By Hamish McNeilly
Martin Phillipps penned heavenly pop hits across a five-decade long career, while overcoming some of life’s hardships.
The Chills’ frontman is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest songwriters, and name checked by the likes of Iggy Pop, Neil Finn, influential DJ, the late John Peel, and American indie royalty REM and Pavement.
Martin Phillips in 2019 with some of his vast collection of books and CDs.
The 61-year-old died in his home in the Dunedin suburb of Tainui on Sunday afternoon.
“It is with broken hearts the family and friends of Martin Phillipps wish to advise Martin has died unexpectedly,” long-serving band manager Scott Muir said in a statement.
In a moving tribute, Crowded House singer Neil Finn wrote of Phillipps, “He was a good friend, wonderful musician and one of NZ’s greatest songwriters”.
“A true original, fascinated by and devoted to the magic and mystery of music. His recent work was as good as anything he’s done. Martin’s songs live on with his spirit.”
Martin Philllipps in Sydney in 1992.Credit: Paul Jones/Fairfax Media
Singer Nadia Reid wrote: “Bless you and may you be at peace now — beyond the pain of this physical world”.
Fellow singer/songwriter Don McGlashan wrote: “He was one of the first musicians who showed us that you could wear your heart on your sleeve and be an artist in this strange country”.
Ricky Maymi, of seminal American psychedelic band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, also paid tribute to enigmatic frontman. “Martin and I ended up becoming mates and meeting up all over the planet over the following years. I am deeply, profoundly, grateful to have met the man, to have seen him play so many times all around the world, and to have gotten to know him as a mate.”
Phillipps’ musical journey with The Chills began in 1980, when he was just 17, quickly making a name for himself as a prolific songwriter.
Many of those songs involved a familiar sound of keyboard and guitars, and featured psychedelic lyrics.
That was evident on the band’s first single, Rolling Moon, on the fledgling Christchurch-based Flying Nun label, which laid the blueprint for future work by The Chills.
The song, which remained a live favourite through the decades, peaked at number 26 on the charts, despite almost no airplay from commercial radio.
The Chills (from left) Justin Harwood, Andrew Todd, Caroline Easther and Martin Phillipps in 1988.Credit: Tony Mott, G.R.E.E.N.
The single came hot of the heels of three tracks, including Kaleidoscope World, which featured on the famed Dunedin Double recording. That EP cemented the band as one of the luminaries of the growing “Dunedin Sound” scene, which included likes of The Clean, The Verlaines, and Straitjacket Fits.
The death of drummer Martyn Bull of leukaemia on July 18, 1983 severely impacted Phillipps and the band, which was already on its seventh lineup. But the singleminded Phillips forged on, producing a series of songs which would be demanded from audiences decades later.
Phillipps was 61 when he died
The band later sold thousands of copies of their compilation album, Kaleidoscope World, and at the end of 1986 recorded another fan favourite: I Love My Leather Jacket, a homage to the gift that Bull had left Phillipps.
The band’s debut album, Brave Words (which was recently reissued on vinyl) came out a year later, and followed a long tour around Europe.
The band signed a 1989 multi-album deal with record company Slash, which would feature the band’s most successful album, Submarine Bells. That album featured the lead single, the perfectly named Heavenly Pop Hit, another future staple from The Chills’ set list.
While mainstream success seemed destined for the band, years of touring, line-up changes, and what Phillipps dubbed the “curse of The Chills” took its toll.
A poorly received follow-up album, Soft Bomb, coupled with Phillipps’ growing addiction for alcohol and drugs meant the band was no longer in vogue in an era where grunge ruled.
It was during that decade that Phillipps got Hepatitis C, with the virus attacking a liver already impacted by alcohol, and threatened to end his life.
While Phillipps battled depression over this period, he continued with his music, and it led to a late career revival.
Phillipps began to mine the creative treasure trove of unfinished songs he had compiled over the decades, including Snow Bound in 2018, and Scatterbrain in 2022, and began touring domestically and internationally.
Phillipps, in one of his final interviews, mentioned a new album, Springboard: Early Unrecorded Songs, which was due for release later this year, and featured the likes of Neil Finn, Julia Deans and Troy Kingi.
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