Forget seeing red. These days Tim Finn is more interested in documenting the shafts of bright light and occasional shades of grey that punctuate his existence.
At 59, Finn has much on which to reflect. Yet rather than wheel off story after story of the glory days of Split Enz, the group he co-founded in New Zealand in the early 1970s, or his comings and goings with brother Neil's successful Crowded House outfit, he's a man content to be knee-deep in the present.
Married, father to a 13-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl, living in Auckland, the dynamics of daily life for Finn are little different from many others, though he does avoid any career-forced commute. Instead, the work comes to him or, as is often the case, resides within him.
His forthcoming solo album, the aptly named The View Is Worth The Climb, is a good example.
Sitting around home one day, Finn received some spam in which were listed a range of music producers and mixers. Among the names was Jacquire King, an American producer whose track record piqued Finn's interest.
"I saw he'd done Tom Waits' Mule Variations and the Kings Of Leon and Norah Jones; I just thought it was such an eclectic mix - he's not particularly doing just one thing - and I thought that sounded good. I like the warmth he gets into his records," Finn explains by phone from Auckland last week.
"Once I got Jacquire interested in producing an album, I had about a year to get him out here, so it was a nice unhurried phase of writing. The songs welled up in a very natural way. There wasn't the usual kind of urgency of an album coming up in the next couple of months.
"I was sending MP3s to Jacquire, who'd give his feedback and I'd rework. It was a real collaboration so that by the time he got out here we were in sync. I knew he was at the top of his game so it inspired me to attempt to match him with my songs and try to make something special together."
Studio time at Neil Finn's Roundhead facility was booked, as was an impressive studio band featuring drummer Joey Waronker (whose credits include Beck, REM, Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Norah Jones), keyboardist Zac Rae (Beck, Cold War Kids), guitarist Brett Adams (the Mockers, the Bads), bassist Tony Buchen (Andy Bull) and multi-instrumentalist Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle).
Clearly, a track record such as that of Finn (whose canon includes I Hope I Never, Persuasion, Poor Boy, I See Red and many others) means he is able to entice a person of King's calibre to cross the seas. It is put to him that perhaps he is also at a stage in his career when he can afford to take a year to write an album.
"There is truth in that," Finn agrees. "But, having said that, I think most people would take that if they were touring and playing. A year isn't that long. I always think of people like Patti Smith, who took 15 years between records.
"I don't tour for as long as I used to and I do spend more time at home.
"I find home life very creative and am reluctant to leave it sometimes, because it is fun writing and being inspired here by relationships and children. I find family life a very pleasurable stage. Generally speaking, it has been very good for me."
The View Is Worth The Climb deals with a range of emotions from friends and the "frailty of human relationships" to fatherhood. At times, Finn completes the cycle of life within a single song; Wild Sweet Children begins with him referring to his own childhood before dealing with parenthood and "all the shenanigans of that".
"The song finishes with the kids doing this insane outro. We went on holiday last year and they got hooked on this pop song - I can't remember what it was - which had a keyboard line that held one note and they kept singing it in the back seat. I thought I'd get them back by having them record it over and over. Of course, they did it first take."
In fact, that sums up the short-sharp ethos behind The View Is Worth The Climb. With only 12 days booked at Roundhead, most of the songs were recorded as live takes, overdubbing largely restricted to backing vocals and percussion.
"When you've got great people and the songs are fully written and I'm confident I can sing live without having to go off and finish lyrics or anything, you get a lot of momentum. You aren't wondering about some different approach.
"I know that Brett [Adams, guitar player] always comes prepared and he brings in some beautiful lines. I've worked a lot with Brett over the years and I love his playing. I knew that would be an integral part of the sound," Finn says of an album that is defined by its warm and inventive guitar tones.
"The others did get demos so they were roughly acquainted with it. But some of them are so busy. Joey, the drummer, for instance, came off a tour through South America with Norah Jones. He's the go-to drummer for a lot of people, so I doubt he learned any parts; he just plays the song - that's what I love about him."
Finn's ninth solo album,The View Is Worth The Climb is sometimes cunningly simple, other times delicately sophisticated. Whatever the approach, Finn's songs encapsulate a point perhaps overlooked by other songwriters: don't second-guess your art.
