Neil Finn, Crowded House, Any Info?

[supaheef]

hey,

I have been on a Neil Finn/Crowded House/Finn Brothers kick lately (just saw the Finns a few nights ago at the Brisbane Convention Centre), and am wondering if anyone has any info from any of his recording sessions. All the albums, be they solo or Crowded House are sonically pretty awesome. Obviously having Bob Clearmountain mix all the CH stuff will help, and other good guys like Mitchell Froom, and Tchad Blake will certainly help make a recording great. Throughout all albums, Neil's vocal sound is always awesome, never sibilant, compressed, or any other signs of bad engineering. Really warm, with no real bias to either bright or dark. Any ideas of vocal chains? The vocal sound through the CH years is extremely consistant. His solo stuff is a lot more varied. I think that being a relaxed and confident singer is the biggest part of the vocal sound, though!

While he is obvioulsy one of thee great pop songwriters of our time, how much of a roll do you think the great producers he has worked with played? The Marius De Vries tracks from Try Whistling This have some incredible treatments, with no obvious producer named for the album...

Any stories, anecdotes, would be appreciated.

sh.

[Clueless]

Here's an anecdote from Midas about what they do for the Finn brothers.

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

I have heard that Neil has a nice 'home studio' with all the trimmings including a Studer 827 and euphonix CS2000/3000 or some thing like that.

Tim also had a nice studio as well. It was built into a 'art deco' house ina nice suburb in Melbourne, just down the road from my house. It was very hand as i could jsut catch the tram there from outside my house. It was Called 'Periscope studios' and was wher most of the 'Woodface' album was recorded. it was built around a neotek elite and a Otari MTR 90 mk2.. ahd all the usual suspects in terms of outboard including a gml compressor or eq from memmory. If stuff was needed it was usually just hired in etc etc

Hoped it helped
Wiggy

Ps.. i was a bit of a split enz/crowdedhouse trainspotter for a while.

[Sarusan]

On the latest Finn Bros. record Neil sang through a 251 into a channel of an original United Audio console into one side of 670 for the most part. Tim sang through a different 251 into a 1073 into an LA-3A. A lot of the vocals were sung with them facing each other in Western/Cello 2 without baffles. (AMAZING room tone/leakage on everything in there: very supportive and "musical".) I also think Bob C. also did a fantastic job making it all sound great.

Cheers,
Steven

[Fletcher]

Last I heard they were doing a lot of work at Revolver in Auckland... but that was a while ago

[Drumsound]

I believe that Mitchel Froom has a very sweet 251 that he tends to use onmost vocalists he works with.

Someone get John Paterno to check out this thread.

[Synth80s]

I'm a huge Crowded House and Tim Finn/Finn Bros fan. It's rare that I can both enjoy an album as a regular listener and study it as an aspiring engineer/producer, but the CH/Finn recordings allow me to do both.

"Woodface" is one of the better written and produced albums of its era and it holds up very well today (credit the *excellent* songwriting). Where "Woodface" is clean and crisp, "Together Alone" (the last CH album with Youth producing) is dense and lush with similarly great songwriting, albeit more mellow with subtle hooks. Neil's last solo effort, "One All," is an intimate, eclectic production -- everyone I recommend it to ends up falling for it.

A while back, I ran across some notes on the recording of the recent Finn Brothers album on Tony Visconti's site: http://www.tonyvisconti.com/news/oct03.htm

I'm not positive, but I believe that these original sessions were tabled and the Finn Bros. started over in L.A. with their trusted ally, Mithell Froom. Tony is still credited on a few of the final tracks, but from the liner notes, it looks like they used more tracks from the latter sessions.

-Synth80s

[TonyBelmont]

Originally posted by Wiggy Neve Slut
I have heard that Neil has a nice 'home studio' with all the trimmings including a Studer 827 and euphonix CS2000/3000 or some thing like that.

No Euphonix anymore (I'm not sure if that's what he had before).....

I think it's something in the Neve family now... wink, wink!!!

[Martian]

Has anyone heard Neils sons band, Betchadupa? They are incredible and Liams Vocals sound alot like his dads. Their latest album "Aiming for your Head" was recorded live to tape and has a really great vibe to it.
Obviously the force is strong in the Finn family.

[RKrizman]

Originally posted by supaheef


Any stories, anecdotes, would be appreciated.

sh.

I've heard Visconti's version of the album and the differences are very instructive. His production had a brighter, more forthright energy, with an edgier and less intimate vocal. (I was waiting for Robert Fripp to come sawing in). Mitchel Froom recut it with Matt Chamberlain on drums, slower (feeling) tempos, warmer singing, and that sense of atmosphere and melancholy that I think is inherent in these guys' music. They retained Visconti as the string orchestrator and conductor, and I think kept one of his tracks.

