The creative force behind legendary New Zealand indie-pop band The Chills is gone - more than 40 years after his band pioneered the famed Dunedin Sound, with Flying Nun.

Martin Phillipps will always be remembered for unique, otherworldly and downright catchy tunes like Heavenly Pop Hit, the anthemic I Love My Leather Jacket, Doledrums and the timeless Pink Frost with its haunting chorus -

“What can I do if she dies? 
What can I do if she's lost?
Just the thought fills my heart with Pink Frost”

His death at the age of 61 was revealed on Sunday night (28 July), with a brief social media statement on his band’s social media channels - 

His life-threatening battle with liver disease and hepatitis C was revealed in the moving and incisive 2019 documentary The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps.

The Chills and the enigmatic Mr Phillipps were a massive part of the magic for me and countless others around the country in the 80s and 90s who embraced Kiwi alternative music, treasured brand new 7” singles and long-awaited albums, and soaked it all up live at a crammed inner city venue.

We followed the trials and tribulations of his regular breakups and lineup changes in Rip It Up magazine. We played and cranked-up our latest vinyl treasures on bFM/Radio B and all the other student radio stations.

Phillipps was the main songwriter and only consistent in The Chills erratic and lengthy existence.

The late Peter Gutteridge, David Kilgour, Jane Dodd, Terry Moore, Martin Kean, Justin Harwood and his sister Rachel were among the revolving door of band members.

He desperately wanted to take Aotearoa’s unique sound to the world. I Love My Leather Jacket was a hit and, encouraged by its chart success in the UK, they relocated to London in February 1987, prior to a five-week tour across Europe, which led to their debut album Brave Words.

But there was always resentment about how difficult it was to break into the global homogenisation of “pop” music and the difficulty of Kiwi artists breaking into the Western marketplace, as Phillipps lays out in this video interview.

But his own band’s beguiling take on guitar pop on the back of the string of amazing singles did land a deal with Warner Bros sub-label Slash Records. That spawned the classic albums Submarine Bells and Soft Bomb, before The Chills went on ice for the first of many lengthy breakups.

There were decades between releases, as he battled the debilitating impact of Hepatitis C as a result of his drug addiction.

Martin Phillipps never gave up on his talent and determination to make great music though - there was to be an unlikely Chills renaissance.

In October 2015, they released Silver Bullets, their first studio album in 19 years. It was warmly received by critics at home and abroad - and proved popular with his diehard fans and a new audience.

Snowbound followed in 2018 and then their seventh album Scatterbrain maintained the wonderful momentum in 2021.

Always warm and open with his life story and struggles - Phillipps opened up about the reasons for selling his treasured, and valuable, collection of rare Flying Nun vinyl back in May of this year.

There was another album on the horizon too - a bravely ambitious take on his purple patch back on those fabled 1980s.
He was working on a new Chills album called Springboard: Early Unrecorded Songs - which was to be the challenge of working on songs written as a 20-year-old, with a new band.

Tributes

Those wanting to pay tribute to his brilliance and spirit are overwhelming in number, from here and across he world - showing the extraordinary impact Phillipps managed to make on the musical landscape.

Music website AudioCulture -who as always has an extensive collection of work from Phillipps and The Chills to reflect on - wrote on Facebook "Martin Phillipps wrote and performed songs that were fragile, beguiling, simple, majestic, complex, anthemic, captivating and sublimely beautiful; often many of those in the same song. 

"Since the earliest days of The Chills, his songs spoke to us. We swooned to Kaleidoscope World, danced to Leather Jacket (despite its intensely personal message) and played Rolling Moon over and over and over. The catalogue of songs and records we loved seemed vast and it was.

"However, as much as those songs mattered to us – or perhaps because – we also identified with Martin as a person, one who so many of us knew as a warm, passionate and approachable friend, both online and in the real world. 

"He’d drop into New Zealand music groups to chat and explain, to answer questions and tell stories, often talking with people who had never met him in person; and when he recently started to sell some of his famous music collection we knew that the copies he was parting with had been acquired by Martin because he loved the music within the grooves, no other reason. That made them extra special.

"We lost Martin today and a country is sad; a community and a whole generation are in mourning for a musician and a man who, perhaps more than any, defined a time when we grew up musically just a little more and then took that wonderful music to the world."

Doyen of New Zealand music Graham Reid wrote on his elsewhere website "Martin wrote some of the most engaging and endearing songs in popular music, not just in this country but in the world. And the breadth of his lyrical intellect and melodic gifts was evident right at the start of his career with the Chills in 1980.

"I interviewed him a few times and the one thing you could never accuse him of was guile: Martin was honest about himself, his ambitions and his shortcomings if that subject was broached.

"In a world where musicians frequently cloak themselves in the myth of the outsider or of being different, Martin – who was also all that – just spoke from the heart and what he believed, often to his own cost."

Respected author and journalist Richard Langston posted "You dear sweet man, Martin Phillipps. RIP old mate. You were deeply loved and admired. You made us happier to be here. So sorry to lose you. Condolences and love to your family."

Mark Cubey adds "Martin Phillipps was a genius songwriter and indomitable band leader, but I will remember him best as a beautiful, humble man who made the world a better place with his presence."

His impact stretches across oceans, with memories and testimonials coming from all corners of the globe.

British music writer Pete Paphides posted  words of appreciation adding on X (formerly Twitter) "Heartbreaking news about Martin Phillips from The Chills. Truly of the great songwriters of his age. Heartfelt condolences to his friends and family."

American music reviewer and author Greg Kot says of Phillipps "He was the driving force in one of the great if unsung bands of the last 40 years, The Chills, from the unlikely musical hotbed of Dunedin, New Zealand."

American music journalist Michael Azerrad remembers "One of the endearing things about the late Martin Phillipps was that he wasn't just a gifted songwriter and musician, he was a big music fan: he was One of Us.  He knew the rush we get from hearing a favorite song.  In fact, he named his band after that feeling: the Chills. RIP."

Scottish film director Grant McPhee shared "Very sad that Martin Phillips has left us. What a wonderful songwriter, one of my very favourites and a huge part of the indie-pop with The Chills in its alternative Antipodean evolution. The Triumph and Tragedy film shows he led a fascinating life. RIP"

Martin Phillipps was a musician's musician. Creatives who craved something different, something emotional and something real in an industry where fake can be prevalent always trusted Phillipps. 

That's what makes his passing all the more painful and his legacy all the more poignant.