Hailed as an indie wunderkind in America, Liam Finn is still a good Kiwi lad, right down to his avocado sandwiches. Good caught up with him at the beginning of his US tour on board a bus that runs on biofuel
Hailed as an indie wunderkind in America, Liam Finn is still a good Kiwi lad, right down to his avocado sandwiches. Good caught up with him at the beginning of his US tour on board a bus that runs on biofuel
Photo by Jim Marks
We’ve always been quite an aware family and tried to do our bit. My dad was always telling us to turn off the lights and other simple stuff like that. I think because we’ve got such a green country most New Zealanders feel a certain pride in trying to maintain that.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time in Piha and it’s very much my spiritual home and where I’m most relaxed. There’s something about when you get to the top of the Waitakeres and you start heading down that hill, all your worries and stresses are left at the top and you don’t pick them up until you go back. It’s hard to find that kind of serenity in London.
Travelling around on a bus you do end up having to eat in a lot of roadside shitholes but usually I’m more health-conscious than that. We’ve been buying bread and avocados and making sandwiches.
Americans just think we’re all quirky, funny people thanks to Flight of the Conchords. Being a New Zealander gets you off speeding tickets with cops and gets you into places. It’s pretty awesome pulling out the New Zealand card!
This last two years has been crazy amounts of flying and travelling around, which is pretty exhausting on the body and soul. It made me think that if fuel prices went up so high that it was $10,000 to fly to America it would be kind of nice to be stuck in New Zealand.
I don’t worry about climate change too much because I don’t want to live in fear. There are obviously changes that are happening and whether it’s going to be the end of us I don’t know. But at the same time I think it’s important that we change the way we live.
One of the efforts I made was to do my album in fully biodegradable packaging. Even the plastic shrink wrap that we sold it in was made out of vegetable sugar. You can buy cigarette papers made from the same stuff, so I guess that means you could actually smoke my album which is pretty cool.
I think the world will be a better place if people look after the people around them. That would have an immediate and a positive effect. I also think that people being happier makes the world a better place.
I saw documentary about those houses in Arizona that are made out of recycled materials which I really liked. I don’t know how they’d go down in New Zealand but we’re about to go to Arizona so we’re going to look out for them. An earthship in Piha, now that would be pretty cool!
