A Conversation with Nick Seymour (continued)

PM: So it's interesting, after all the early hubbub, at least in some areas of the press, about whether the band was Australian or from New Zealand, that now it's half American.

[laughter]

NS: Right, yes. Now it's the weirdest thing, we don't technically qualify as an Australian band anymore! When Paul was alive, it was Nick and Paul were Australian, and Neil was from New Zealand. So we qualified for all the Australian music awards. And New Zealand, of course, claimed us as a New Zealand band because there was a Kiwi. But since we've reformed, Neil is a Kiwi, Nick is an Aussie who's going to an Irish passport, and Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod are both Americans.

PM: Can you guys win a Grammy now?

NS: Yeah, we could! Let's hope. Well, what's amazing about the Grammys is they don't discriminate as to your country of origin.

PM: Of course they don't, right.

NS: I quite like that. That's probably the only thing I like about the Grammys. The rest of it sucks.

PM: I can't even watch it.

NS: Except that they gave the Dixie Chicks a really good pat on the back last year. I thought that was fantastic.

PM: To say the least. I mean, they just seemed to win everything.

NS: It was amazing that there wasn't a single nomination in the country music awards.

PM: Yeah. I live in Nashville, so I know from whence you speak. And it's yeah, it's unconscionable, really, yeah.

NS: Yeah.

PM: The small-mindedness of country radio, Clear Channel, and Nashville in general is never to be underestimated. It's astonishing.

NS: Incredible.

PM: So what are the musical brothers up to, both Neil's brother Tim and your brother, Mark?

NS: Tim has a new album out called Imaginary Kingdom. In fact, I think he did that in Nashville. [more about Tim Finn here]

My brother Mark has got a new album coming out in Australia called Westgate. And I think it's coming out in Canada as well. He's got a bit of a groundswell of interest up there.

PM: Wow. And will it come out under his name or a group name?

NS: Yeah. Yeah, it'll be under Mark Seymour.

PM: Cool.  [There's a great photo of Mark & Nick here.]

So Crowded House has always been known for making that connection with the audience that is so important, even in big shows. How is that done, would you say?

NS: It's just one foot in front of the other, really. I mean, we just play to the room. So if there's some kind of resonant vibration in the room, we'll try to mine it, find it, and then try to exploit it. We're always changing the set from night to night. There will often be a theme that we sort of come up with in the first couple songs, or the gate that we seem to go back through during the night. But I think it's really just to try and make everything memorable, so that down the track someone will come up to you and say, "Oh, I saw you in Nashville. That was the night where you were discussing whether a cabbage is indeed a vegetable or a legume."

[laughter]

PM: Indeed. Yeah, just make everything new, and make it that night, and just find a way to the room.

NS: But these days, of course, most places have got WiFi and people can sit there with their personal Blackberries and look up on Wikipedia whether a legume is indeed inclusive of cabbage.

[laughter]

PM: And these venues on this tour look pretty dang big, a lot of stadiums in there?

NS: Yeah, yeah. I mean, are we being overly ambitious? I'm not sure.

PM: No, I doubt that.

NS: We'll see when we get there. I mean, the promoters seem to be keen on it.

PM: No, I don't think it's overly so.  

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