"We did play around with different approaches on a couple of songs but it was pretty much a case of first-thought, best-thought. I'm still hearing stuff now that I didn't notice at the time because we were moving so quickly. Yet it wasn't hurried," Finn says.
"It is detailed because the musicians are so good. We had a keyboard player who could actually create architecture and a guitarist who is very melodic. There were also three singers in the band as well as an amazing drummer.
"Jacquire is a really well-rounded producer. He's an engineer as well, so you know the sound is going to be great. He's also good at suggesting song changes and getting the best out of my vocals. He does shape it; it is very much his sound; he is sculpting it.
"He knew exactly how to set up the room so we could feed off one another; he wasn't fussy about shielding off the drums, so we could play in this big open space. I loved that.
"I wanted to return to a band situation - drums, bass and guitar all in a room together, like in a practice room where we could all see each other. It was very much like that. It was just like the early days of being a singer in a band."
A couple of years back, Finn released an anthology, North, South, East, West. Its 35 songs spanned four decades of output; along with tracks he wrote while with Split Enz and Crowded House, there were also more than a few taken from the eight solo albums he had released up until 2009.
At that point, Finn wasn't sure he'd record any more solo albums, at least not for quite some time, yet here he is, discussing the process by which he is still attempting to capture beauty in its various guises.
He espouses the redemptive nature of music, pointing out that the very process of writing a song (or a book, or painting a picture) is of value; a song requires no external validation to be of merit.
"All art talks about beauty, really, whether it is wailing about the lack of it or celebrating it. It's about the search for beauty and whether you find that in the dark side or in something much more homely. Beauty is there to be discovered."
For Finn, songwriting also offers a meditative quality.
"I find that especially so when I'm playing the piano in the sense that all your thoughts, all the background chatter, goes away and you can be still for a while."
The subject of golf arises briefly.
It's a sport that sometimes offers its practitioners a visual reward. Hit a shot well and one is allowed the brief joy of watching the ball soar then land, a trajectory that sometimes burns its way into the memory banks of the hacker, who is compelled to attempt to revisit the experience.
Finn warms to the analogy: "Dad still plays golf and he's 89. There is a redemptive quality in that for him. It has taught him so much in his life. It's not a game I've taken to - I find it insanely difficult and it drives me crazy - but those who work at it do get that pleasure of the power of the swing even if it only happens occasionally.
"It is very much about learning. I think I learn about life through being a songwriter. Everybody's got their thing that they do.
"It is very inspiring and it makes you feel good. You know there will be others who get it - whether it is 10 people or a thousand people. You just know within yourself that there is something human going on. It's beautiful to give it form."
Finn has also been branching out of late. Soundtrack work for a film based on Lloyd Jones' novel Mister Pip has him peering into the musical landscape of Bougainville.
"I'm just in the early stages so, again, it's a long time-frame. That's exciting and interesting. I haven't pursued soundtrack work but it seems a good time now to do something like that."
Also on the horizon are album launch parties in Auckland and Sydney as well as The Falls music festival in Australia at New Year, after which he's planning to play a series of summer concerts around New Zealand.
Then there's the small issue of a 60th birthday party to organise towards the middle of next year (Finn was born on June 25, 1952).
Old mate Mike Chunn (also a member of Split Enz, as well as former head of the Australasian Performing Right Association and founder of the Play It Strange schools songwriting initiative), also turns 60 next year, hence there are whispers of a dual celebration.
"He's a mate of mine from back in boarding school days," Finn says.
"We have toyed with the idea of a combined party with lots of music."
• The album
Tim Finn's The View Is Worth The Climb is released on August 29.
TIM FINN'S SOLO ALBUMS
• Escapade, 1983
• Big Canoe, 1986
• Tim Finn, 1989
• Before & After, 1993
• Say It Is So, 1999
• Feeding The Gods, 2001
• Imaginary Kingdom, 2006
• The Conversation, 2008
• The View Is Worth The Climb, 2011
Also: North, South, East, West (2009 anthology featuring solo material as well as songs Finn penned as a member of Split Enz and Crowded House)
