Lips is a New Zealand-based music group founded in 2010 by New Zealander singer and keyboardist Steph Brown in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. American multi-instrumentalist/producer Fen Ikner joined in 2012, with Ruby Walsh and Maude Morris rounding out the current lineup. Lips is visually represented by the character of "Lips," a girl with giant lips for a head, who appears in their cover art and music videos. The band has released three EPs, one LP, several singles, and produced the 2016 soundtrack of the stage play ''Daffodils'', which they performed in and served as music directors, as well as the OST for the 2019 film version of '' ''Daffodils''''. The band’s song "Everything to Me" won them the 2012 Silver Scroll Award.

History

Lips began as a music project of New Zealander musician Steph Brown in 2010. Brown, who had previously played keyboards for other New Zealand-based artists such as Opensouls and

Anika Moa Anika Rose Moa (born 21 May 1980) is a New Zealand recording artist and television presenter. Her debut studio album ''Thinking Room'', was released in September 2001, which reached number one on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, New Z ...

, was living in

at the time and playing in an R&B duo called Fredericks Brown, along with singer

Deva Mahal Deva Salote Mahal (pronounced 'diva') is a soul and R&B singer. Mahal is the daughter of American blues musician Taj Mahal. Deva joined father Taj Mahal in Michael Dorf's tribute to Aretha Franklin at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 6, ...

. She began Lips as a side project, playing around New York City both solo and with various Lips lineups. In 2012, Brown met West Virginia-born musician Fen Ikner, who had previously played with bands such as

Calexico Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Dieg ...

, Seashell Radio, Saint Maybe, and The Shondes. Ikner became the permanent live drummer, contributing production and other instruments to the group's recorded output.

"Everything to Me"

In 2012, the band released the song "Everything to Me" as part of their EP ''Look Listen''. The song spawned several remixes by acts including

Adventure Club Adventure Club is a Canadian electronic dance music duo composed of Christian Srigley and Leighton James, based out of Montreal, Quebec. The duo began as a hardcore punk, hardcore pop punk, pop-punk band before venturing into electronic dance m ...

, SATL, and Christian Strobe. The song won the band the

APRA Silver Scroll The APRA Music Awards are several annual and two-yearly award ceremonies run in New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills of its members. APRA hold the annual Silver Scroll Awards and song awards, ...

songwriting award in 2012.

''Daffodils''

In 2014, Lips arranged and performed the music for the musical stage play ''Daffodils'', which was produced by the New Zealand based theatre production company Bullet Heart Club and written by Rochelle Bright. Brown starred in the play as a fictionalised version of Bright, telling the story of her parents along with her band (composed of Ikner and guitarist Abe Kunin). The story weaves together underscore, dialogue, and re-imagined versions of classic New Zealand pop anthems. The band went to New Zealand for the initial two-week run of the play at Auckland's Q Theatre. The band then went on tour with the play for two years, performing the show in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and eventually taking the production to the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

in 2016. The ''Daffodils soundtrack'' EP was released in February 2016. The stage play was adapted into a feature film, also called ''

Daffodils ''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as '' Sternbergia'', ''I ...

'', for which the band served as the musical directors. Lips wrote three new songs for the film, and provided the soundtrack for the film. The film stars

Rose McIver Frances Rose McIver (born 10 October 1988) is a New Zealand actress. She portrays Samantha Arondekar in the CBS supernatural sitcom ''Ghosts'' (2021–present), Olivia "Liv" Moore in The CW supernatural comedy-drama series '' iZombie'' (2015–2 ...

and

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His wr ...

, and singer

Kimbra Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known Mononymous person, mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two 2 ...

taking on the role that Brown originated in the stage production, with Brown and Ikner playing her band. The film was released on 21 March 2019. Brown and Ikner were nominated for an APRA Screen Award for Best Original Music in a Feature Film.

''I Don't Know Why I Do Anything''

In 2019, both Ruby Walsh and Maude Morris joined the band, and the single "Guilty Talk" was released. This was mixed by UMO's

Kody Nielson Carl Kody Nielson (born 9 May, 1982), better known as Kody Nielson and also by his musical stage name Silicon, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter, musician, and producer, best known as a former vocalist and member of the art punk band The Mint ...

, and went to number 1 on New Zealand's Studio Radio Network. In 2020, Lips finished their debut album ''I don't know why I do anything'', released July 16, 2021, which was a finalist for the Taite Award for Best Album. They released music videos for singles
Your Deodorant Doesn't Work
"
Heave Ho
"
Empty Hours
" and
What the Hell
" They toured across New Zealand and performed a live set for the LA "School Night" as part of their ongoing series "School Night at Home". In 2022, Lips released a video for
Not Today
as part of the "eight-and-a-half-months anniversary" of the release of ''I don't know why I do anything''. On Saturday 11 March 2023, Lips performed as part of the opening set for My Chemical Romance at Western Springs, Auckland, as part of MCR's comeback tour.

Discography

Releases

* ''Lipssongs'' EP (2010) * ''Look/Listen'' EP (2012) * ''Ghosts and Demons'' EP (2013) * ''Daffodils soundtrack'' (2016) * ''Daffodils OST'' (2019) * ''I Don't Know Why I Do Anything'' (2021)

Singles

* "Everything to Me" (2012) * "Traces of Teddy" (2015) * "This is Me" w/

Zeds Dead Zeds Dead is a Canadian electronic music duo from Toronto consisting of Dylan Mamid, also known as DC, and Zachary Rapp-Rovan, also known as Hooks. The duo rose to prominence releasing original music and remixes from 2009 to 2010 before becoming ...

(2016) * "Silent Treatment" w/

(2019) * "Guilty Talk" (2019) * "Never Have I" (2023) * "The Wolf" w/ E from

Eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order (biology), order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 Family (biology), families, 164 genus, genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the earl ...

(2024)

References

{{Authority control New Zealand indie pop groups Musical groups established in 2010