a little cry and makes me uh
makes me it fixs me you know you know the finger of blame yeah you know when you go into that thing and I'm getting Goosebumps now I might even get a little emotional just talking about it I mean you know it's it's do you want my
presence or need my help I mean these are the there's something man that if you if you talk about gravity staircase you talk about the magic piano you talk about the spiritual space where music exists within which we are just a vessel in order to tap in or tap out that must have been a pure moment a very pure moment for you when that song came I'd imagine yeah I mean I hunted for the chorus uh for the verse of it for a
couple of years um the chorus was there first and wow um in the end the verse became I tried three or four different verses in the end the verse became something I'd written when I was about 17 years old before I even joined bands
and Mitchell spotted it in the studio and you know it was a waa kind of um moment Eureka moment um we recorded it all the same day that we made that Discovery and finished the lyrics and it was a really a beautiful instant
turnaround and yeah we knew we had something with that one you don't always know but that one we thought yeah that's got some I just think together alone is is one of the most Flawless bodies of songs in my lifetime well thank you
you're you're very kind I listened to that album still to this day an enormous amount uh at home and just put it on and all the way through it's just like man it's crazy I am very very happy to see you and I'm so grateful that you
know you came to the West Coast to do a bit of press and that you made us you know you put us on your list and you still come through and say hi um and I tell the story and it probably bores you to death now but I'm still forever I'm still forever grateful for uh you know your support and and advice for me when I was a young man trying to figure out what I should do with my life and you were there at a really important moment
when I was really on the edge of what I should do should I stay in New Zealand should I go traveling what should I do and you gave me the greatest piece of advice and um I'm always going to be forever grateful for that oh well I'm
glad it worked out people come to me and say that um I proposed to my wife when I was listening when we were listening to you know better be homes soon or something and I said how's the marriage going I go really really well I go yes
every now and again they say oh I've got I've got had got another wife now so I'm pleased that bit of advice worked cuz you just don't know you know but you you've you've made your own luck uh Zane you you've carved out a great
place in the world so thanks and you've made lot of people happy thanks man well I'm I'm here because of the music and you continue to surprise and Delight mate this I'm just going to say it again for everyone who's listening and and is
has has got through the end of this podcast and this conversation that um this new Crowded House album is all time uh bands who have been around this long by rights just through the nature of evolution should not be pushing
themselves into territory this Roar and this Innovative and this interesting and writing songs this good so I don't know what your drinking but keep drinking it pH well thanks man appreciate your your huge endorsement thank you [Music]