For as Long as it Takes - The Chills

The funny thing is when a person dies, generally people will try and make them out to be some sort of saint or something. But Martyn really was a very special person, and the irony of it was that he was also a sort of a superb physical specimen — you know he really took a lot of care of himself — and to come down with such a degenerative disease was, you know, very sad...

– Martin Phillipps on losing his good friend Chills drummer Martyn Bull to leukaemia

I left The Chills in a way because...I wanted to do a bit, noisier things than Martin did, and Martin was at that time too structured for my tastes — which is another way of saying that I couldn't really play guitar very well.

– Late Dunedin musician Peter Gutteridge on why he left The Chills mark one, early in this documentary

I think all bands have their own curse, I think it's a pretty fragile sort of existence being in a band. I think The Chills curse is very much a media sort of a tag really, just to try and link together a whole lot of different incidences and try and put a label on it...

– Martin Phillipps playing down the idea that The Chills are in any way cursed

I think frankly it's a very special song. I don't know where it came from myself; it was one of those weird ones which happened pretty much in the space of one night...and when things like that happen I know it's um, it's sort of quite unique. Most of my material takes months of sort of editing, and tidying up. But that was one that just really clicked with a lot of people...

– Martin Phillipps on writing iconic pop song 'Pink Frost'

Martin started coming in here when he was about 13, I think, we were upstairs then...a very shy, polite, apologetic even 13-year-old wanting David Bowie records. It soon became apparent that he wanted every David Bowie record...

– Record store owner and Chills supporter Roy Colbert on his first impressions of Martin Phillipps

I think he believes in his music to be...maybe the top ten per cent of some of the best music written in the world, ever. He's trying to improve on songs that were written by the great songwriters of the 60s and the 70s...and that burden in itself — I use the word 'burden', because it sort of is in a personal way for Martin — because you have to make sure that everything you put down on tape and everything you do live and every thing you do, has to be sort of like, perfect.

– Ex Chills bassist Justin Harwood on Martin Phillipps' self-belief, early in this documentary

I remember five people sleeping in sleeping bags in the spare room, which we had to climb over to get to the toilet in the morning. It was pretty hard ... financially there was just no way we were ever going to cover our costs, but it was very successful on a critical level. There was already a lot of interest in The Chills as a cult act through their early recordings, and even the first show that they did, which was a bit of a disaster sound-wise, it was hailed as...a great event.

– Ex Chills manager Craig Taylor recalls the band first hitting London in 1985

I know that it's often said that you learn from those lessons or you'll end up repeating the mistakes. So one should respect and consider the ancient ways. You belittle them at your peril.

– Martin Phillipps on respecting the band's chequered history, Radio New Zealand, 27 March 2021

Well you'd have to be positive about their future because...quite simply because Martin is there and he's determined and he's got the ability so...it's really only bad luck that's gonna pull them back. But by the same token they're gonna need good luck, because luck and timing are very crucial.

– Dunedin music legend Roy Colbert on his hopes for The Chills, at the end of this documentary

...it doesn't surprise me at all that he's still doing it ten years later, and The Chills are still together ... I can't really imagine him doing anything else.

– Ex Chills guitarist Peter Gutteridge on Martiin Phillipps, early in this documentary

[It's] extremely hard to find people who are willing to have that commitment, and that's been the greatest problem for Martin. He's had it right from day one, and it's very difficult to find three or four other people at the same time with the right musical talent, the right musical chemistry — all that sort of thing — to sort of go on that enormous journey with him.

– Late Dunedin music legend Roy Colbert on the band's changing line-ups, at the start of this documentary