LeGrou can weigh in on this, if he's around.

That Crowded House album with "Don't Dream it's Over" is one of my desert island CDs. great songwriters, great production.

-R

[drummertom]

R-

Thanks for the info. I was wondering what happened to the Visconti sessions. You are correct, only one of his songs made it to the final product. It would be interesting to hear his version of the whole thing.

At the time of those sessions, I emailed Tony and asked him about it. He seemed very excited to be working on the project.

[Tim Farrant]

Originally posted by Fletcher
Last I heard they were doing a lot of work at Revolver in Auckland... but that was a while ago

Sadly, Revolver is now closed. I know they moved out the Neve console from Revolver to a house on the coast near Auckland for one of their albums, can't recall which album it was however, but everything was recorded in the controlroom, or lounge.

Tim.

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

Originally posted by The Buzz
I know they moved out the Neve console from Revolver to a house on the coast near Auckland for one of their albums, can't recall which album it was however, but everything was recorded in the controlroom, or lounge.

Tim.

Yeah that house was on the same beach where they filmed the Jane Campion movie "The Piano". They shipped all the gear and and had to build a new bridge to allow the trucks to get over the small ford/river that would only take the weight of a normal car. Strengely enough it was the first bridging project that has ever been budgeted into a major US album budget ..

The album was "together alone" and was produced by ex killing joke bass player 'youth' and mixed by Bob Clearmountain @ Platinum studios Melbourne, Australia.

For sad trainspotting fans (like me) be sure to cehk out 'Something so Strong' which is the pretty much authoritive histroy/bio of the crowdies.

Wiggy

[Tim Farrant]

Thanks Wiggy, yes, it was Youth producing and I remember hearing a story about Youth being in a bad mood one day and he threw a Elam 251 mic across the room at somebody! (or so the story goes) - ouch!

Tim.

[paterno]

Originally posted by Drumsound
I believe that Mitchel Froom has a very sweet 251 that he tends to use onmost vocalists he works with.

Someone get John Paterno to check out this thread.

Hey Tony --

Yes, Mitchell has a nice 251 that has ended up on the majority of the records he's produced over his career. I missed the Crowded House years in my assisting days, so I can't speak with certainty, but I know Tchad was using a 1084 and a Little Labs mic pre quite a bit on vocals around the time I got involved with those guys, which was for the Los Lobos 'Kiko' record. And if Mitchell had the 251 that was probably the mic.

As far as the new one goes, I know the record went through a few twists and turns before completion -- and before it got to Mitchell for that matter. I would imagine that Steven's account, unless something happened after he was involved, is the way it ended by the time it got to Clearmountain's...

Cheers,
John

[matt thomas]

any split enz fans should track themselves down copy of Eddie Vedder singing with Betchadupa (Neil finns sons band) covering "history never repeats" and "I see red"..

BTW.. his own Telefunken mike, euphonix desk (still had it bout a year ago) studer 24 track, often an unusual matchless guitar amp

he's opening his private studio for public use, think its under construction presently (?)

[SUPADUPA]

Neil's studio is in auckland NZ and is called " roundhead " it was originally

under his house ... but is now in a rather nice old building .... i believe its

packed up at the mo ... as they are renovating the building and putting in a

new studio prior to the newly refurbished 48 ch neve console arriving

from the states .... i haven't recorded there ... but i've had a good look around

it's a very nice setup with all the usual suspects in the rack .... what impressed

me was his instrument collection .... octagon anyone .. chamberlain perhaps

how about some vibraphone.

[supaheef]

Neve? and a chamberlain? As soon as that reopens i've just found another reason to cross the Tasman Sea! Apart from the snowboarding, that is....

This thread is starting to get some legs! I had heard about the Finn/Visconti version of the latest album going sour, but I heard it was a Tim/Neil conflict that shelved it, not a direct Finn/Visconti conflict. The main thing is the new album is real gem. And a grower. The amazing thing after seeing the concert a week ago, the new songs fit in perfectly with the old stuff. Even classics like Distant Sun could be bookshelved with Nothing Wrong With You and Edible Flowers. Oh yeah, and the singing was pretty shit hot too!

sh.

[TonyBelmont]

Here's a picture I took of the Neve they bought before being refurbished....

[seriousfun]

Originally posted by SUPADUPA
[B]Neil's studio is in auckland NZ and is called " roundhead " it was originally

under his house ... but is now in a rather nice old building .... i believe its

packed up at the mo ... as they are renovating the building and putting in a

new studio prior to the newly refurbished 48 ch neve console arriving

from the states .... i haven't recorded there ... but i've had a good look around

...

Yup. That Neve will soon have a new Flying Faders automation system.