One can only imagine the number of couples that will make the beast with two backs in late March of 1999 in attempt to have the first baby born in the new millennium. Neil Finn, for his part, would like to be the first musician to party like it's 2000. In other words, the former Crowded House frontman intends to be the first to release an album in the new millennium. And it doesn't hurt that Finn was born and raised in the part of the world were the sun rises first. He's already surmised that Gisborne, New Zealand, the easternmost city in the world, will be where he'll debut his follow-up to this year's Try Whistling This.

"I don't know if it'll mean anything to anybody apart from me," says Finn regarding his diabolical plan. The singer/guitarist is actually half-kidding about the target release date and knows another band may try to beat him to the punch. "Let 'em try," jokes Finn, a native New Zealander. "I got good connections."

Before Finn can nail down a release date for the album, he'll actually have to begin recording it, something he intends to do following an upcoming tour of New Zealand. During his recent nine-date solo tour of the U.S. -- which featured guest appearances from Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crow and Grant Lee Phillips, among others -- Finn's been writing new material. On a recent plane, without a tape recorder to hum a melody into to, Finn *wrote* music for the first time since he was fifteen years old.

Something else Finn hasn't done in a while -- fifteen years to be exact -- is perform in the band Split Enz, the group he was in prior to the formation of Crowded House. Because Split Enz also included Crowded House drummer Paul Hester and Crowded House contributor/brother Tim Finn, the possibility of a simultaneous Crowded House/Split Enz reunion tour isn't outside the realm of possibility.

"At some point it would be fun to do," Finn says. "Just from the point of view of combining all the different eras and phases of my career. Whether that'll happen, it's probably a big logistical expense. But, you know, it's possible."

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(November 24, 1998)