They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… Liam Finn is a deliciously shiny, beardy apple, born to one of the great songwriters/trees, who too decided to branch out on his own.
The Austra-Zealander is the son of pop musician Sharon Johnson, as well as Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House fame. He first hit the scene as frontman for Betchadupa, back when his face wasn’t quite as hirsute. They released a couple of EP’s and another couple of albums in the early 2000’s, before the band was put on hiatus when Liam followed in his dad’s footsteps and took off on the solo route.
His first solo record I’ll Be Lightning came in 2007, put to tape in old man Neil’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. Finn was noted for recording most of the instrumentation himself, earning him accolades from Rolling Stone and a reputation for his looping and layering in the live format. He followed this up in 2009 with the indie fuzz-rock EP Champagne in Seashells, a partnership with long-time friend, collaborator and fellow lucky apple Eliza-Jane Barnes (son of Jimmy, ledge). That year also saw him form a new band with mate Connan Mockasin, entitled BARB. They released one album before Finn returned to the solo path, releasing second album FOMO.
2014 will see Liam Finn return with his next effort The Nihilist in April, recorded in New York and to be distributed through Yep Roc Records. Despite the album being all but complete a year ago, Finn decided it didn’t sound quite right and returned to the Big Apple to finetune the sound he was after. He has since shared the first single, entertainingly titled Snug as Fuck. The album becomes even more endearing with Liam insisting he features on precisely 67 different instruments, literally more than I can name and giving him plenty of reason to be smug as fuck.
Nevertheless, he remains ever humble, sowing his own seed in the shade. Liam is yet to rise above the surface as much as papa Neil and unky Tim, but he prefers to roam the more artfully uncharted and uncharting fields, a self-described “veteran up-and-comer”.
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