The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

explosion of interest

what i hope to achieve with sk premium is manifold i guess

it will start off nebulous as is my want

it has already started off

a few already are subscribed and receiving download codes

well i have a lotta stuff up my sleeve

in many formats and in many stages of completion

dvds cds books etc etc

the sk premium people will get first and cheaper access to this

because they are like executive producers helping me to assemble

this lifetime of work i must get it out there i suppose

i dont know why

i didnt start doing this for money

but ive made a living and im grateful

this premium package is designed therefore

to satisfy both of us

it will be flexible it will be understanding it will be fair

it is not there to fleece ya

if you really feel like you deserve it but cant afford it then let me know

steve@thetimebeing.com is the address for serious skp talk

dont fill up my comments with saying youre broke

we all are

so

i want us all to be happy

basically you’ll be getting whatever i knock out each year

some of it will only be available here and only to skp

david neil is first up and people are already getting him at this very mo

(#1 for 2 weeks at redeye records in sydney!!)

next will be isidore 2 …life somewhere else

this will be an experimental joint release between timebeing and communicating vessels

coming soon after will be my art dvd which has been called many titles

eg get stoned and paint, art movie etc etc

then there will be the first in a series of totally solo albums

which will be a blinding tour de force of everything youve heard up until now

pure unadulterated me only suddenly better than before

wait and see

a new remedial treatment i have had has revealed new gumption

a renewed commitment to knocking out some unworldly music

because it is now time to do so

some of these albums i imagine will be intensely poignant

suitable only for the ears of skp discernment and appreciation

these will only be ever available here

meanwhile there is talk of lyric book art book and sk tarot cards

these are totally special and amazing

our own MEM has toiled on this idea for many years

and he has devised an incredible deck based on my lyrics paintings and his own insight

if these ever get off the ground you will LOVE em !

i have the source material for 2 documentaries

jack frost in 1991

the church 1990 (the one i never got off the ground before)

(if you chipped in for that let me know and i’ll knock that of yer SKP)

it is so much more feasible now to make these happen than then

so i guess theres stuff coming down the line for you

plus archives and some kind of interaction

seeing you liked the q and a apparently

i dont wanna promise you the moon

but i guarantee skp will be what you want it to be

roughly based on a years worth of subscription for a hundred bucks

i had dinner in some overpriced joint the other night

it was 91 dollars…

so i dunno

if youre already on board hang on for the next thing comin’ atcha

otherwise

i guess i’m gonna sell these records and things on the site

yes you will be able to purchase things individually

of course it will be much cheaper and quicker to be in SKP

and it will hopefully give me the wherewithal to concentrate more on this

which after all is where my heart lies

doing this stuff and pushing my limits if i can

to bring you the most undiluted sounds from my uh universe

if you want it try it for a year

see if we all like it

hundred bucks its a lotta money…..!

hundred bucks its nothing….!

if you dont wanna do it fair enough

should i apologise now for my rampant capitalism…?

think of yourselves as my patrons

yeah like botticelli n all them old italians maestros had

youre paying me to produce this art for us

its noble

it might even be tax deductible if youre creative

its kinda exciting

if you like a chance to back maverick mercurial artists

if you wanna be a part of this particular experiment

substitutions can be made

eg if youre jeffrey cains brother in law and he gives you an isi 2

then i guess you can use your credit elsewhere

we’re in it together

what do you want?

we have a little team here working on it

we will soon have credit card features i’m told

i hope to rerelease some excellent titles currently unavailable like hex 1 n 2

etc

whatever is happening in my world

SKP will be the first to see it hear it know it and enjoy it

SKP the real deal

an interactive user friendly system of micro-patronage

available at still only 2 dollars a week

payable in one fell swoop and then….ah the bliss of SKP…

what could be nicer than that?

