The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

perry scope

bondi oh the weather is warm

night arrives

the cars all leave

the ghosts in the house whisper

there they are but you missed em

coincidences on top of serendipity

things get wild outside

i am out here naked in the dimming light

morning straight into evening

evening straight into morning

my daughters :

aurora :  a brilliant mind and a somewhat guarded heart

her blonde hair turning dark

her olive skin

her piercing brown eyes

she sees she remembers she appraises

eve :

soft feminine intuitive forgiving

her hair like a tangle of dryad roots

her already voluptuous figure

her trusting green eyes

her gorgeous husky voice when she sings

scarlet :

the wild card

beautiful angry difficult overflowing with love

strong and sturdy

her broad forehead bulging with brains

her sky blue eyes which search souls…..

the tour is over

some say we are the best band in the world these days

peter : the master musician

thoroughly understanding music on every level

wonderful melodious versatile original

marty : the guitar hero

passionate dedicated fiery intuitive

the ying to peters yang

tim : the deep foundation

powerful incessant steady subtle

drumming singing steering the show

me : the joker

the bass guitar

the words

the voice

we have a made a great leap forward somehow

miraculously after 30 years still blossoming and blooming

fucking nailing it….eh?!

we embrace so many contradictions

we slay our audiences now

we walk on and we let em have it

3 hours of poignant sound bound to make you smile and cry

let me tell you we use only the very finest ingredients

and we add boy wonder craig wilson into the blend

imagine a geezer so precociously talented

that he can just jump into any church song on any instrument

and replicate it authentically

there is only one other i have seen do that

and that was ricky maymi

i myself would never be capable of this kind of musicianship

and instead of growing dull and safe and insipid

the church still yearning for the thrill

oh believe me its a thrill

to lock down like a machine

the church is a rolls royce

you cant feel how fast you are really going

you are enveloped in a lush cushioned ride

our machine is inexorable and precise

for various reasons we have arrived here

we had the raw talent to start with

we stuck to our guns

we learned to ride the popularity curve

becoming neither too despondent or too cocky

we went away from each other

we gathered many new abilties

we became minstrels teachers producers painters

we are harsh on ourselves

fuck yes we have high standards for what we will let pass

and while not yet quite in old age

we have a deep experience of playing

master craftsmen working in rock n roll

playing u23 i myself began to realise what a great record

priest = aura what can you say?

in some parallel universe where everyone has 50 extra IQ points

priest is considered a classic by all

sorry folks the church isnt all inchoate musical feeling

the lyrics on this album ….

for fucks sake who could write this stuff but me…..?

i stand there singing the disillusionist

marvelling at the venomous ferocity  i hurl at myself

i take in all other lyricists and i spit out kilbey

look i got it all in there didnt i?

and then straight away changing into old flame

the tenderest shortest sweetest  song in the language of love

my fucked up brilliant mind

wanted to incorporate it all

i had a good try

my lyrics are ambitious

i take inspiration from the greatest writers from all places n times

i love the book of genesis and chuck berry

i love all great artistic movements

i am of impressionism automatic writing surrealism

ambiguity collective unconscious drugs dreams drama

shakespeare strindberg marvel super heroes whatever it is

all of it

our complete history

every glorious or sordid moment

every weird wonderful cerebral sexual transcendent thing

puzzles dilemmas mazes phrases proverbs lies

big words because i write for MY audience

and they are mostly educated intelligent people

and they demand something worthwhile in their music

and the church provides something worthwhile

i guess

more to come…..

this and that.... well they must be the same

this is still the place i tell the truth

except when i am forced to lie to aggrandise myself

my hoarse speeding shadow duplicates in summers dying days

i think of the snow melting up in cape cod in some gothic town

spring bursts outta the wings with all its things

jealous sprouts of green eyed envy combusting in the seed

the weather is strange but aint it always  been strange

kilbey wings ‘is way home

its midnite in australia

i keep rolling with the luck of the devil

double six double six double six

my gambling debts i use as envelopes for angelfruit

my wickedness helps old ladies down from trees

my evil cuddles kittens

oh no here comes trouble

goodnight

MUSOSCRIBE: Bill Kopp’s music blog: features, reviews, interviews, essays and whatnot:

Australian foursome The Church are something of an institution in their native country, and throughout their thirty-plus years together they have enjoyed worldwide success as well. Their commercial apex was undoubtedly the hit single “Under the Milky Way” from the 1988 album Starfish, but every one of their twenty-three albums has its high points. A perennial critics’ darling, the band has mounted tours both acoustic and electric. Their early 2011 US tour took them to the southeast, and I spoke with Steve Kilbey (bass, vocals, lyrics) about the current tour, the band’s longevity and much more.

