Bones Hillman (62) – Midnight Oil – was born May 7, 1958 in Auckland, New Zealand as Wayne Stevens. His first band was punk outfit the Masochists and then he went from actually learning his instrument in his Avondale teenage bedroom to joining New Zealand punk rock originals the Suburban Reptiles.“It was the most documented band that did fuck all,” Hillman says with a laugh of the notorious group that gave him the nom de punk the bloke born Wayne Stevens has used since.
“Although it probably reads really well on paper, in reality we never really played that much. With the Suburban Reptiles, I think we did a gig once every six months if we could actually convince someone to let us use their space.”
From the ashes of that short-lived headline-grabbing band came the nervy pop of the Swingers. And sparked by Hillman’s bassline, which came to him during a sound-check at a Christchurch pub, the title Counting the Beat became a transtasman number one in 1981 and perennial advertising jingle.
The Swingers foundered. So did his next band, Coconut Rough. Eventually, while Hillman was painting houses in Melbourne, his landlord, a chap by the name of Neil Finn, recommended him to Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst when the band needed a new bassist, replacing Peter Gifford in 1987. Helped by his vocal harmony abilities, Hillman got the gig. Initially, he was offered just an Australian and Canadian tour. But five albums later, he was still there – until frontman Peter Garrett decided he needed to swap political rock for actual politics and the band split in 2002.
‘Hillman later recalled that he was living with Kiwi expatriate musicians Neil and Sharon Finn in a Melbourne share house when Midnight Oil called to say they were looking for a new bassist.
His first thought was that Neil Finn, who passed on the message, was pulling his leg. But a few nights later, drummer Rob Hirst rang back wondering why Hillman had not returned his call and invited him up to Sydney to rehearse.
He played with Midnight Oil for 15 years, performing thousands of gigs and singing on every recording since 1990’s Blue Sky Mining, until the band took a break in 2002 when frontman Peter Garrett moved into federal politics. Hillman returned to New Zealand where he stayed active but bored, before moving with his family in 2007 to Nashville, Tennessee where he worked a lot as a session musician. He re-joined Midnight Oil for its Reunion Tour in 2018.
Midnight Oil were occasionally getting back together for charity shows, but Hillman had given up on a more ambitious reunion. But then, Garrett having quit politics and delivered a solo album and the band decided to reconvene. After dates in Europe and North and South America, they went to New Zealand in September before shows in Australia.
Hillman said the reunion decision came against the background of a year in which many of rock’s old guard left the stage; the band, whose ages hover around 60, began thinking, “Well, now’s good … Last year was fairly brutal for artists shuffling off this mortal coil from David Bowie and Prince right down to Glenn Frey. I think we saw a lot of people were checking out. We are still in good health and we can still play, we can still walk … so why not embrace this heritage, this great career and music that we have done?”
Hillman knows a thing or two about embracing heritage. After the Oils split, he returned to New Zealand for three years, which included the recording of Dave Dobbyn’s 2005 Available Light and the subsequent album tour.
Then he had another urge: Nashville. But once there, it was time to unplug.
“I had to learn some new tricks. Just being the electric rock bassist had no pull in this town. For some reason, everyone wanted an upright bass. That resurgence of young people playing string band music just came into the culture.” Hillman bought a vintage double bass, listened to a lot of playing by Elvis Presley’s original bassist, Bill Black, and spent six months in the basement getting a new set of calluses on his hands as he learnt the instrument.
In the decade in Nashville, he played on nearly 20 albums by various acts, touring with artists such as prominent country singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook and appearing on Late Show with David Letterman. “It really was an education. Just a different appreciation about playing,” he says. “I had no idea on that 747 flight out of Auckland I would end up playing upright bass with hillbilly musicians at the Grand Ole Opry.” His double-bass era came to a close after five or so years. He sold the instrument – “that was the end of the love affair” – and went back to electric bass guitar as a sideman to Canadian singer-songwriter Matthew Good.
Then came the call from the old firm in Australia.
The band’s most recent release The Makarrata Project: a collaborative mini-album with the stated intention of keeping the Uluru Statement from the Heart at the forefront of the national conversation. In 2019 Hillman reconvened with band members Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey in a Sydney studio for the project, which came out on October 30 and features Indigenous artists. The album climbed to number one on the Aria charts on Saturday; Midnight Oil’s first chart-topping studio album since 1990.
The band was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal for human rights, for its “commitment to the pursuit of human rights over an extended period … with a powerful, far-reaching impact”.
“This medal is in recognition of that relentless focus, and in particular for their environmental activism, their humanity and their drive to promote justice through both their music and their actions,” chair Archie Law said.
Bones Hillman, “the bassist with the beautiful voice” never told his band mates that he had cancer. He died November 8, 2020 at age 62 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“We’re grieving the loss of our brother,” the band’s statement said. “He was the bassist with the beautiful voice, the band member with the wicked sense of humor, and our brilliant musical comrade.
Tributes remembered Hillman as “a lovely lovely man”, “a great and kind guy”, with amazing vocals. Actor Russell Crowe praised “what a grand chap he was”.
“We will deeply miss our dear friend and companion and we send our sincerest sympathies to (his wife) Denise, who has been a tower of strength for him.”
