Early life

Brian Finn was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. He went to Sacred Heart College, Auckland, a Catholic boarding school. In 1971 he started a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Auckland. There he jammed in music practice room 129 (later the name of a Split Enz song) with friends and future Split Enz bandmembers Mike Chunn, Robert Gillies, Philip Judd and Noel Crombie. Music soon became more important to him than his studies; in mid-1972 he quit university. A few months later, Phil and Tim formed the group Split Ends (renamed Split Enz, shortly before their first move to Melbourne in 1975). The bands' music moved towards a more mainstream sound in later years; their music style is best described as eclectic, incorporating influences from art rock, vaudeville, swing, punk, glam rock, rock and pop. Between 1972 and 1977, Tim and Judd alternated as frontman for the band. Once Judd permanently left the band, Tim Finn's younger brother Neil Finn took his place.

Solo work

Finn had his first success away from Split Enz in 1981 when his discarded demo "They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me" became a top 10 hit for Australian band Jimmy and the Boys. In 1983 Finn recorded his debut solo album, Escapade, while still a member of Split Enz. This met with major commercial success both in Australia and New Zealand, and yielded hit song "Fraction Too Much Friction", which revealed a more rhythm-based sound than Split Enz had been known for. After contributing four songs to Split Enz album Conflicting Emotions, Finn left the band permanently in June 1984, to focus on a solo career. The following year he moved to London. 1986 saw the release of his second solo album Big Canoe. The album utilised a wide variety of instrumentation, including guitars, orchestral backings and traditional Indian instruments - most notably on single "No Thunder, No Fire, No Rain", which was inspired by the Bhopal chemical disaster. Though Big Canoe reached number three on the New Zealand charts, it failed to become the international breakthrough that Finn or record company Virgin had hoped.

During this time, Finn's focus also turned to soundtrack music, and he landed a few acting roles on-screen. Finn has composed for a number of Australian films and TV productions, including 1981 teen tale Puberty Blues and comedy Les Patterson Saves the World, which yielded Australian hit "You Saved the World". Finn had a small part in Australian film The Coca-Cola Kid alongside then-girlfriend Greta Scacchi, and a larger one in her Italian-shot romance La Donna della Luna (The Moon Woman).

Crowded House, Finn and later solo work

In late 1989, Finn was back living in Melbourne, recording his eponymous third album, Tim Finn, for Capitol Records. The album would yield strong reviews and New Zealand hit "Parihaka", based on a Maori village known for its campaign of passive resistance to European occupiers. In early 1990, he began playing music with younger brother Neil, for an intended Finn brothers record. After working together on some songs, Neil later proposed incorporating the tracks onto the latest album of Crowded House, the group he had formed after Split Enz dissolved. Tim performed with the band to promote the band's album Woodface, and co-wrote eight songs, including the hits "Weather with You" and "Four Seasons in One Day". But some time during the tour which followed the album's American release, all concerned realised that the combination was not a good fit. Finn returned to pursue his solo career.

Both Tim and Neil were made OBE for services to New Zealand music in the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours List. The brothers Finn collaborated on another album in 1995, playing most of the instruments themselves. Finn was released as the first Finn Brothers release. In support of this album, the brothers toured Europe, Australia and the USA. Also in 1995, Finn formed the band ALT, with Irish musicians Andy White and Liam Ó Maonlaí (from band Hothouse Flowers). ALT's name was formed from the initial letters of their names. They released the album Altitude and toured Europe and Australasia.

5 June 2000 was proclaimed "Tim Finn Day" by the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the USA during Finn's tour of the United States that year.

2000 also saw the release of album Together in Concert: Live, featuring Finn, and fellow New Zealand singer/songwriters Bic Runga, and Dave Dobbyn. Recorded in August and September 2000 in venues around New Zealand, the album saw the three performers each equitably showcased. Both the concerts and album feature all three performers providing vocal and instrumental backing on each other's songs. The album spent 16 weeks in the New Zealand charts, and was finally released in the UK in May 2007.

In 2004, the Finn brothers released their second album, Everyone Is Here. The album was originally intended to be produced by Tony Visconti but the final release shows most production credits going to long-time Finn producer Mitchell Froom. Reviewing the album, a writer for Mojo magazine argued that it contained "some of the most haunting music to bear the Finn imprint".

Finn has continued to release solo albums, mining many genres along the way. He also contributed a song to the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe entitled "Winter Light", which later appeared on Finn's Imaginary Kingdom album. He appeared as the offbeat father of the main character in 2010 black comedy Predicament.

Finn also guested on Peter Gabriel's song "Whole Thing" from the 2008 collaborative album Big Blue Ball.

Recently, Finn has been composing further for theatre, with an opera Star Navigator commissioned by New Zealand Opera, Victorian Opera and West Australian Opera, and the musical Ladies in Black to premiere in Brisbane by Queensland Theatre Company in November 2015.

