Nashville Makes a Fine Muse for Tim Finn’s Personal Record

Nashville and New Zealand are almost a world apart--musically as well as geographically. So how did New Zealand rocker Tim Finn land in Music City to record “Say It Is So,” his first solo album in seven years?

Logic certainly wasn’t the reason.

“The idea came 100% from a friend of mine in Sydney who, in fact, is quite nutty,” says the singer-songwriter and guitarist, who plays at the Coach House tonight and the Roxy on Thursday. “She practically screamed, ‘You must go to Nashville!’ And I said to myself, ‘It makes little sense, but she’s probably right. I must go there immediately.’

“Now let me back up a bit,” explains the former member of Split Enz, Alt and, briefly, Crowded House. “The prior year and a half I had been writing and attempting to record songs, most of which I wasn’t happy with and just threw away. I felt stuck for what to do next.”

So when his friend suggested a trip to Nashville, he says, “I couldn’t resist.”

Finn, his wife, Marie, and their young son, Harper, packed some belongings and left their Auckland home for Tennessee, where they went to the malls, ate doughnuts and generally absorbed the local culture.

Finn says he was introduced to musician-record producer Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt), and it all just clicked.”

Fans of the Split Enz and Crowded House brand of melodic pop-rock should fear not. Finn hasn’t gone twangy.

He and Joyce--along with several musical guests, including Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, pedal steel guitarist Bruce Bouton and alt-country singer Julie Miller--have created a merger of pop- and acoustic-based songs with more contemporary-sounding, hard-edged soundscapes.

The selections range from the shimmering, hymn-like “Underwater Mountain” and the traditional Aboriginal song “Rest” to “Need to Be Right” and “Some Dumb Reason,” the latter two rocking faster and biting harder than anything Finn has unleashed before.

Finn, 47, attributes the album’s sonic diversity and depth primarily to Joyce, who plays electric lead guitar on the recording (in addition to full-time with his hard-rockin’ trio, Iodine).

“He was exactly what I was looking for in a producer,” Finn said. “His inherent nobility in the studio just fills you with confidence, and I find that his guitar playing not only has a certain elegance, it can be quite brutal as well--and I like that combination.”

Finn was also drawn to Joyce’s grit.

“We’re not like-minded souls,” he said. “I think the collision between his streetwise, urban existence and my more subtle, slower, rural lifestyle worked to my benefit with this record. The atmosphere was very spontaneous and organic, one with very little manipulation going on.”

Even though “Say It Is So” is Finn’s first solo release since 1993’s “Before & After,” he hasn’t been idle in the intervening years.

“Finn,” a collaboration with younger brother Neil (his partner in Split Enz who started Crowded House after the Enz split) and “Altitude,” a one-off project by the rock group Alt (which also featured Liam O’Maonlai and Andy White of Hothouse Flowers) came out in 1995. Finn also worked two years ago on the music for “Steel City,” an Australian tap dance show.

A Personal Album

in Many Ways

When considering the options for releasing “Say It Is So,” Finn said he wanted to avoid the major-label route and its costly, mass-marketing machinery.

To that end, he decided to finance and release the CD himself, a move he’s now very pleased with. (The CD is available at https://www.timfinn.com and https://www.WhatAreRecords.com.)

“In some sense, it was forced upon me, but it felt like the right thing to do and I’ve embraced this path with great gusto,” he said. “It’s very liberating, and a big part of that stems from not having any management.

“It’s so much healthier now, because you can get into this kind of parent-child relationship with your manager, where he’s whispering in your ear and hoping that certain [commercial] results occur with your music,” he says. “It’s massively distracting to the artistic impulse.”

Finn is now performing with the freedom a solo artist enjoys, even though he’s supported on this tour by guitarist Greg Hitchcock, temporarily on loan from the Aussie-based rock band the Monarchs.

“The nice thing is that I can mix it up and do songs from my solo records, the Alt album, the Finn Brothers--and, of course, some Split Enz material, including ‘I Hope I Never,’ which I’ve put a bit of a different spin on,” Finn says. “Plus, I play the guitar, some piano and even the drums--with my feet.”

Does he ever miss playing alongside Neil, with whom he has always shared a close personal and professional relationship?

“We’re certainly not like one of those nasty, well-publicized rivalries, like the Gallagher or the Davies brothers,” he says, referring to the siblings in Oasis and the Kinks, respectively. “We’re fascinated, not bored, by each other.

“When we get together, sparks do fly. . . . We can write an entire album in five days,” Finn says. “Something’s there between us that’s intensely interesting. Only we don’t like to go to it too often because we might smother each other in the end.”

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* Tim Finn plays tonight at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, at 8. $16.50 and $18.50. (949) 496-8930. Also Thursday at the Roxy, 9009 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $21.50. (310) 276-2222.