Pajama Club LP

Featuring Neil and Sharon Finn

The surprise musical twist has been a recurring motif in Neil Finn's long career. But not even his wife suspected this latest one was going to start ramping up after he got his pajamas on. Nor that she would share equal responsibility for its irresistibly strange and propulsive grooves.

The Pajama Club began as a private after-dinner racket to fill an empty nest. With their two sons, musicians in their own right, off and away into the big old world, Neil and Sharon found themselves home alone with time, a sensible supply of red wine, copious musical instruments and a 16-track tape recorder on their hands.

In between unfamiliar tools and naive enthusiasm, a fresh and potent musical chemistry had erupted. It travelled the world on hard drive as Neil toured with Crowded House through 2009. In far-flung hotel rooms he added guitar, keyboard and other melodic lines to take home to Auckland.

Enter Sean Donnelly, a local friend with a shared taste for sonic intrigue - as heard on numerous indie albums under the SJD banner. Neil and Sharon's lounge room funk grooves began to expand into new realms as the jams rolled out into fully formed tunes. Vocal contributions evolved in similar natural fashion.

Two tunes on the album feature sole studio interloper Johnny Marr, who played through every song in their early stages in a blaze of first take glory. But not even the former Smiths guitarist survived every twist in the Pajama Club's relentless evolution.

The final mystery - how to dress the Pajama Club to tour the world - was solved with the smiling arrival of former Grates drummer Alana Skyring. The choice "was instinctive," says Sharon. "It was a hunch. She came over for two days, we played and it immediately felt good. So here we are."