The story of the man, the music, the art, the attitude.

‘I’ve got things I can’t recall
Like the colours of my bedroom wall
Oh, I can’t decide if I
Want to know these things or why
They bother me and tantalise me so’
— from ‘I’ve Left Memories Behind’

In the mid-1990s, the Village Voice described Chris Knox as ‘indie rock’s premier oddball singer songwriter’ and, when Knox suffered a stroke a decade later, music icons such as Yo La Tengo, Bill Callahan, Neil Finn and Shayne Carter all showed up for concerts and a tribute album. Who is this epileptic, opinionated, shorts-and-jandals-wearing, endlessly creative musician and artist from New Zealand?

This is his story – from a childhood in ‘flat, rectangular and boring’ Invercargill to years of creative experimentation in Dunedin to family life in Auckland; from The Enemy’s first gig at Dunedin’s Beneficiaries Hall to Toy Love’s tour of Australia and on to Tall Dwarfs’ escapades around the globe; from tape loops and crashing cutlery recorded on a TEAC 4-track to the biting satire of Jesus on a Stick comics and Listener opinion pieces; and from home-recorded LPs delivered by hand to the ubiquitous voice on ads for Vogels and Heineken.

Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly tells the story of one extraordinarily creative man’s journey from the obscurity of punk rock to the heart of New Zealand culture.

‘Then again, all the time, every minute, neverending, unrelenting, all around us, without pausing, endless endless, all-pervading, movement motion, this way that way, ticktock, freefall, love love, kiss kiss, make do be is was I me b c d e f g h I think nothing’s going to happen.’
— from ‘Nothing’s Going to Happen’

Author

Craig Robertson grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, where as a student he wrote a thesis on the ‘Dunedin Sound’, as well as articles for Rip It Up and a fanzine on local bands. He is now professor of media studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and the author of The Passport in America: The History of a Document (‘provocative’ – New York Times) and The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information (‘captivating’ – The Atlantic). His book on Chris Knox is a labour of love by an enthusiast with a deep understanding of the man, the music and the culture he worked in. Knox himself blessed the project before his stroke.

Endorsements

‘I felt Chris’s presence strongly throughout. I could hear his voice and picture him in a way that felt very real. Past events felt authentic and vivid as though Robertson was there in the background taking notes. Chris comes across as all the things we know he is: likeable, funny, talented, highly intelligent; sometimes caustic, very often opinionated! It’s a big book for a big personality.’
— Alec Bathgate, Tall Dwarfs

‘It isn’t every day you meet someone whose art and whose life are one and the same thing: a person living the art they make. I met one such person when Chris Knox and I ended up in the same van for a week in 1995. Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly tells, in meticulous detail, the story of his life, which is also to say that it reveals, clarifies and magnifies his art. In so doing it tells a hundred other stories and more, all the things that go into making a life in art. An exemplary rock bio and a crucial read.’
— John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats