Tim Finn’s garage discovery: Chrissy Amphlett recordings set for release

He was unable to find the recording after Amphlett’s death of breast cancer in 2013 aged 53.

Chrissy Amphlett was one of Australia’s most iconic frontwomen. Photo / Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images

That changed in 2023 when Finn was rummaging through his garage and stumbled across a tape labelled with Amphlett’s name.

Finn, a founding member of Split Enz, is based in Auckland’s Devonport, but owns a property in Potts Point, Sydney.

He previously lived in Melbourne’s Caufield North, where Crowded House famously wrote and recorded the album Woodface in the early 90s.

Tim Finn and brother Neil Finn were at the centre of Kiwi bands Split Enz and Crowded House. Photo / Impressions Photography, Getty Images

“To hear her voice, clear and just on its own … to hear it in its raw essence on a single file is really something,” he said of listening to the unreleased songs.

“Knowing that she’s passed and not with us anymore.”

Finn recalled feeling an immediate artistic connection with Amphlett when they first recorded the tracks together, describing her as a “great talent”.

“It was like that thing when you see two animals kind of look at each other”, he said.

“It’s almost like a mirror … when you’re a performer, and you’re a lead singer of a band … there’s a recognition factor.”

Chrissy Amphlett is being remembered in a new two-part series about her life. Photo / Al Pereira, Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

The newly discovered songs have been mixed and set for release this week under the title Some Times, alongside a two-part series Wild: Chrissy Amphlett.

Amphlett had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the early 2000s and continued performing, despite her illness, until her death.

She was married to Divinyls drummer Charley Drayton and had previously been in a relationship with the band’s co-founder Mark McEntee.

Drayton, who first wrote to Finn about the tapes, said the new music was “something we all need”.

“We never, in a certain sense, had closure with how Chrissy left us.”