CROWDED HOUSE CROWDED HOUSE

Split Enz folds in 1984, shortly after Tim Finn quits. Recruiting Nick Seymour on bass and Paul Hester on drums, Finn forms Crowded House. With a killer song in his back pocket, they record their debut in Los Angeles with Mitchell Froom There’s a little demo of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” that we later released on the bonus disc. The day I did it, I knew I had something quite special. Then the next day we played it with the band and it sounded like a bag of shit! It was only when Mitchell suggested the bassline, which Nick elaborated on, that it really found its groove. I was beavering away doing demos, and Mitchell made some quite profound suggestions. Like an R&B bassline might be better than a rock or pop approach, or a Hammond organ could sound nice. These were not textures I was used to. He filled in quite a few areas that we weren’t covering, but maybe it made our individual sound less distinctive. It took a while, but then “Don’t Dream It’s Over” started to work in the US and the whole record went on to have a pretty big life. I’m not sure I was ready, I don’t know if you can be. We were lucky, we all liked each other, and we were irreverent about the protocols of the music business. When we made this record, I think we were still discovering ourselves. We really discovered our identity afterwards, busking at parties. We learned how to sing together and how to make a room come alive with bare bones.