Martin Phillipps, The Chills, Dunedin, New Zealand. June 2004.

Well Hello My Dear Soft-Bombers!

It has been a while since I have made contact with y'all because I've been awaiting good news - and it's here, in truckloads!

Firstly - many of you are aware that The Chills have been recording new material (for nearly the first time in ten years sadly) and I am going up to Auckland early July to mix these ten tracks. Probably six or seven will end up on the new CDEP called, at this point "Stand By! (Something's Brewing)". The title refers to the fact that this is good material from our live set of the last five years but that is has to be released before we are free to tackle the new album - which, as I've mentioned previously, I intend to make a significant departure from all that has gone before. But despair not! It most certainly WILL sound like The Chills - I am just determined to make it a Chills sound for NOW, not a safe retro traditional song-structure type of album. Whether I succeed or not I can assure you, from a knowledge of the literally hundreds of raw song-seeds I have on tape, that it will be a very, very strong record.

The best news in many ways is the arrival of a kean, friendly and extremely efficient new manger for the group in the person of Scott Muir who, like myself sadly, is no spring chicken but who has a remarkable range of experience within various facets of the music business and who is determined to free me up to get onto the long overdue completion of vast quantities of new material. Things are rapidly falling into place and there will be a lot of things beginning to happen soon. For a start we intend to make far better use of the wonderful Andy Holt's softbomb.com Chills web-site to keep everyone informed and entertained - especially those of you who seem to bored and start squabbling amongst yourselves about the most petty issues - and even serious issues like racial discrimination! (I hope that's all that needs to be said on that topic!). So we are kean to hear from you all what you would like to see happen with the web-site. Andy Holt will remain Supreme Commander In Chief and we here in New Zealand will be insuring that there is a constant flow of new information, photographs, tour and recording info, lyrics (past and present), all sorts of things. The time is right - the world needs bands like The Chills.

It looks 90% certain that we will be touring overseas for a maximum of two months (due to family obligations for the other three Chills) probably early 2005 through the U.S.A. and, hopefully, U.K./Europe. In the States it has been suggested that we only play the cities that held anti-war protest marches and that sounds good to me but let's hear what you feel. Tell us why we should come to your city! Put together the perfect Chills tour. Base it on four weeks with five gigs out of every seven days. The same for Europe. Where are we best remembered? What radios still play our material? What are the new best, comfortable and fashionable venues? Tell us all that sort of information and we hope to get as close to all of you as possible with what is rightfully being called one of the best ever live Chills.

Now back to the "Stand By" CDEP. The ten tracks recorded (and why) are:

1: "Liberty Or Love" [a strong new up-beat pop song we've been performing for about a year but which originated in the mid '90s].

2: "Torturing Me" [a new angsty-punky number recently performed live to a nationwide audience on the 24 hour National Anthem New Zealand music special].

3: "This Time Tomorrow" [a song we've jammed on live on occassion with a trainlike rhythm and sort-of Velvet's "What Goes On" feel].

4: "Find Your Own Way Home" [a BIG song about being out-of-it and trying to recognise the path home. We've had it in the set for about three years].

5: "Falling Off Your Throne" [another BIG song with a drug theme but this time more sombrely dealing with the damage to old friends - and maybe myself, I'm not sure yet. Either this or the last one WON'T be on the CDEP as they are too similar in structure].

6: "February" [yes - you've heard my home-demo version on the Sketch Book Vol. One CD but the band version has so strongly surpassed that that it needs to be recorded].

7: "Bad Dancer" [same again - you've heard the demo, now hear the fully fleshed out band version].
8: "Solitary Man" [yep - we've been playing the Neil Diamond classic as an encore lately and it was certainly worth getting our version down. It's unlikely that it will be on the "Stand By" CDEP but all the tracks that don't make that release will find their way out somehow].

9: "Little Boy" [the first of two extra songs that actually come from my occassional solo performances and are not full band numbers. This one is the first song to surface from the thus-far shelved project that David Kilgour and I started recording a few years ago. That album will definitely be finished sometime too. David thinks there's only a few good songs, I feel different!].

10: "True Romance" [the other solo song which has certainly become the most beautiful song on the EP. It's a sad little piano song about the real state of affairs in gender relations].

And that's your lot! B-sides for 7" singles? Bonus tracks? Songs for label compilations or charity albums? One way or another ALL these songs will see the light. We'll keep you in touch with this and all other developments.

OK - take care Softies! Get your friends registered on the softbomb site too - one of the first tasks is to build up a database of your contact details for special events and giveaways etc. Let's get this thing happening!

Onwards and upwards!
Martin Phillipps, The Chills, Dunedin, New Zealand. June 2004.