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More than ten years after her passing, fans of Australian rock legend Chrissy Amphlett are about to hear her voice in a way they never expected. Three songs the singer recorded in 1998 — long believed to be gone forever — have been discovered in a garage and will be released to the public on Friday.
The tracks were cut with Tim Finn, the former frontman of New Zealand's Split Enz, during a brief but intense period of collaboration in Sydney. For years, the recordings existed only as a memory shared by the handful of people who were in the studio. That changed in 2023, when Finn stumbled upon the original two-inch tape while rummaging through his own garage.
Amphlett is best remembered as the trailblazing frontwoman of the rock band Divinyls. Her husky, unmistakable voice and magnetic stage presence made her one of the most distinctive performers Australia has ever produced. With Divinyls, she delivered the 1990 number one hit I Touch Myself, a song that became a global touchstone, as well as earlier anthems such as Pleasure and Pain in 1985 and Boys in Town in 1981.
Her death in 2013, at the age of 53, marked the end of a career that had spanned decades and influenced generations of female rock performers. The discovery of unheard material more than a decade later is a rare and precious gift for her admirers.
According to Finn, the 1998 recording sessions came at a pivotal moment in Amphlett's life. He recalled the period in an interview with Australian Story, a documentary programme produced by the national broadcaster ABC. "It was a good time for us to meet because she was looking for something new, something different in her life musically," he said.
Around that time, Amphlett had separated from Mark McEntee, the guitarist and fellow Divinyls member with whom she had shared a famously tumultuous relationship. She was also growing closer to drummer Charley Drayton, according to the documentary. The two would eventually marry.
Drayton played drums on the 1998 sessions. Over the course of several days, Finn and Amphlett wrote three songs together and then headed into the studio to commit them to tape. Finn described the experience in glowing terms, noting how focused and determined Amphlett was during the process. "She was so focused," he said. "She just wanted to get it right." He added that he felt he was "in the presence of great talent, great charisma."
The collaboration was not a chance meeting between strangers. In a social media post on Monday, Finn explained that he had reached out to Amphlett because he had long admired her work. "We hadn't met previously but instantly felt a bond, a camaraderie of shared history as ex-lead singers of two brilliant bands," he wrote.
That shared history — Finn with Split Enz and Amphlett with Divinyls — gave the sessions a natural chemistry. Both artists had fronted groups that achieved lasting cultural significance, and both understood the particular pressures and rewards of leading a band. The recordings, according to those involved, capture a moment of genuine creative connection.
When the studio work wrapped up, Finn took the recordings home with the intention of developing them further. But as often happens with unfinished projects, life intervened. The songs "were never fully realised," as Finn put it, and eventually they slipped out of mind entirely.
Then, in 2023, Drayton got in touch with Finn to ask about the 1998 recordings. Finn admitted he had assumed the tapes were gone for good. "I thought they were lost to the universe but remarkably found the two-inch tape in my garage," he wrote. The tape, remarkably, was still in perfect condition, allowing the material to be recovered and prepared for release.
Finn described the songs as "incredibly important to me, Charley and those close to Chrissy." Their survival after a quarter of a century is a testament to the durability of analogue recording media, but it is also a stroke of good fortune that nobody involved had anticipated.
The three tracks will now be issued as an EP titled Some Times. The release gives listeners a window into a lesser-known chapter of Amphlett's career, one that unfolded between her years of mainstream chart success and the final phase of her life.
For longtime fans, the EP offers something more than nostalgia. It provides fresh evidence of Amphlett's artistry at a time when she was actively seeking reinvention, stepping away from the band identity that had defined her and exploring a new musical direction with a collaborator she deeply respected.
The discovery also highlights how much material from the pre-digital era remains vulnerable to being lost. Recordings stored on magnetic tape can degrade, be discarded during moves, or simply be forgotten in attics and garages. That this particular tape survived intact, and was recognised for what it was, makes the story all the more remarkable.
Amphlett's legacy has only grown since her death. I Touch Myself remains a staple of radio and film soundtracks, and her influence is frequently cited by artists who admire her uncompromising presence. The release of Some Times adds a new layer to that legacy, offering a final, unexpected gift from a performer who never did things by half measures.
The EP arrives on Friday, giving audiences the chance to hear three songs that were nearly consigned to history. For Finn, Drayton, and everyone who knew Amphlett, the moment will carry deep personal meaning. For the rest of us, it is a chance to hear a great voice once more, captured in a session that was never meant to stay hidden.
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