The Chills

Antipodean isolation bred a unique musical scene in New Zealand in the '80s, when bands like the Clean, Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, Straitjacket Fits, the Verlaines, and the Jean Paul Sartre Experience created postpunk singer/songwriter music. The Chills were the first of several Kiwi bands to be signed by American labels; in 1992 the band, always a volatile unit, exploded under the pressure of being an international act.

Martin Phillipps began playing music at 15 when he joined the Same, one of Dunedin's first punk bands. He started the Chills in 1980 with ex-Clean guitarist Peter Gutteridge (later of Snapper). Gutteridge soon left the group, thus starting the endless cycle of personnel changes that saw 14 Chills lineups in 12 years. In March 1982 the band recorded three songs for the Dunedin Double EP, the debut compilation from Flying Nun, the record company that soon became synonymous with the sound of the South Island.

In May ’82 the Chills recorded their first single, “Rolling Moon,” and the following month drummer Martyn Bull was diagnosed with leukemia. The band took a brief hiatus, then resumed under the moniker Time Flies, with the Clean’s David Kilgour. That lineup lasted only a few months. In July 1983 Bull died, a traumatic event in Phillipps’ life, which he later commemorated on the single “I Love My Leather Jacket.”

Later in 1983 Phillipps re-formed the band with an eighth lineup and the name a Wrinkle in Time, but soon reverted to the Chills. In 1984 the band released its second and third singles, “Pink Frost” and “Doledrums,” and recorded The Lost EP. The next year the Chills’ ninth lineup made its first overseas trip to England. They were well received by the press there and promoted by influential disc jockey John Peel. On returning to New Zealand, however, the band broke up again.

In 1986 the British label Creation issued Kaleidoscope World, a collection of singles. The Chills finally released their first album, Brave Words, the following year. They played the New Music Seminar in New York that summer and spent the fall in Europe negotiating a record deal and touring. In 1988 the eleventh version of the Chills toured the U.S., then relocated to Europe.

The Chills signed to Slash and recorded Submarine Bells in 1989. The album was released in 1990 to critical acclaim, but the single “Heavenly Pop Hit” failed to live up to its title. The band collapsed again that summer, and after going through several more lineups, Phillipps recorded Soft Bomb basically as a solo effort, accompanied by longtime Chill Terry Moore. The album was wanly received, and at the end of a bitter U.S. tour, Phillipps announced the Chills’ demise at a New York show.

But, in keeping with the band’s on-again, off-again past, things weren’t over yet. Instead of launching his solo career outright, Phillipps opted for a compromise. The next album, 1996’s Sunburnt, was credited to Martin Phillipps and the Chills and included XTC members as guests. In addition to the name change, the sound was a bit more spare than lush older tunes like “Heavenly Pop Hit.”

While the fate of the Chills as a proper group was continually debated as the band marked its 20th anniversary in 2000, Phillipps worked with members of the Clean in the New Zealand supergroup the Pop Art Toasters. He toured alone in 1999 to promote his solo album, Sketchbook, a compilation of home recordings and unreleased material written from 1988 to 1995.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)