When The Chills’ songwriter and sole fixed Martin Phillipps died in July 2024, he left behind a final testomony. His band’s eighth and closing album, Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs, contains recent takes on demo tapes from the ’80s and ’90s. “These had been issues that he was presupposed to document again within the day, however by no means obtained round to as a result of he had a lot materials,” explains Todd Knudson, The Chills’ drummer since 1999. “He was not very nicely and struggling a bit, however I feel he knew that with all of the harm he’d performed to himself, he solely had a sure period of time and he needed to finish issues. He was a little bit of a completist anyway. And this album brings him full circle.”
Fashioned in 1980 in Dunedin, New Zealand, The Chills led an area scene that helped outline indie-rock. Phillipps refreshed ‘60s verities by mixing melancholy sensitivity with darkish lyrical twists, punk idiosyncrasy and aggression, his compatriot Neil Finn noting (in 2019 documentary The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps) “a way of longing, a little bit alienation, but additionally an embrace of all these issues”. The band’s affect extends far and extensive. “The Chills have this outsider attractiveness,” Jane Weaver tells Uncut. “Martin Phillipps was such an enigmatic frontman, poetic and deep in his phrases however then melodic and poppy – a bittersweet combine.”
Phillipps’ character might be equally knotty and rewarding. “He might seem to be he’s on one other planet, like an alien,” recollects Chills bassist Callum Hampton. “His sense of humour didn’t come out within the songs, however he was very dry, very fast.” Knudson concurs: “In one other life he might have been a comic – or a pirate!”
Phillipps practically died within the 2010s from alcoholism and Hepatitis C, contracted as a consequence of earlier heroin dependancy. Restoration from each gave him a brand new, pressing lease of life. “Did he have a way of restricted time? Positively,” Knudson says. “He felt fortunate to be given a second likelihood and he went for it.” The Chills launched three albums since 2015 (having solely managed 4 within the earlier 35 years) and this momentum was maintained for Spring Board.“All the songs wanted varied levels of rewriting,” Phillipps mentioned of the venture. “A 60-year-old man couldn’t simply persist with the lyrics of these youth.” Nonetheless, his chosen closing music, “I Don’t Need To Dwell Eternally”, with its now-poignant line “There’s a lot to do earlier than I’m by”, was left largely intact. “I don’t assume he modified it from the demo,” Hampton says. “That’s him within the ’90s.”
Phillipps had been anticipating a February 2025 reside return to the UK and Europe. “The precise final present was in Galway,” Hampton says. “However the final New Zealand present was at Feastock [on April 22, 2023], a competition within the yard of my home with a couple of hundred individuals. Martin was like, ‘Fuck yeah, we’ll play that.’ He cherished it, and afterwards he watched all the opposite Dunedin bands and chatted away. It was a particular second.”
Jane Weaver recollects one other shifting scene. “After supporting The Chills within the US, I purchased Martin a signed card from the band to say, ‘Thanks a lot for having us on tour!’ Our bass participant noticed Martin open the cardboard and browse it – he mentioned he was taking a look at it for ages like he was actually touched by the easy gesture. It makes me cry a bit now, as Martin was such a candy man.”
“I nonetheless discuss to Martin, and I miss him quite a bit,” Knudson says. “However then I keep in mind the physique of labor he put out. My goodness!”
Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs is on the market now from Fireplace
