Crowded House

[voivod]

Crowded House survivors reunite

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Neil Finn has reunited with Crowded House bandmate Nick Seymour for his next solo album, which he plans to release next year.

Finn told Billboard.com that bassist Seymour "has been with me the whole time" on the album, and that "working together again feels really good. It felt natural and right. We've been good company for each other." Finn says that Crowded House drummer Paul Hester's suicide in 2005 helped bring the two musicians together again.

"You do seek each other out," he says. "The day we heard what happened with Paul, we were about to play a show at Albert Hall, my brother (Tim) and I. We decided we had to continue. And I rang Nick; he was the one I wanted to have there. There's some kind of strong bond still, as you would expect, I suppose."

Finn says he's "just about done" with the album, which will be his first solo set of new material since "One Nil" in 2001 (he released the live "Seven Worlds Collide" in 2002 and an album with his brother, "Everyone is Here," in 2004.) His wife and two sons appear on the set.

"It's a pretty emotional record, I think," says Finn, who recently moved to England full-time from his native New Zealand, where Tim still lives. "It's hard for me to evaluate, 'cause I'm so close to it now. But I think it's fairly simple, which I'm really happy about. There's a lot of heart in the record, which I'm happy about, too."

Finn plans to tour in support of the album and expects Seymour to be part of the band. The two will revisit their Crowded House past with the January 16 release of "Farewell to the World," separate CD and DVD packages chronicling the band's November 24, 1996, farewell concerts in Sydney.

[Metal Marc]

If there was any justice in the world, Crowded House would have had about fifteen Top 10 singles here in the US since the late 80's. Listening to their songs is like taking a master's class in Pop Songwriting. Brilliant!

[Ian Sane]

Crowded House were a great pop/rock band with some stellar tracks.

It's such a shame Paul Hester left us so early. Not only was he a good drummer, he was a funny guy as well.

The four studio albums the band recorded are all top-notch discs.

[smithjc]

It's nice to see them back together again. They were very underrated. I loved the vids from them.

RIP Paul.

[Rovus]

It's such a shame Paul Hester left us so early. Not only was he a good drummer, he was a funny guy as well.

What made it even more sadder was the manner in which Paul died. I remember had just left my job and was having a big night out and some guy doing Karaoke was singing 'Don't Dream It's Over' in the pub which made everyone pretty emotional.

Crowded House songs always put a smile on my face.