Part One
Part Two

Playing three full albums a night on their “Future Past Perfect” tour, the Australian psych-pop veterans The Church took time from their marathon performances to stop by KEXP for an abbreviated and stripped down sample from their three-decade long career. Bandmates Steven Kilbey, Marty Wilson-Piper, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles played a luscious set of songs including some rare renditions you’re unlikely to have heard before. Check out the videos from their acoustic session here: http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2011/02/23/live-video-the-church/

darkness returning

philly 2 nyc’s and boston all good greenville acoustic show good i have been neglecting my post something came along took the wind outta my sails too busy just coping driving for 14 hour days into night arrive somewhere in darkness my days are filled with a certain sorrow my moral compass is busted i dont know right from wrong whats right for some is wrong for others whats wrong for me is right for them the tour is about to end and  feel anxious i feel scared i feel lonely i feel panicky maybe someday i will/can tell the whole tale a real tale of stupidity and woe a tale that as it grew enfolded more n more people until everyone stood on the sideline shouting at me nobody knows how sad and unsure i am nobody knows what this is like its chaos in my head cha-os last show tonite fly home tomorrow the shows and audiences incredible behind the scenes in my life the shadows multiply i’m lost like a kid is lost like a lamb is lost entering atlanta now its the last ride our little game is over and i cant cry cos i saw it coming no use running take it slow why cant things be easy? i dunno they never are we’ll see wont we?

the church are featured on ‘Stranded’, an Australian/Canadian music show and podcast hosted by Matt G. The February 14th show includes an interview with Steve Kilbey.

Stranded 07 Feb 2011
Stranded 14 Feb 2011

NO!

in about 1972 i met him

he was a year older than me about 19

we met up in the david jones record bar in canberra

i was asking for some records and paul was in there

and he starting making some interesting comments on the records i wanted

we started talking and immediately became fast friends

paul was the only person i had ever met who loved marc bolan like me

he understood! he fucking understood….!

this alone was enough to guarantee ya lifelong friendship in my world

he was a good looking dude with his beard n everything

(i got quite a shock seeing him the first time he shaved it off!)

paul was such an incredibly knowledgeable character

he kept all his pop magazines neatly filed and sorted

his records were all in plastic bags n in mint condition

and he had everything…all the singles , e.p.s whatever

and a hilarious line in gossip on all the comings n goings

in the rock world

paul was interested in production too

and already had a tape recorder he was experimenting with

paul turned me onto bowie who i was kinda resisting “for marcs sake”

but paul n i were honest with each other about bolan

even if it hurt

paul said after we bought tanx “how disappointing!”

it was

we knew bowie was the future

paul n i formed a band

he was the singer i was the bass player

theres a little bit about him in my biography “no certainty attached”

he was the singer who wouldnt go on stage because of the bullies

as a  consequence of paul pulling out of singing that night

i became a singer myself because otherwise i was gonna be a bass player

a word about these bullies

i knew em

i saw who was there that night

a bunch of teenage thugs who’d given paul grief

at the catholic boys high school he attended not that far from my lyneham high

these guys were onto anyone like artistic or intelligent or slightly feminine

wow you had pauly there in spades cos he was all 3

he looked round the curtain n saw simmo n robbo n jonesy or whoever

n he couldnt handle it….singing in front of these guys who one year ago

were probably smacking him around a bit at school

so he just said

i aint doing it!

and fuck he left us in the lurch but i understood why he didnt

it was our first ever gig

it was 1973 at the o’donnell youth club in braddon

i drove past there the other day with sam n pointed it out to her

it sure looked insignificant in the daylight so many years later

but that night it was full of bullies n from my school too

but my sense of destiny always burnt within me so hard

i just get up n play n i dont care

let em thump me afterwards i gotta play my songs

(incidentally no one thumped me or even said anything except for one

long drawn out sneer of KILBEY!!!!???? when i hit the stage)

paul n i kinda remained friends after that but things were a little weird

paul n i both loved bowie and paul was really getting into all the bi-sexuality hoopla

well i very faintheartedly tried to embrace the idea

but the truth was i liked girls n i didnt like blokes not one tiny bit

paul called me as butch as a meat pie

i mean i still liked to dye me hair n put makeup on

but i just didnt dig blokes

paul never suggested anything inappropriate to me either

we verily loved each other like brothers

i dunno how paul felt about me but to me

he was the voice of all good taste in things to do with music

paul loved the beatles the who n todd rundgren too

and he filled me in on everything

half the stuff i know about anything to do with rock probably was from paul

he like me was a man out of time n place

if he’d been in london or somewhere he woulda been engineering n producing

im convinced of that

he really understood pop music in a way that few people ever grasp

he would have made an amazing producer  he had a great “ear”

eventually i guess my butchness n i guess sometimes harsh words

woulda broke up our friendship

but not before we travelled up to sydney together n saw trex

(they were absolutely awful!!!!!)

