Fleetwood Mac tour leads Finn to reconstruct Crowded House
Touring as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 2018-19 made Neil Finn appreciate the memorable band in his own history.
Two years later, Finn has brought that group, Crowded House, back to life with his sons Liam and Elroy, producer Mitchell Froom and original bass player Nick Seymour. A new album, “Dreamers Are Waiting,” recently arrived.
“There’s a sense of occasion attached to that band, in my head, I suppose,” said New Zealand native Finn, 63.
“Coming off of Fleetwood Mac, when we surprisingly had the opportunity to be part of a great, classic band, it reminded me of the gravitas and honor that comes with that,” the singer and songwriter said. “In the audience, there were young people who had grown up with the songs and were singing them as if they were just as current today as they were 30 years ago.”
One singalong in the set was Finn’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” from the 1987 Crowded House debut that also produced the hit “Something So Strong.”
Crowded House never matched that early success in the U.S. but remained popular worldwide with songs like “Better Be Home Soon,” “Weather with You” and “Distant Sun.” They called it quits with a 1996 farewell concert in Sydney that drew a crowd estimated around 200,000 people.
The band reconvened twice in the 2000s with Matt Sherrod replacing original drummer Paul Hester, who died in 2005.
Finn said Seymour and his sons were enthusiastic when he suggested trying again. Froom, who produced Crowded House’s first three albums, turned Finn down when he asked him to join in the late 1980s because he was pursuing a producing career. This time he was on board.
“These three people have more to do with Crowded House, understand the ethos, the humor and the music, and have a natural intuition for it than anyone else on the planet,” Finn said.
Liam, a guitarist, and Elroy, a drummer, have their own independent music careers and have worked with Neil Finn before on projects, minimizing any awkwardness that comes from being in a band with dad.
The new Crowded House started recording new music in a Los Angeles studio, but the COVID-19 lockdown forced them to abandon the session before finishing. “Dreamers Are Waiting ” was completed remotely.
“We were forced by circumstances to throw things in the air and reassemble them,”
Finn said.
They chose the energetic cuts “Playing with Fire” and “Whatever You Want” to make videos and reintroduce Crowded House to the world.
“Each of the five persons has deep connections to the origins of the band but are also brimming with ideas for how good it possibly could be,” Finn said. “That feels like a really good place for a band to be.”
The new Crowded House has also been able to experience something few other musical acts have over the past 15 months — a concert tour before packed arenas. They played a dozen gigs in New Zealand, where the smaller, island country was able to open things up more swiftly than elsewhere in the world.
At first, the band and audience members stared at each other, stunned. Maybe it was a year without live music, but it felt like five.
“We were determined to make the most of it,” Finn said. “We weren’t going to slip into that slightly errant behavior you get on tour — ‘Oh, where are we tonight?’ You can allow a little thing going wrong to spoil your whole night. We couldn’t afford to. We had 12 shows. We had to get over what went wrong instantly.”