The song is the band’s first new music since 2021
Crowded House have unveiled a new single, “Oh Hi.” The buoyant song, the band’s first original music in two years, was influenced by band leader Neil Finn‘s support for So They Can, an international nonprofit focused on building schools in remote parts of Kenya and Tanzania.
“I’m hoping the song comes across without needing to know the backstory,” Finn said in a statement. “But it’s very much inspired by these incredible kids and their magnificence.”
Crowded House last dropped new music in 2021 with studio LP Dreamers Are Waiting. The group was previously on pause, with Finn joining Fleetwood Mac in 2018. But the musician decided to bring back Crowded House in 2021 with his sons Liam and Elroy as official members.
“We don’t want to be that same band now,” Finn told Rolling Stone. “I like to think the songs can be equally as good. Some people will find them not as immediately catchy or classic-sounding, but it’s worth remembering that when we handed our first record into Capitol, nobody was saying it was going to go straight onto the radio. They were like, ‘I don’t know if you have the singles.’ Sometimes hits and popular songs aren’t obvious until they happen.”
He added of his future plans for Crowded House, “We feel a tremendous potential in the band. We’ve done these shows and we’ve grown. It’s filled us with wonder about the whole thing. We’d like to get together and have another album next year, hopefully.”