i had to cram so many things to store everything in there

ok this is the deal

ask me a question ABOUT MY MUSIC  in my comments and i’ll answer ya

one question per commenter please

go on and make sure its an interesting question too

i’ll check in from time to time and answer em as they come up

thanks

me

the parable of the english man

i wandered in the wilderness of a childhood

until one day

high on a mountain in the older  world

the sweet spirit of music possessed me

and then but slowly

revealing only several of her many aspects

i admit i do not understand music

it is impossible

akin to understanding beauty

or understanding love

there is simply an eternal secret within it

one true magic of this world

the thing nobody will ever figure out completely

music sayeth unto me : subtlety ambiguity strangeness exaltation

maybe this is too big a job for you man it could take a lifetime

no no i say

i know it will take a long time

maybe more lifetimes than any old one

i trust nothing and no one only music

i love nothing and no one only music

i believe in nothing or no one only music

if you cut me i will bleed songs

and in the songs you will find your own blood

the spirit of music is swift is fleet is gone like that

oh  but i have loved her so unerringly obsessively

i know she will not desert me ever

nor none of us who love music but not as much as they need it

why this world of men must have its music

we generously share this with you and each other

sweet spirit of music said i have a place for you

from this day forth you will think of me constantly

and i will appear in thoughts and dreams and reveries

and i will come in disguises and in signs

now come into my arms and choose all the songs that you need

but how do i do that ? i wondered out loud

for there was no one else there

save a ram who had caught his horns in a thicket

but soon the faintest power surged within me

that will have to do i supposed

i walk the path i have no friends to speak of

i disdain anything unarcane

everything else has become inaccessible

i have no common sense at all

music has made me a fool

i have paid everything but i do not care

i am here in my impossible world

not single one person may come in only music

one day i woke up and my sweet spirit said

the love that men bear for me will keep them so turned on

and lo!

naked songs appeared in the whirling fast air

take as many as you can bear

remember to share

music whispered words in my mind were like hieroglyphs

we conferred somewhere between head and heart

if thou can love me only half as much as thy father

i will lay something on you sometimes something quite special

confirm your ardent intentions now promise me everything

i give little to those who cannot promise me everything

yet what is total devotion compared to everlasting song….?

and what is musics dominion only mind and soul and body…..?

so please let me strip the veil from your eye

maybe you can see the glorious infinities of my variations

maybe you can see how its all done

maybe you can see simplicity so obvious that it has become hidden

maybe you can see a way of healing some deep unknown hurt

maybe you can fall off the path maybe you can return

maybe music is the only important thing to a strange soul like you

we talked for a while on that desolate peak

there are no guarantees

no laws no rules no boundaries no exclusion

yet any man may invoke me if he but has faith in his heart

but so few of them do and it must be that way

destiny wants it though  i cannot say why

some may never unearth the music buried inside them

others wither their gift with their scorn

music really is the easiest thing

the easiest thing that ever existed anywhere anytime anyplace at all

the bass guitar is a very easy thing

for easily difficult souls like thee

use intuition and rely on your feelings

it is warm and soothing and humble and strong

play it with love ; it will unfold of itself

your fingers will act as interpreters for you

after the awkward strangeness has gone

a natural space will open  inside

knowledge and invention if they suddenly appear

where once your mind was empty and stuffy

no one can say what course you must follow

you’ll just have to suss it day after day

day after day after day after day

the voice hung in the air for a while like a plangent chorus

already my heart was aching for something

the something special the thing that i wanted

the day was deepening

in lebanon some beast howled in some mountain

a shudder ran through the darkened air

it was the possibility of a world without music

Read the full article here –

http://blogcritics.org/music/article/peter-koppes-australias-cinematic-master-of/

Peter will be performing in Experience Jimi Hendrix at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney on Oct 29th 2011 –  all all-star lineup of Australian musical greats who will pay homage to the genius of Jimi Hendrix.

angle see

i feel a bit guilty

i could have made margots night happen a bit quicker

if i’d tried harder and hadnt been so “busy”

everytime she called to talk about it i was busy arguing

arguing with all the people in my life always unhappy with me

margot you called yourself my little sister and you were right

everything in this world has dazzled us and we become overwhelmed

margot called up : steven lets get my gig happening……

aw gee margot i’m so fucking busy arguing….

arguing with the geezas in my band

arguing with my daughters

arguing with stupid alcoholics and cloth eared philistines

arguing with women manipulating me with invisible strings

arguing with men offering cash or credit

fuck i was so busy doing nothing i couldnt see anything

if i’d exerted a bit of will

i could maybe have got that show last night on a bit sooner

while her ladyship was still with us on this plane

oh margot how proud i was of you last night

if only you could have seen

a room full of people loving your songs

margot you were just a child inside

no one understood you …how could they….?

your gifts you yourself didnt understand or even question

a maverick mercurial ability to sing perfectly

a way with words

always economic and to the point

i see pictures of you as a young woman

you were quite the looker too…werent you….

how did it all go so terribly wrong?

