As an only child growing up in 1960s-era Invercargill, Chris Knox developed an early interest in movies. Horror and all things B-grade became lifelong interests, even when he was too young to attend certain films in the cinema; "I just had a book full of clippings of the ads that appeared in the Southland Times for the movies! That was my tiny little bit of thrill."
He was also captivated by animation, after seeing Disney classic Pinocchio six times. Knox liked drawing and music; The Beatles changed him forever. At 14 Knox was given his first movie camera — a Standard 8, later upgraded to a Super 8. Influenced by animation legend Norman McLaren, he began making the first of many animated films.
"I couldn't afford 8mm film really, so I thought 'what's the best way to eek this movie out? Oh, I'll do some animation!'" In order to reduce the amount of film used, he experimented with stop-motion animation, which creates the illusion of movement by taking frame-by-frame photographs. He would go on to use this technique frequently, in his later filmmaking career. As an adult he also continued to film 8mm footage, including of his first band The Enemy, and their friends The Clean ('Tally Ho').
Knox went on to front short-lived alternative punk phenomena Toy Love. The band managed several seminal singles and an album, before calling it a day in 1980. Knox was also a key figure in the development of the Flying Nun record label. He recorded many Flying Nun bands including The Clean, The Verlaines, The Chills and Sneaky Feelings.
In 1981 Knox and Toy Love guitarist Alec Bathgate collaborated on their first Tall Dwarfs recording, at home on a TEAC four track recorder (song 'Nothing's Going to Happen'). It was to be the start of a remarkable sequence of lo-fi releases. The list included both EPs and albums (The Short and Long Of It, Fork Songs, Stumpy). Knox made his own music videos to promote these releases.
"It occurred to me, the clips we'd done weren't entirely to my taste, the Toy Love ones," he says in this interview with Roger Shephard. "I thought 'hey, I used to make things on my Super 8mm camera and so forth, why don't I make my own clips?'"
His first music video venture was for Tall Dwarves 'Nothing's Going to Happen', a stop-motion animation clip made over a few nights with his friends and flatmates. It set him on a path to make a slew of music videos for Tall Dwarves, as well friends' bands like Children's Hour.
His DIY experiments with animation and the everyday display all the wit and invention of his songs. He would go on to lend his skills to the animated segments of comedy skit show Funny Business in the late 1980s.
Around the same time, he began recording as a solo artist, with frequent live work and a number of album releases. He began with Seizure in 1988, followed by Croaker, Beat, Polyphoto Duck Shaped Pain and Gum, and the acclaimed Songs of You and Me. He would later record two further albums as Chris Knox and the Nothing. Once again quirky, innovative and fun promos were made to accompany much of this material; including Knox directing the music video for his iconic 1990 hit 'Not Given Lightly'.
In 1989 Knox composed the music for Richard Riddiford feature Zilch!, a thriller set in the boom days before the 1987 stock market crash. The Auckland Star namechecked Knox's work in their review, for adding "so much to the offbeat tone of the film". He composed for the screen again in 1997, for television documentary Kiwi Kids Christmas.
The NZ Herald ran Knox's Max Media comic strip weekly for over 15 years. Knox has designed posters and newspaper ads, and made animated commercials for Real Groovy Records. He has also illustrated and written about film for Real Groove magazine.
At the 2001 NZ Music Awards, 'Not Given Lightly', was voted the country's 13th best song of all time. He discusses and performs it, 32 minutes into this documentary on great Kiwi love songs. The track never scaled commercial heights, but generated renewed interest — and income — thanks to a Vogel's bread commercial, and the soundtracks for local movie Topless Women Talk about their Lives, and American feature Walking and Talking. Song 'It's Love' featured in a Heineken ad directed by Todd Haynes (I'm Not There).
Knox has appeared often on television, beginning with a film reviewing assignment for magazine style show The Edge, which led to more critique for Backch@t, and fronting TVNZ movie show The Vault, where he would introduce old films before they played. "Trying to appear vaguely erudite about films was the toughest bit, because I don't really watch films like that . . . I just open my eyes wide and let them fall into my head."
Knox has appeared on New Zealand screens in many capacities; singing the title song of The Underwatermelon Man, talking about sheep on quirky documentary Godzone Sheep, cameoing on Shortland Street and this episode of bro'Town, and taking an Intrepid Journey to India. He also discussed his music in this Give It A Whirl episode, and 2005 interview for series Making Music. He even presented a special 90-minute Christmas Day tribute to Flying Nun in 2001, under the title Merry Chris Knox.
In 2008 Knox began hosting TV series New Artland, which follows artists as they create works of public art, aided by a varied cast of farmers, orchestras, BMX riders and tattooists. He was nearing the end of Artland's second season when he suffered a stroke at his home on 11 June 2009. A blog was set up by friends and family to allow people to follow his progress and recovery.
"When Chris had the stroke we only had a few days of filming left, but we still had almost all of the voice-overs to go," wrote executive producer Gemma Gracewood on the blog. "Chris being so brilliantly eloquent throughout the filming meant we had plenty of recorded material to get the series finished."
Five months later Knox was saluted by double album Stroke - Songs for Chris Knox, with a host of songs by local and off-island luminaries.
As American music critic Byron Coley long ago noted of Knox: "his sense of humor is excellent and if he weren't around New Zealand would be a far duller place".
Updated on 25 April 2025
Sources include
Roger Shepherd
Chris Knox website
Gary Steel, 'Chris Knox' AudioCulture website. Loaded 13 May 2013. Accessed 26 September 2022
Byron Coley, Interview with Chris Knox - Forced Exposure No 18, 1993
'Chris Knox' The Internet Movie Database website. Accessed 20 February 2025
ScreenTalk
Chris Knox blog. 'Chris Know - New Artland'. Loaded 13 August 2009. Accessed 25 April 2025.
Log in
×