paul n i drifted apart tho we caught up a few times

once he completely blanked me when he was working in a newsagents in civic

i invited him round to my place but he didnt wanna know me

well i held a grudge and i held it good

when the church got wellknown i met up again with paul in 1981

he was working in the public service

i couldnt work out if he was straight or gay or bi or whatever

whatever it was he seemed confused by it and

i wasnt so friendly

paying him back for the newsagents incident

but just lately we have met up twice in canberra when the church played

paul had really changed

but he was still funny witty gossipy and bloody lovely to hang out with

we talked about all the stuff only WE knew about

paul was meeting a woman from sydney that night

in some bizarre twist she worked at the bondi post office

and we had already spoken about paul

paul told me that night

youd be proud of me i’m gonna date a woman!

it seemed things were looking up

paul wrote me a lovely letter about the churches performance

he hit every nail on the head in his critique of us

he asked me where i got my new choppers

paul had somehow lost some front teeth n he was reticent to smile

it seemed the new romance might have a chance

i kept saying come up to sydney paul

he kept saying he would but he never did

this guy was a huge influence on my nascent musical direction

he was a brilliant brilliant man and as i said

in some other time n place he would have been feted as quite a somebody

i knew his brother phil at school too

he was a diamond geezer a really nice cat

i remember his whole family as being gracious and hospitable

i dont think anybody quite knew what to make of paul though

i dont think he did himself

as far as i go

he was an indispensable part of my story

we studied bolan n bowie like other people study mathematics

we debated we laughed we argued we rhapsodised on em

i unreservedly tell the world paul culnane was a big influence on me

he had an idea for something called the amnesia operetta

i finally stole his idea last year for a church song called operetta

i told paul n he was chuffed

oh i’d forgotten all about that he said…..

an adorable man

a sad day for me

paul if you see marc up there……ah…you’ll know what to say…..

i’m gonna miss you man

sk philadelphia on tour

feb 2011

that

i made this little movie of last nights hotel

a lovely fan of ours called bruce arranged a top notch hotel

at  budget rates for us

thanks bruce it was fantastic

the front of the film got lost somehow

please go to video section n watch a abode

sk

february schism of our ideas

the cold is inside my shoes

it nip nip nip at my toe

i hurtle on into the future towards the east

i climb on a stage

i play a bass guitar i sing songs

i stand there in the light while music throbs around me

yoga and swimming throw me around the stage

my words are crazy to me

nightmarish naive florid snapshots of some bullshit 20th century life

then we did this

then we did that

i strummed a fuckin’ guitar n i got lucky

i thought of some words

anyone could fucking do it

we put a band together

just find some cool cats who can play

and we went round n round this earth

hawking our existential art rock mope neo psychedelic blah blah blues

we rolled the dice

we moved up n down the snakes n ladders

we did  smart n stupid things

i landed on a hotel on mayfair

but the bank error was not in my favour

i didnt realize the old the young the black the white the men n women

they were picking up this insistent distant beat

i drum my fingers on a table

i shave my reflection in a mirror

i approach and apprehend music streaming to me through my ethereal connection

who wrote all these fucking words i sing

why it was you and you and you

theyre yours again now

say them to hotties in a bar

they might get you laid

write them in your notebook

and feel their power in ink

use them uncredited in your spiels i no longer care

my words my music my movement my rhythm

all happening while i stand back and watch

some say we are the best band in the world now

how is that possible you say

please come and see us play if you can then

judge for yourself

some energy we are tapping into

do you even wonder how some old aussie bloke pushing 60

can run around singing and slinging a heavy bass for over 3 hours

its the energy

it is attracted to us

we feed off it

the energy of over a hundred years of collective musical experience

filtered thru musicians dedicated and rededicated to their music

and its quality

and there it is

the energy come to guide us thru it all

as it uncurls outta the future

hey  hey

sk

winter in america is cold and i just keep growing older

yesterday a long drive

we start at 12 noon

we finish  at 12 midnite

on the way i have 2 bowls of soup n some oatmeal

the trip is boring after a while

dazzling snow all the way

as the sun goes down the feeling gets grim

we cross indiana and ohio and now we’re in pencil-vania

at some unholy meshing of servos and fast food joints

trucks and buses and serious looking people working hard for their living

the eastern winter is bleak

it aint no picnic out there i know

today we drive down to alexandria , virginia

just right outside of d.c.

amazes me how close the north n souths cities were to each other

in the civil war……

looking forward to going home n seeing my children

looking forward to going home where life feels a bit easier

than this freezing industrial conglomerate

our show at chicago was our best yet

the band have improved n improved

hell yes we transcend and we will transcend tonite despite anything

i really love my american fans

i know they understand what we’re doing here

i hope we can bring this show to europe and australia

gotta fight with my suitcase now

done my yoga done my chi gong

now to get back in that fucking van n ride

ride it all out

love etc

kilbey