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Eddie Rayner

© Anne-Marie de Bruin

Last December was the 25th Anniversary of Split Enz, and I interviewed Enzers Tim Finn, Mike Chunn and Eddie Rayner for the occasion. Like my interview with Mike Chunn published here some weeks ago, here are some highlights of the interview with Split Enz keyboardist and ENZSO mastermind Eddie Rayner, which did not make it into the original article.

Tell us about ENZSO, the Split Enz orchestral project.

"ENZSO was a project that I did off my own bat really. It was one of those things that I'd sort of been a bit worried about as a musician - about not being able to read music and not really knowing anything about classical music and the theoretical and not having been well schooled in anything. When I heard there was an album with symphonic Rolling Stone music out there, and a Pink Floyd one, and that Peter Scholes, the guy who conducted and actually wrote the arrangements lived in New Zealand and so having a fair bit of time on my hands at the time I thought I'd give it a go with Split Enz music because I knew it so well. It seemed like there's a market for it, and the record company wanted to do it (Sony) and the guys in the band liked the synthesised arrangements I was doing, so it just seemed like a good idea at the time."

Are you doing ENZSO 2?

"Well I'm thinking about it, and I've got some arrangements left over from the first album which I really would like to record. I've got a certain sense of frustration about the first album, it wasn't the album I wanted it to be. It was recorded in pretty adverse conditions and I'm really convinced that I can make a really good record. I probably will make an ENZSO 2. Sony are trying to convince me to do it and I feel like there's a certain amount of unfinished business there you know. I lived a lot since the first record, and I'm sure that I can do a better one, and I'd like to do a better one- but I'm still not utterly convinced that I should do another one."

What was your most memorable Enz experience?

"There's a lot of really fantastic gigs...its all a big blur really! Probably living in England - just living there for those few years was probably one of the experiences I'll remember. We lived out in the countryside; we didn't live in inner London and I lived in Hertfordshire, in the country. That was beautiful in the country, and a really happy time."

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