Steve Kilbey - The Church

Fri 9th Oct, 2009 in Features

The Church is returning to Australia in November and December for the – œSo Love May Find Us’ tour to promote the Operetta EP from their critically acclaimed untitled #23 album.

Among other things, Steve Kilbey chatted to Fasterlouder about making music, when to stop and what we can expect from the tour.

With the success of Untitled #23 and it receiving such rave reviews throughout the world what still keeps the creative juices flowing for The Church?
You know we just stumble along like we always did: Nothing has ever changed from when we’d first get into the studio, put on our guitars and jam around. The reasons for The Church to stay together have always been better than the reasons to break up. We have almost broken up but we always quickly source the reasons for staying together. But we’re musicians and we enjoy playing together as much as we did 30 years ago.

All 4 members are actively involved in other musical and creative projects. How do you go about ‘allocating time’ for the Church?
Well when the Church beckons, I always have time for them. The Church is my main thing in many ways, so when its time for the Church to don its costumes, I’m ready and I put everything else down.

Is there something that shines out to beckon The Church back into a room?
Its never my decision, its always other people going ‘Ahhh we should do this now, we should do that’. I take care of the aesthetic side of things and each of us have our own department so I never decide on anything practical, more purely the imaginary side of things. When it comes to getting on an aeroplane or booking a gig I’m a moron, or booking into a hotel or anything like that, but if you leave me in a room with a tape recorder and a piece of paper I’ll come up with some words every time. That’s the sort of trade-off we have.

With your artistic pursuits ranging from your artwork, online blog , collaborations etc what makes you decide when a piece is complete?
When I sit down with a blank piece of tape, or these days, a garage band ready to go, or I sit down with a blank piece of paper or a blank blog or blank whatever ready to start, that excites me, the blank thing in itself excites me and I realise that slowly and surely, bit by bit I will fill up that blank thing with my ideas over time, so I rarely have an idea of what sort of song I’m going to write, what blog I’m going to write or what painting I’m going to paint. This is a secret of what I do; it’s using many many small leaps of faith rather than one big leap of faith where the whole thing hits me and then I do it and at the end the divine finger says “Now Stop”.

Its that kind of thing where if you start doodling away at a piece of paper, sooner or later something will start coming out of that doodle and then when you see that thing appearing you follow it, and that is something I have always done instinctively, always trusting the process will deliver something at the end.

When I come to the end, it’s not usually because I’m clever enough to go “Ok this is the end” and get out, it’s mainly because I’m tired of it. I think “Fuck I’m tired of this painting or tired of this song” then leave it and come back and go “Yep that’s finished” (laughs). I never go away and problem solve, I always do things in one big ‘gush’.

When I said “That’s it. It really takes a lot for me to go back and do it again, like especially if I’ve written some words for a song or I’ve finished a painting and I’ve signed it. I’ve had some arguments with people when they have sent me music and I’ve sent back lyrics and they’ve gone “Oh can you just change that bit?” and I’ve responded with ‘I don’t change my lyrics, I didn’t ask you to change some chords to your music when you sent it to me”, so I certainly have that notion of “That’s it, that’s enough.

Does that ever present issues for example in the mixing stages of Church albums?
Umm not really no. I am a more impatient person than they are, and want things to happen faster. Sometimes I’ll have this idea and say ‘Lets go now’ and they’re like “Oh we have to tune the drums now” and I’m like ‘Nooooo, forget all that!’ and that’s my downside. I am very quick to spot the potential in things yet very very impatient.

I’m very very fickle, I can have an idea that’s blazing in my mind and if some idiot comes along and disrupts me I’ll lose the idea and it’ll be gone; like that person who disrupted Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was writing ‘Kubla Khan’ in an opium dream and was writing the first 2 verses which is like one of the greatest poems in this language and an insurance salesman knocked on his door and hassled him and by the time he’d gotten rid of this idiot he’d forgotten this poem that he’d woken up and he could see the whole fucking poem blazoned in his brain. That happens to me all the time and I get really angry when I lose a tangible idea.

My faults are my virtues and I try and turn my faults around….I’m a flaky person but I can turn on a synthesiser and just hear a sound going ‘bleep, bleep’ and suddenly I can hear a whole fucking song in my head. That’s what I’m good at. When the band jams and they might be jamming around and obliviously jamming this wonderful piece of music, I’m the one who stops to say “This thing we’re doing now has a load of potential’, and then we’re off, so that’s kind of what my job is to ‘spot things’.

Youtube: a friend or foe to the Church?
Oh friend…

I ask that because of how live shows or segments of a show can literally be recorded and uploaded to the net before the band gets back to the hotel and this potentially being a pain in the arse for the band.
Oh its the absolute truth.

Does that mean its a case for the band to think ‘Oh we’d best be on our toes for the tour’?
...well that’s a good thing isn’t it then?

Absolutely but at the same time it takes away a degree of mystique…
That’s true, that’s absolutely true.

A live show can’t be mimicked on youtube I guess…
There are very few live albums or films of bands live that convey that live thing. One of the few I can think of though is Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii which is a fucking incredible film where the power and glory of rock is delivered in spades. Even though there’s no audience there per se, its as good if not better than listening to a record. Someone holding up a mobile camera at a show, that’s just how things are these days.

The last time I saw the Church perform in Perth was the first time I became aware that you and Marty swapped instruments during some songs and the set featured somewhat elongated space rock jams. Is that something that is still a force within the Church or are the band more into acoustic interpretations of ‘classic’ Church songs as I’ve seen on the net of late?
No No No. When we come to Perth, its going to be space rock, loud and electric and its absolutely not going to be acoustic interpretations of our classics, believe me. It’s like going to be hard, fast and furious….