Photo: Herman Nijhof
Martin Phillipps, the heart and soul behind New Zealand’s jangle-pop band The Chills, met a sudden end after a recent stay at Dunedin Hospital with complications from his long bout with Hepatitis C. Phillipps was 61. The news of his passing broke on Sunday, the 28th of July, through The Chills’ social media channels.
“It is with broken hearts the family and friends of Martin Phillipps wish to advised Martin has died unexpectedly. “The family ask for privacy at this time. Funeral arrangements will be advised in due course.”
The Chills, hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand, sprang to life in 1980. They anchored the Dunedin Sound, an indie pop subgenre championed by Flying Nun Records. With jangly guitars, melodic basslines, and lo-fi grit, they carved out a niche that mixed punk, pop, and psychedelia. Their music, rich in emotion and melody, stood tall alongside the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Split Enz, and the Magnetic Fields. The Chills’ influence rippled far beyond New Zealand, inspiring overseas acts like REM, Yo La Tengo, and Pavement. Iggy Pop hailed them as “fine art” on his radio show.
Their breakthrough came with the 1984 single Pink Frost, followed by a string of successful releases, including Doledrums, I Love My Leather Jacket, and the 1987 album Brave Words. Their 1990 album Submarine Bells, featuring the hit Heavenly Pop Hit, brought international recognition.
The band thought Pink Frost sounded decent but believed they could produce a superior version, so the initial recordings were shelved. Tragedy struck when drummer Martyn Bull fell ill and passed away from leukemia in July 1983. Faced with this loss, they revisited the original tapes and realized they were good enough, with just a new vocal track and guitar overdub needed.
The ’90s were turbulent, marked by lineup changes and Phillipps’s personal struggles, yet they continued producing music. In the 2010s, The Chills experienced a resurgence. Phillipps’s determination led to Silver Bullets (2015) and Snow Bound (2018), both critically acclaimed.
Despite his sudden departure Phillipps had long known his mortality would catch up to him, and in fact faced it bravely.
In 2019, the documentary The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps took a hard look at the band’s storied past and Phillipps’s personal struggle with Hepatitis C. The film painted a poignant picture of a life steeped in musical brilliance and personal turmoil. Phillipps gave documentarians Julia Parnell and Rob Curry unfettered access to his treatment process, weaving candid moments with interviews from numerous former bandmates. The result was a compassionate yet unflinching look at the chaos of addiction, showing the gritty – and grim – reality behind the music.
“I do have regrets,” Phillipps admitted. “I’ve told myself the appropriate lies. You go to great lengths to create a self-serving reality.”
In a 2021 interview with RNZ, Phillipps confessed that watching the documentary led to some self-reflection.
“I had not sort of seen how basically odd I was and how that impacted on other people and that gave me a lot of cause for reconsidering things that had happened in the past and so on,” he said. “I know that I’m not a hurtful person by nature, but realising that just the sheer being unaware of people’s situations around me could also be hurtful, so that was quite a revelation really.”
Despite his challenges, Phillipps’ legacy as a songwriter is remarkable, with a body of work that will stand the test of time.
Follow The Chills:
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