Martin Phillips, whose New Zealand band the Chills served as an influence on R.E.M. and Pavement, has died. He was 61.
His death was announced in a statement posted Sunday on the Chills’ social media accounts. No cause or date was given. New Zealand’s Otago Daily Times reported that Phillips had recently been admitted to Dunedin Hospital with liver problems.
The Chills were known for jangly guitar pop. Phillips was the band’s only constant member in a career that attracted an international following across four decades.
Neil Finn of Crowded House issued a statement Sunday, calling Phillips “one of NZ’s greatest songwriters” and described him as having been “fascinated by and devoted to the magic and mystery of music.”
Phillips formed the Chills in 1980 with his sister, Rachel, and the band signed to Flying Nun Records in 1982. The band’s first studio album, Brave Words, arrived in 1987.
Their follow-up, 1990’s Submarine Bells, cam out in the U.S. from Warner Bros. subsidiary Slash Records, which helped its Heavenly Pop Hit to No. 17 on Billboard’s modern rock chart.
Slash brought the Chills to Los Angeles to record the band’s next album, 1992’s Soft Bomb, enlisting Peter Holsapple on keyboards in the studio, while Van Dyke Parks arranged the song Water Wolves.
The Chills broke up after touring for Soft Bomb, but later reunited with a new lineup. The band’s most recent album, Scatterbrain, came out in 2021.
No information on survivors was immediately available.
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