Interview with Justin Harwood from The Chills and Luna at Liquid Studios Auckland

Interview footage conducted to feature in the Give It A Whirl series to tell the story of New Zealand rock’n’roll.

This is the full interview from which extracts were taken that appear in the final television production.

Justin Harwood discusses his early musical influences. From a musical family with older siblings that all loved attending concerts. Favourite early records by Lou Reed and Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers.

Growing up in the Hawkesbay, Justin being a bass player got requests to play in musicals due to lack of bass players in the region. Listened to the bass player on the Blondie records extensively.

Reflections on the ‘smallness’ of the music industry in New Zealand and the positives and negatives from that. In the 1980s with only two or three dominant music critics, those national reviews would make or break an album. The networked radio stations largely ignored NZ bands in the 1980s, and an inferiority complex regarding the quality of our music certainly pervaded the public perception in comparison to overseas bands.

The move up to Auckland to crew for the band ‘Big Sideways’. Officially there to do the lights, was able to replace the bass player during a tour which increased Justin’s on the road experience. In turn led to auditioning for The Chills and getting accepted in to Martin Phillips’ band. Shortly after leaving the country to tour with The Chills and so becoming a full time professional musician.

The band was aware of all the expectations placed on them by New Zealand media and public hopes of being the “first Flying Nun band to tour Europe”. But were not fazed by that. Brief musing on working with Martin and the “lofty heights” he was trying to attain in a single-minded way.