POP ART TOASTERS

Rip It Up, Issue 200, 1 April 1994, Page 12

POP ART TOASTERS

We called Martin Phillipps in Dunedin to talk about the Pop Art Toasters, his nifty 60s covers combo, but within minutes we were talking about something even more pressing, the future of Martin. For the Pop Art Toasters are but a side project, a bit of fun for Martin and pals like David Kilgour and Mike Dooley in-between projects, and a chance to pay homage to favourite 60s acts (in this case, the Dovers, the Avengers, the West Coast Experimental Band, the Squires and the Who). But Martin’s big quest now is to get a band together and become a per-forming-touring- album-releasing musician again. He wrote two albums worth of songs while hibernating at a friend’s house on the isolated Otago Peninsula but next time he records, he wants to be sure the songs sound

like they do in his head, not like somebody else’s idea of how they should sound (a problem with the Chilis). More recently, Martin played solo at Wellington’s Bodega on Saturday night but he says his strength is as a band leader. He talks quickly, as if he has a lot on his mind and a lot to achieve. But things are looking up. The financial and contractural furnace he found himself in after the demise of the Chills has started to cool and he’s confident he won’t be trapped in a 20 year pay-back package. But he will be more realistic and careful about the way future work is ushered to . the public’. Expect to see Martin Phillipps and J band;: recording a new album in Auckland in a few months. “I’m determined to make a career out of this’” he says, “I feel I’ve done enough work to be in a better situation."