Pajama Club are a rock band from

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, formed in 2011. They consist of

Neil Finn Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician who is known for being a member of Crowded House, Split Enz (which he co-fronted with brother Tim), and Fleetwood Mac. Finn rose to prominence in the late ...

, Sharon Finn, Sean Donnelly, and Alana Skyring. After recording their first album with Neil Finn on drums (as well as guitars, keyboards and vocals), drummer Alana Skyring (formerly of The Grates) was added to the line-up as an official fourth member to play on live dates. They toured Australia in June 2011, East Coast USA in June and July 2011 and West Coast USA in August 2011. These live dates all took place before the release of their album. Pajama Club's self-titled debut was released in September 2011 (9 September in Australia/New Zealand, 13th in North America and 19th in Europe). Since that time, Pajama Club has been inactive, though no formal announcement as to the band's current status has been made.

Background

After Sharon and

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. ...

Finn's children,

Liam Liam is a short form of the Irish name Uilliam or the old Germanic name William. Etymology The original name was a merging of two Old German elements: ''willa'' ("will" or "resolution"); and ''helma'' ("helmet"). The juxtaposition of these e ...

and Elroy, left the family home to pursue their own musical careers, the parents wondered what to do to fill the time left open by their children's absence. The two decided to repair the music room in their

home and begin making music of their own: "We've had a bit more time on our hands since the boys left home, and we just decided to make a record. It was as simple as that. We called the group Pajama Club, because we were dressed in our pajamas when we started." (The group was in fact originally called Pajama Party, but was changed very early on due to another group having the same name.) With Pajama Club, Sharon began to play the

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, while Neil sat behind the

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

set, despite the fact that neither had played either instrument before. Neil commented that "We found ourselves locking into these grooves which were incredibly fun to play...We naturally gravitated towards being ' funky'," drawing influence from

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Mott Haven, Melrose, and Port Morris. In the early 1900s, the South Bronx was orig ...

band ESG. With Pajama Club, Neil employed a different style of songwriting, adding words to instrumentals as opposed to

Crowded House Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Late ...

's method of writing instrument parts after the lyrics. He felt energized by the experience: "It was all new to me, it felt like starting over. When you've been doing something for as long as I've been writing songs, you can feel like you've exhausted your reservoir of ideas. Discovering new methods, new angles on songwriting, was very exciting." The music takes influence from dub,

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

, and funk, and uses

motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for " motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock ba ...

-style beats. He stated "Some people aren't gonna get it; it's not as 'songy', in a traditional way, as Crowded House...I like what happens when you keep yourself open to new things happening. It keeps the music fresh and alive." Pajama Club also features vocals from Sharon, who previously sang backing vocals on a number of Crowded House songs.

Discography

* '' Pajama Club'' - 2011 Lester Records (CD/Vinyl/Download) (UK chart peak: #154, AUS: #61)http://zobbel.de/cluk/111001cluk.txt

External links

References

{{Neil Finn New Zealand pop music groups 2011 establishments in New Zealand