Liam Finn: Daredevil walks a tightrope

Based in New York, Liam Finn is enjoying performing intimate, low-key shows.

Liam Finn's penchant for experimentation shines, notes Paula Yeoman.

It's a cliche that usually makes musos shudder but for Liam Finn his 2012 record FOMO really was that "difficult second album". This time around, however, there's genuine delight in his voice, as he describes over the phone from his home in New York, just how much he loved making his third, The Nihilist.

"I didn't want to believe in that cliche but ultimately it was kind of true. It didn't mean that I wasn't happy with the result but the psychology of making that record was a lot more fraught. You know, confusion and not really knowing what I wanted to be, or what it was supposed to be; that weight of expectation," explains the Kiwi singer-songwriter.

"But definitely with this one, I felt a real sense of relief. Especially that I wrote it here [in New York] as well. I felt a bit more anonymous, I felt like I could kind of treat it like a first record again and just really enjoy it."

Finn spent much more time on this record "sort of obsessing over it in a half maddening, half pleasurable way", he says. "You know, just really indulging what it is I love about making music."

Fans, or anyone who has seen him live, will know Finn likes to push boundaries. And he's really gone for it on The Nihilist - the dreamy soundscape opener Ocean Emmanuelle dissolves into the urgent and crashing title track, while just around the next corner sits the sweet ballad Snug As F***. And so on. There's nothing predictable here.

"It's a tightrope that you walk," he says of his penchant for experimentation. "I love pop music and I love things that are pleasant to the ear. And I love things that are really unpleasant to listen to."

Now post-album release, Finn's busy plotting out a new approach to performing live.

"I'm just trying to reevaluate what works for me in music, and the old archaic traditions of making a record, then touring and doing the hard slog for a year, doesn't work as much as it used to. It's become harder and harder to tour - the travel and the excess baggage, having a band and stuff like that."

Finn has just wrapped up a month-long residency at the Union Pool in Brooklyn. And for the time being, he's content to stay put in the city that's inspired yet another damn fine album.

"Low-pressure, low-key, intimate shows. It's something I've always been quite drawn to doing. It feels like a more exciting way that necessarily getting in a van and driving every day. I love touring, but I sort of like the idea of people coming to us."

Liam Finn's The Nihilist is out now.