yeah i know

bad luck bad timing bad advice

always the booze weakening and undoing your strengths

the cigs which ruin beautiful voices

and time

sooner or later it all has to go wrong for everyone

we will all be redundant forgotten

our dreams fade into old embarrassing things

margot we all loved you ,…all the people on stage last night

we loved you as a precocious child full of enthusiasm and wild ideas

i sang some our songs

dream of course

and creature

2 of your more archetypal songs i guess

i loved them both

i was very happy to get to sing them

peter was there and tim and michael and david rule

all lending support to someone who no longer will be needing it

margot the proof was in the pudding

the evening was a great success

people were entertained and happy and

why werent you there……?

you would have finally gotten a bit of love back

you never really knew how it felt to do a big successful night

margot i’m sorry i put you off at the end of your life

i shoulda done something sooner

i could’ve but i was too damned self involved

fuck you shoulda been there margot

it was your night to shine on silver girl

i hope you were watching on from somewhere

i hope you reincarnate with all that talent but a bit  more luck

yeah

it was a really good night

you had some good people there for you

i mean peter and tim and i really believed in you

margot i did let you down with my hesitant procrastinations

you should have been there

i hope i never make a similar mistake again

margot you were really one of the best singers i ever heard

its a more boring world without you

i will always listen to the things we did together

your brother in all this lunacy

sk bondi sept 19th 2011

your birthday my darling little sister

i feel you with me from time to time

be free margot for a while

and then

return to this world

renewed

absurdist reduction

the first time i heard bowie it was starman on the radio

instantly sucked in

i was down the record shop and soon had ziggy stardust lp

at first i wanted to resist bowie because i felt he might unseat bolan

of course he did that and much more

that ziggy record to me was irresistible

its been spoken of much by everyone

you dont need my 10 cents worth

except to say it floored me and blew my tiny little mind, ok…?

from then on in i was there at the record shop when the latest bowie arrived

aladdin sane

well i loved this one too

it was like a more sophisticated ziggy  but without any theme

and it had mike garsons tantalising baroque piano all over it

somehow tho it wasnt as satisfying as ziggy

tho still a very very top notch record

i also acquired some old bowie records that had been rereleased

space oddity

this had some great stuff like wild eyed boy from free cloud

and letter to hermione

man who sold the world

strangely enough this was my least favourite

tho of course i still adored it

width of a circle was kinda tedious

but i loved supermen and after all

his impression of  bolan on black country rock is a must-hear

hunky dory

wow i hadnt been expecting that…

what a lovely record

a true songwriters record

life on mars is a huge song

he outdoes rodgers and hammerstein at their own game

bowie has learnt to do whatever he wants to here

in a way ziggy would be a slight devolvement ….

pinups

yeah i liked the yardbird number and the who songs

i mean it was bowie record

we all loved it….

i guess that was the end of the spiders….

diamond dogs

this got some bad reviews at the time

but sweet thing/candidate remains a fave of mine

bowie playing everything but drums and bass

garson still on piano tho

weird showbiz brilliant piano totally unique

bowie on guitar and keyboards is a revelation

why he ever needed some of the rotten guitarists hes had….

its beyond me…..

ive got the flu again and cant write

will post more on this when able

the church are now able to announce the second date to go on sale for the Australian leg of the “Future Past Perfect Tour”.

Tickets are now available to see the band perform Untitled #23, Priest=Aura and Starfish in their entirety at The Enmore Theatre, Newtown (Sydney) on Saturday December 17th. Please note that there will be no support as the show will be over three hours long with two intermissions and a free souvenir program included in the Gold Class ticket price. There will also be a preferred seating Platinum ticket price that includes an autographed program and an opportunity to meet the band after the show.

http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=CHURCH11

indebted to a future i would have hated

music then shall be the last word

special music

music which defies the gravity of the zeitgeist jive

music for the nuptials of night and the funerals of day

i must sing babylon i must sing of the sunken island

i must sing of all those young men immolated in war

because if i dont then who will….?

who sent me here to do his bidding…….apollo, himself…?

the wonderful ms saraswati i wonder….mmm.. such grace….

