Finn Brothers Explained

The Finn Brothers
Background:group_or_band
Origin:Te Awamutu, Waikato, New Zealand
Genre:Rock
Years Active:1989–present
Label:Parlophone, Nettwerk, Discovery
Current Members:Neil Finn
Tim Finn

The Finn Brothers are a New Zealand musical duo consisting of brothers Neil and Tim Finn. In June 1993 both members were awarded the OBE for their contribution to music.

The two brothers began making music together at a young age; later, when Neil was 18, he was invited to join older brother Tim in Split Enz.[1] Neil would go on to write one of the band's biggest hits, "I Got You". Tim released his first solo album Escapade before leaving Split Enz, and the band folded soon after. Neil started his own group, Crowded House and subsequently recorded two solo albums after Crowded House split in 1996. He reformed Crowded House in 2007, releasing three albums since then. Neil and Tim have also released a series of separate solo albums.

After working on a few songs with Neil, Tim joined Crowded House for the Woodface album and accompanying tour in 1991.

History

Woodface and Finn

Tim and Neil intended to start the Finn brothers project after a three-week song writing spree in 1989. However, most of the songs written during this time were deemed suitable for inclusion on a Crowded House album and they appeared on Woodface, which was released in 1991 and led to Tim joining Crowded House.[2] Many of the original demo recordings from these sessions were subsequently released as B-sides on Finn Brothers singles and recently collected on a vinyl re-release of Finn. Tim left Crowded House while they were touring Europe in support of the Woodface album.

Tim and Neil reconvened in 1995, and the eclectic, lo-fi album which resulted was simply called Finn. In the UK the duo changed both their name and that of the album to Finn Brothers, to avoid confusion with a band going under the moniker Fin. This title was kept for all future collaborations. However re-releases of the original album in Australia and New Zealand still go by the original title Finn.

Everyone Is Here

Their second album, Everyone Is Here was released in 2004. It was recorded twice, once in upstate New York with producer Tony Visconti, bassist Bones Hillman and Ross Burge on drums, then again six months later in Los Angeles with Crowded House producer Mitchell Froom and different session musicians. Some of the songs from the first recording session were kept as B sides and later appeared on a special edition of the album. The album featured the Split Enz song "Edible Flowers", the inspiration for the music video. The music video features two people in a donkey suit, however its wearers cannot be seen. In the 2005 tour, Neil and Tim Finn wore a donkey suit onto stage for many performances also.[3]

Following the Boxing Day tsunami, The Finn Brothers appeared at the Wave Aid fundraising concert in Sydney to help raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster affected areas.[4] As well as their own material, they performed a cover of Hunters and Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around Me."

Television and film

Their song, "Anything Can Happen" was used in the first episode of Scrubs' fifth season, My Intern's Eyes. The song was used when we first meet Keith Dudemeister (albeit through his eyes) as he walks into his first day at Sacred Heart.

This song was also used on the final session of the last day of the 2005 England vs. Australia Ashes cricket series on Channel 4 Television, at the end of the last day of cricket being shown on British terrestrial television.

The song "Anything Can Happen" was also featured in movie Aurora Borealis.[5]

Their song "Luckiest Man Alive" was played during the closing credits of the television broadcast of the 2005 Indianapolis 500.

Discography

This discography relates to releases by The Finn Brothers. See Neil Finn's discography, Tim Finn's discography, Crowded House discography and Split Enz discography for other works by the Finn Brothers.

Studio albums

YearTitlePeak chart positionsCertifications
(sales thresholds)
NZ
[6]
AUS
[7]
BEL
(Fla)

[8]
NED
[9]
UK
[10]
1995Finn 81415
2004Everyone Is Here 1227628

Gold[11]

Silver[12]

"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Singles

YearTitlePeak chart positionsAlbum
NZ
AUS
UK
US AAA
[13]
1995"Suffer Never"127029Finn
"Angel's Heap"2441
2004"Won't Give In"1675268Everyone Is Here
"Nothing Wrong with You"3531
2005"Anything Can Happen"32
2005"Part of Me, Part of You"1832
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Chunn, Mike . Stranger Than Fiction: The Life and Times of Split Enz . Wellington, N.Z. . GP Publications . 1992 . 1-86956-050-7 . 31240332 .
  2. Book: Bourke, Chris . Something So Strong . South Melbourne . Macmillan . 1997 . 0-7329-0886-8 . 38406050 .
  3. News: Button. James. The show goes on in memory of Hester. 21 April 2013. The Age. 30 March 2005.
  4. Web site: WAVEAID - The Artists. WAVEAID. 21 April 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120321010107/http://www.waveaid.com.au/bands.html. 21 March 2012.
  5. News: Crust. Kevin. 'Aurora Borealis' shines a true light. 21 April 2013. Los Angeles Times. 22 September 2006.
  6. Web site: charts.nz > The Finn Brothers in New Zealand Charts. Hung Medien. 19 July 2017.
  7. Australian (ARIA) chart peaks:
  8. Web site: Ultratop Vlaanderen > The Finn Brothers in Ultratop Vlaanderen. nl. Hung Medien. 19 July 2017.
  9. Web site: dutchcharts.nl > The Finn Brothers in Dutch Charts. nl. Hung Medien. 19 July 2017.
  10. UK chart peaks:
  11. Book: Ryan, Gavin. Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. 2011. Moonlight Publishing. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia.
  12. Web site: BPI > Certified Awards > Search results for 'Finn' (from bpi.co.uk). Imgur.com (original source published by British Phonographic Industry). 19 July 2017.
  13. The Finn Brothers - Triple A Songs. Billboard. 6 March 2019.