He’s one of a select group about whom we can safely say: ‘no David Kilgour [no Chris Knox, no etc…] - no Flying Nun’. David shot to prominence in 1981 playing guitar with the Clean, whose top-selling records more-or-less forced Roger Shepherd to accept his then-new label as a financially viable, effectively unstoppable cultural phenomenon.

David’s gone on to record with the Great Unwashed, Stephen and under his own name. In 2001 the NZ government gave him a god-damn medal for playing the guitar and no one can say he didn’t deserve it. His signature post-psychedelic pop-rock guitar style, nonchalantly languid and laconic vocals and fluoro-op-pop artwork have come to define a whole swathe of contemporary NZ musical culture – and it’s fair to say we would not be the people we are today without him.

In 1988 his ‘side project’ band Stephen released the Dumb EP on Flying Nun as well as a single on Chapel Hill’s Merge Records, with which David has gone on the forge a fruitful relationship. His first bona fide solo LP Here Come the Cars came out back in 1991, and established the template of summery, sun-kissed and deceptively simple care-free country-rock that he would develop over the later releases under his own name. David is a guy who loves equally the First National Band, Brian Wilson, Big Star and surfing – and from whose pores melodies seem to seep like sweat.

David Kilgour - 'You Forget' (Here Come the Cars, 1991)

He went on to record two more solo albums for Flying Nun in the 90s – Sugar Mouth and DK and the Heavy Eights, the album which gave his long-time backing band their name. During the 1990s he also contributed heavily to several Flying Nun albums with the Clean, their stop-start activities being one of the things that prevented David’s own career having the kind of uninterrupted forward motion that a more career-oriented artist might have sought. He evenually decamped to Dunedin’s ArcLife label for his most eclectic and experimental offering yet – 2001’s A Feather in the Engine. Following the demise of that Dunedin institution he moved to Arch Hill for the Nashville-recorded Frozen Orange (2004) and The Far Now (2007).

David’s profile in NZ remains surprisingly low, while internationally he has inspired the likes of Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Lambchop – as well as many others. In fact it would be fair to claim that David (with the Clean) has pretty well inspired entire genres of ‘alternative’ or independent musicians. The influence of his guitar playing and song-writing in the USA is so ubiquitous it is now almost invisible, like something in the water.

Although Frozen Orange was recorded with members of Lambchop, for the last decade or so David’s regular band, the Heavy Eights has included Alan Haig, Taane Tokona, Tony De Raad and Tom Bell. Most of these contributed to David’s latest recording, the Falling Debris album, on which David set to music poems by long-time hero and NZ literary giant Sam Hunt (2008, Arch Hill). David has produced and recorded many of his own records in association with Nick Roughan, Tex Houston, and latterly with Tom Bell, his bass player of choice.

David continues to live, surf, write and play in Dunedin, New Zealand.

- Bruce Russell