i honour the spirits of art who lay masterpieces on us

we could have lived in a world without song

an angel whispered these words before i was born

blessings are cheap o soul of this boy

i sing all the singers invoking their songs

the past will lie like a sky on your life

none will believe any truth that you have

the morning of man in the earths long decline

so sing of the time that no man shall see

i will watch over you for a time

until one day when our luck has run out

we will be unmade and each to his own

painless for you but i scream and i scream

falling helplessly in love with the pull of our lord

one glorious day he invented all music

and he freed all the songs that flew in to thin air

all of the scales and tones and the keys

each representing divine arcane spells

all of the instruments that stab and then run

or the glide of a xylophonic glyph in reprise

or the wallowing horns mournful but on

playing over  in rooms in glamourous hotels

the fizz of the tambourine inside my ear

the time accordions into your now

a  chorus of greek women to sing of your doom

this music you write is too fine for this plane

it will slip through their grasp like youth and like fame

the words that you find in the ends of your mind

some they will crumble some they will stand

plummet the depths of obsessive depravity

or soar thru a stratosphere untainted by love

the guitars indicate your remorse and intent

the guitars represent the alpha omega

the guitars barely hinting at 10,000 bc

the guitars all dressed up in sustain and in echo

the guitars acquiring a taste for more speed

so sing of the things you learned before this life

sing of the women sing of your deaths

sing of the blood thats stains every age

sing of the glory sing of the shame

sing of the shadows that haunt all mens memory

what did you all kill at the very dawn of time?

what you slew was not slain and it slunk away livid

sing of these monsters that fill up your head

sing of the nymphs you dallied with in old days

sing of the consorts and sing of the priestesses

sing of the queens you humiliated and abandoned

sing of the slave girls forced you down on your knees

sing of the mothers who delivered you in agony

sing of the sisters who held you at night

sing of the witches who magicked you up

sing of the sirens who crashed all your ships

sing of  ugly angels you have rudely disdained

sing of the beautiful bitches you have to indulge

sing of the wives betraying their husbands

just for the bitter mark of a kiss

sing of the girls from those other times 

the minoan ladies with breasts that were free

the babylonian babes who fucked you like snakes

the passionate italians and the frosty hyperboreans 

sing of the infinite variations on loves hypno-theme

all its betrayals and its inevitable ends

all its vain glory all its transactions

all its renewals all its defeats

sing of the way love has its beginnings

the way you may feel when sweet love takes you whole

and suddenly deserted with all your soul aching…

oh these are the songs that are worthy of man

a man you were once a man you will be 

sing of these men and sing like a man

and know man is not the only one singing

for what of the birds and what of leviathan

and what of the stones every one of them singing

 few that can can hear their  subtle stone song

so sing of the minerals deep in your earth

they influence you all in ways you cant know

sing of the stars but you know that yourself

and everything is exactly where it should be

and thus spake some angel i guess that thats it

or maybe i dont know…its a nice day outside….

the dissolute cavalier

i spent most of the years 1977 -1980 in a spare bedroom writing songs

i wasnt just writing them either

i was recording them at the same time

i was making the whole bloody thing up as i went along

my 4 track recorder enabled me to overdub myself onto the recordings

i learnt to become a one man band

although definitely not a real guitarist or keyboard player

i could always figure something out that was sufficient for my music

if i wanted to be i could again become self contained and never collaborate again

oh believe me it is easy to do it all yourself

i hate explaining my creative hunches

indeed they cannot bear being explained

i feel things and when i’m on my own i follow my nose

i start with just the smallest thing and i build and build

eventually i stand back and i can see what ive done

after 2 or 3 hours of sodding around with a piece of music

adding …..and subtracting as well

bit of distortion here

bit of clarity there

some reverb never goes astray (usually)

i see that i have constructed a piece of music

it needs some words doesnt it?

im a singer aint i…….i gotta have something to sing

now this is where the words and music gotta meet

any idiot can write words

but dreaming up words that suit a piece of music is harder

making those words rhyme and have a nice meter

and good lord the melody

the melody that the words will be sung to

to most people (me included) thats almost the most important bit

but with my very own music i aspire to be more than a songwriter

i aspire to create a mysterious opening within the listener

a certain combination of sounds words notes

well there is magic for you

palpable magic spun from the thin air itself

there are oh so very few incredible songwriters at any one time

no more than a couple of dozen on earth at once probably

you know…the guys who really know what theyre doing

neil finn springs to mind

he is such a fine songwriter

he is the number one in his field

everyone of his songs has a certain quality

he can do that thing the beatles could do

he can incorporate those lovely chord progressions

at once unusual and simultaneously so obviously great

why hasnt anyone ever thought of that before.?…you think to yourself

on top of that he has his mellifluous voice with a slight ache in it

and his melodies which sometimes suggest something familiar

but never ever actually steal anything

neil finns ability to write songs is somehow more refined than mine

his best songs are so fucking good

its hard to see how they unfurled out of his mind

i am not like that

i dont really know how neil finn writes songs but its i bet  not like me

i dont write my songs i assemble them

just a bit here just a bit there

jeffrey cain knows this all too well

you put a little of this guitar phrase here

then some string thing

some other interlocking part

suddenly the music is a pointillistic machine

no one can see how its done

(not that most want to see how its done….but i do….)