Personal life and Steel City

Finn was in a relationship with actress Greta Scacchi from 1983 to 1989. He is currently married to television presenter Marie Azcona, formerly of MTV and TVNZ One's Music Week. Finn and Azcona have two children; a son, Harper, and a daughter, Ellie. The pair have collaborated on several songs, some of which are featured on Steel City, the dance show that Finn wrote. Aside from co-writing two tracks with Azcona, Finn collaborated on another with former Split Enz member Mike Chunn.

Discography

This discography relates to releases by Tim Finn only. See Finn Brothers' discography, Crowded House discography and Split Enz discography for other related works.

Date	Title	Label	Charted	Country	Catalog number
Album
1983	Escapade	Mushroom Records	1	NZ
			8	Australia
			161	U.S.	D19230
1986	Big Canoe	Virgin Records	3	NZ
			31	Australia	CDV-2369
1989	Tim Finn	Capitol Records	8	NZ	CDP7-48735-2
			44	Australia
1993	Before & After	Capitol Records	3	NZ	CDP-594904
			34	Australia
			29	UK
1999	Say It Is So	Sonny's Pop Records	-	-
2001	Feeding the Gods		27	NZ	002
2006	Imaginary Kingdom	Capitol Records	18	NZ
2008	The Conversation	EMI Records	-	-
2009	North, South, East, West...Anthology	Capitol Records	15	NZ
2011	The View Is Worth the Climb	ABC Music/Universal Music	28	NZ
EPs
1999	Far Out	Fan club release	-	-
2001	What You've Done	EMI Records	-	-
Collaborations
1987	The Les Patterson Long Player	WEA	-	-	2547791
1991	Woodface	Capitol Records	1	NZ
			83	U.S.	CDP-7-93559-2
1995	Altitude		-	-
	Finn	Discovery Records	8	NZ	77043
1998	Steel City	CRS Records	-	-	5011402000
2000	Together in Concert: Live		2	NZ
2004	Everyone Is Here		1	NZ
			2	AUS
2009	The Sun Came Out	Sony Music	-	-	88697568272

Singles

Year	Song	Peak chart positions			Album
1983	"Fraction Too Much Friction"	8	-	2	Escapade
	"Made My Day"	22	-	-
	"Staring at the Embers"	34	-	12
1984	"Through the Years"	-	34	-
	"In a Minor Key"	-	-	-
1985	"Home for My Heart"	87	-	-	The Coca-Cola Kid Soundtrack
1986	"No Thunder, No Fire, No Rain"	46	-	24	Big Canoe
	"Spiritual Hunger"	-	-	-
	"Carve You in Marble"	-	-	33
	"Sailing Away"	-	-	1	Ensemble charity song
1987	"You Saved the World"	-	-	-	Les Patterson Saves the World
	"With You I'm Alive"	-	-	-
1989	"How'm I Gonna Sleep"	24	77	1	Tim Finn
	"Crescendo"	97	-	-
	"Not Even Close"	-	91	20
	"Parihaka"	-	-	6	New version of a track originally from Tim Finn
1990	"Long Hard Road"	-	-	-
1992	"Islands"	-	-	-
1993	"Hit the Ground Running"	-	-	14	Before & After
	"Persuasion"	62	-	1
	"Many's the Time"	-	-	-
1994	"Runs in the Family"	-	-	9
1998	"Steel City"	-	-	-	Steel City Soundtrack
1999	"Twinkle"	-	-	-	Say It Is So
2001	"What You've Done"	-	-	48	Feeding the Gods
2006	"Couldn't Be Done"	-	-	-	Imaginary Kingdom
2007	"Horizon"	-	-	-
2008	"Out of This World"	-	-	-	The Conversation

Awards

RIANZ Awards

The New Zealand Music Awards are awarded annually by the RIANZ in New Zealand.

Year	Award	Work	With	Result
1984	International Achievement		solo	Won
			Split Enz	Nominated
1989	Best Male Vocalist		solo	Won
	Best Songwriter	"Parihaka"	solo	Won
1992	Best Songwriter	"It's Only Natural"	with Neil Finn	Nominated
1996	Album of the Year	Finn	Finn Brothers	Nominated
	Best Group		Finn Brothers	Nominated
	International Achievement		Finn Brothers	Nominated
2001	Album of the Year	Together in Concert: Live	with Dave Dobbyn & Bic Runga	Nominated
2005	Album of the Year	Everyone Is Here	Finn Brothers	Nominated
	Single of the Year	"Won't Give In"	Finn Brothers	Nominated
	International Achievement Award	Everyone Is Here	Finn Brothers	Won
2007	Best Male Solo Artist	Imaginary Kingdom	solo	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]