‘Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs’ is a Martin Phillipps passion project. A dedicated reimagining of his earlier unreleased songs that became his artistic farewell, a lasting legacy, and a reminder of his huge, underappreciated talent.
The album has been finalised for release with the love and support of his band, family and friends.
As the subject of an undulating life and times movie – ‘The Chills: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps’ – Chills’ singer, songwriter and main motivator, Martin Phillipps spent the last decade releasing studio and live albums while careering into his sixtieth year with typical gusto.
Amid such momentum, Martin was stilling digging through old tapes, searching for the foundations that resulted in global rapture in 1987, an overnight success that took a mere seven years to ignite. These early songs and musings were revisited, revised and finally put to record. As such, ‘Spring Board’ is the final chapter of The Chills’ immeasurably significant output.
“The album seemed like an easy option,” mused Martin, but breathing life into tunes that were penned by a twenty-something hopeful wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Cassettes fragmented, memories were hazy.
“All of the songs needed varying degrees of rewriting; a 60-year old man couldn’t just stick to the lyrics of those formative years. And some of the songs were just vague recollections, incomplete, only blossoming during recording.”
‘Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs’ is alarming, personal, brittle and at times hopelessly upbeat. This is a man casting his mind back on an esoteric career that led to nothing short of cult status; someone rediscovering his roots, his innermost thoughts, hopes and fears.
The Chills members on ‘Spring Board’ are Martin Phillipps, Oli Wilson, Erica Scally, Callum Hampton and Todd Knudson. The album features Fur Patrol’s Julia Deans, Elroy Finn and Split Enz, Crowded House alumni Neil Finn, Tiny Ruins’ Hollie Fullbrook, Manics producer Greg Haver, Troy Kingi, Shona Laing, Tami Neilson, Dianne Swann (Everything That Flies) and Purple Pilgrims’ Clementine Valentine.
‘Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs’ will be available on Limited Edition Gold 2xLP, Standard 2xLP and 2xCD + Martin Phillipps Scrap Book (Fire Website/Bandcamp Exclusive Bundle)
“Singer/guitarist Martin Phillipps’ group was at the forefront of the extraordinary little guitar-pop scene in New Zealand in the early ’80s.. Kaleidoscope World is the major document of their early era.” Pitchfork
“This is what a living legend looks and sounds like” Rolling Stone