now consider this, neophyte types who would write great songs

steve kilbey with his latest song

he comes round your place

his guitar is outta tune maybe (no tuners back then)

he sings it in your living room competing with everything else

he gets one of the chords wrong and gets embarrassed

the song is just a shambles

OR

steve kilbey comes round a sticks in a cassette of his latest song

ooh listen his voice is double tracked and theres harmonies

theres 2 electric guitars in stereo moving against each other

a nice sexy rubbery bassline

keyboards too adding to the overall effect and colour

wow a guitar solo thingy that goes nuts in some weird echo…cool

you see

it wasnt for just writing the songs

it was for their presentation

so i could get people interested in playing them

you see back in the late seventies very very few people had sussed this

that this was the way to compose music and present your songs

it was like magic

a few studio tricks and they were all in awe of your song

meanwhile my new way of writing music was affecting my lyrics

the lyrics were losing all that awkward old feeling my lyrics used to have

things were starting to come spontaneously to me

i filled up books full of lyrics which at first i matched to the songs

this wasnt always as bad as you might think

i often quite magically found exactly what i was looking for

it might have been a lyric i had written a year ago or just yesterday

i needed to make ambiguity part of the aesthetic

my songs must never pin things down

they are like an opium dream

they pass before you

they amuse or beguile you

and then they are gone

they mean everything

the whole world

yet they are meaningless

they are impressionistic glimpses

they are fleeting hypnogogic shapes that remind you of…….what?

my songs are dreams and lies and just things that fell out of the air

the air is full of music

excuse me sir cant you see that real good song hovering above your head?

yeah you gotta have one of these antennae i suppose….

because my bandwidth is so jammed with incoming stuff

i cant get anything done

what i’m saying is i have carefully matched up the ingredients

i have so many variables to work with you know

music and words all existing on so many levels at once

the music suggests the words

the words suggest some slight connection to the listener

its slight but its there

its there and its a key

its a key to a door you’ll find in a song

you go through that door in my song

you got my ambiguity cushioning you

you got my music

it all fits together bit by bit

you listen to the right song

ive got a thousand surely one will be right for you

then you get the opening

something opens in your head and pleasure comes through

sad wise old pleasure still sweet though sweet as

what this pleasure is  i myself will never know

for it is your pleasure

my songs were designed  to feel like a custom fit

this is no lucky strike

i always knew how they were eventually supposed to be

they were meant to be intriguing

they were meant to induce reflective moods

they painstakingly evolved from my early naivete to now

this was done with much experiment and research

i discovered formulae which worked everytime

ways of recording my vocals for example

ways of sitting a softer voice just inside the harder lead vocal

believe me it wont make much sense if i just list things like that

i have only let a couple of really rotten songs sneak into my oeuvre

most of them have the integrity and twists and love in them

i have studied songwriting long and hard

like a zoologist studying animals

i have spent long long hours investigating songs and their components

i am not a divinely gifted musician or writer

i have applied intelligence and perseverance to overcome that fact

its good to be honest bout your strengths and your weaknesses

everything can happen if you just know what you got

i had endless love and enthusiasm for rock music

i had a 4 track and a few cheap guitars

i had a proto-drum machine and a mono synth

i had a shure drum mike

i had a tiny little mixing desk …so silly it looked…

anyhow by the time i surfaced

my demo tapes caught most peoples attention

i did everything from kraftwerk type electronica

to the kind of early church stuff like for a moment we’re strangers

i had to be across a lotta things

i had to figure out recording and engineering and mixing

i had to get more and more cohesive

i had to suspend disbelief in the listener

i did not want to draw attention to me being a one man band

i just wanted the songs to be heard as they should be

after a long long time

i got my methods down and i knew how to do it

give me a studio n some instruments

n i will always come up with something

i never go home empty handed

i usually catch one  song outta the thin air

by the time the church formed

my demos were a pretty good indicator of a songs potential

it all began to make sense to me

its still all coming together

its an ongoing process

the constant refinement of your craft

working on voice and music

working on words and sounds

plus luck

plus destiny

plus the genes

plus i knew my people would have need of me …..ha ha

it was necessary that i invent the songwriter i now am

got news last week i am invited to be inducted into

australian songwriters hall of fame

there you go

41 years for that pay off….