Martin Phillipps.
In this full-length interview for 2003 television series Give It a Whirl, Martin Phillipps of The Chills looks back on the first two decades of his extraordinary musical career.
--
Watch below: Full-length interview with Martin Phillipps, from Give It a Whirl (2003) via NZ On Screen (2022).
Watch below: Martin Phillipps recalls making the video for ‘Pink Frost’. “I'm still very proud of the ‘Pink Frost’ video ... it has stood the test of time. I can say truthfully that 80 percent of the ideas in there are mine ... We went out onto the Otago Peninsula using quite magical backdrops, and it worked. We caught something quite creepy and mysterious about the song. It's still a wee bit naff I guess, but in quite a neat way.”
Watch below: Martin Phillipps discusses the early days of the Flying Nun label. “No one knew what a real record company was meant to be like, and we were as sloppy and slack as they were. They’d say we need a cover, you’d think about it for a month, start doodling on paper for another month, draw it for another month – it would sit there gathering dust until Roger’s fifth anxious phone call would remind you to post it.”
Watch below: Martin Phillipps describes the 80s touring circuit in New Zealand. “We really had a ball with The Chills, things just kept growing. Every tour we did there were bigger crowds, we were very quickly breaking attendance records at some key venues like the Gladstone in Christchurch and the Gluepot in Auckland. It was exciting. At that point we had the all-important student market behind us, we were sort of the ‘in’ thing. There was an awareness of New Zealand art and its potential.”
Watch below: Martin Phillipps talks about beginnings of international succcess. “I think it was our manager at the time, Doug Hood, who had a lot of experience with The Enemy, Toy Love, The Clean ... who pointed out that John Peel on the BBC was playing Chills singles and other Flying Nun singles, and that if we were going to move overseas now was the time. I suddenly realised that this stuff was being accepted overseas alongside of anything else from anywhere else.”
Watch below: Martin Phillipps recalls feeling pressure to break into overseas markets. “When The Chills first went overseas I guess we very much felt out of step with the main New Zealand music industry ... We very much felt that we were carrying the flag for an important budding music scene back in New Zealand. It certainly irritated me no end to come back and find that the people we were carrying the flag for had their knives out.”
Watch below: Martin Phillipps talks about fellow New Zealand musicians, including Graeme Downes, Chris Knox, Shayne Carter, Peter Gutteridge. “I was always thrilled, I felt privileged, to be part of a group of musicians in Dunedin who cover such amazing ground ... In a small town, to have that calibre of musicians around, has just been really wonderful.”
Read more about Martin Phillipps and The Chills
--
This interview was recorded for the 2003 season of TV series Give it a Whirl. All audiovisual content is copyright to Visionary Film & TV, and may not be reproduced.
--
Further reading: Nick Bollinger on Give It a Whirl