Name Neil Finn
Best known for Having a full head of hair and spectacular calf muscles.
Current city Auckland, NZ.
Really want to be On a balcony in my pajamas on a Greek Island with freshly baked bread, olive oil, local honey and espresso or on the top of Mount Everest having not had to climb it.
Excited about Dreamers Are Waiting coming out June 4.
My current music collection has a lot of World music.
And a little bit of Holiday (it is a genre).
Don’t judge me for String Theory by The Kallafas Quartet.
Preferred format Vinyl by a long shot because it’s the best. Then my 8-track Tascam 1/4” tape recorder for my demos because it’s romantic and there is no screen.
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without
1
Hunky Dory
David Bowie
It’s an essential songwriters record. So many chords that elevate and melodies that soar, made me aspire to using diminished chords and enigmatic abstract lyrics like:
I’m torn between the light and dark
Where others see their targets, divine symmetry
Should I kiss the viper’s fang?
Or herald loud the death of Man
I’m sinking in the quicksand of my thought
2
Exodus
Bob Marley
We listened to a cassette of this on high rotation touring Holland when I first joined Split Enz, midwinter in a haze of hashish. I keep returning to it as a peak memory of the way I felt as a young man when everything seemed possible and I could get totally lost in positive vibrations.
3
Remain in Light
Talking Heads
A giant leap forward for a humble four-piece art band into groove and a transformative state, saw them play it live on Stop Making Sense. It was my favorite show ever.
4
Domingo
Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso
Only recently discovered this, a vintage Brazilian but thoroughly modern, music to sit on a balcony in the morning having coffee and fresh bread. A reminder of gentleness and sophistication in a hard-edged world.
5
Aman Iman Water is Life
Tinariwen
One of the first albums I discovered of West African music, it just flows like a waterfall through a dreamy afternoon, guitar playing of elegance and grace with a measure of spice and dirt to add color. We once sat in a breakfast area on the balcony of a hotel and watched them rehearse right next to us before a WOMAD performance. It’s music to make art at home with.
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