Crowded House’s newest member tells us about the time he accidentally harshed the buzz of a 90s alt rock icon, becoming a dad and more.

If you asked 100 fans to name Liam Finn’s first band, most would say Betchadupa. Some might recognise this as a trick question and say Lazy Boy. Only the truest fans would know neither of these answers are correct. 

“My first ever band was when I was probably about two years old and I told my parents that I had a band called Gaga Guts,” Finn says. “That just was me beating my pillows with drumsticks and probably screaming.”

The first songs he wrote and released were indeed with Betchadupa, a band he formed with friends when they were just 14. One of their first big gigs came in 2001, when the youngsters opened for the notoriously difficult alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols at Auckland venue The Powerstation.

On a rock’n’roll high at the afterparty, the 17-year-old Finn introduced himself to Warhols singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor. “He basically told me that we totally harshed their buzz because we were a punk band … and they were all about being groovy and stuff,” Finn remembers. “I just thought, what a dick.”

Finn has released several successful solo albums and embarked on a number of other musical projects since then. Last year he and brother Elroy became official members of his dad’s band, Crowded House. Their first album together, Dreamers Are Waiting, is out on June 4 – expect the buzz to be immaculate.

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This episode of FIRST was made with the support of NZ On Air