The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

Ahead of The Afghan Whigs’ first Australian tour, frontman Greg Dulli tells Mess and Noise about his favourite Australian bands including the church.

http://www.messandnoise.com/news/4494186

The Afghan Whigs then performed the church’s song ‘One Day’ at their Melbourne gig. The following night in Sydney Greg Dulli was joined onstage by Steve Kilbey for a performance of that same song!

a smokin’ t-shirt

just cos you like someones music

doesn’t mean you will like them

or they will like you…

in fact it might mean some great awkward balls-up…

or some embarrassing gushing or something….

anyway yesterday i hang out with greg dulli…

he and i both like each others stuff very much

yet…. we also got along just famously

we had lunch in bondi

he even came to pick up the woofle at the school with me

he came round my place

hey evie i say to evie (duh!)

remember how you and aurora used to tell me to stop playing the gutter brothers (sic)

(one of gregs projects was the gutter twins)

(i gave their album apparently too good  a flogging!)

evie says yeah

i say well this is a gutter brother introducing greg…

eve goes a king shade of crimson…i mean she would have made a beetroot look pale!

greg says yeah why’d you tell him to stop playing my music…??!!

eves red redoubles (eve becomes scarlet!)

then greg smiles and says nah i’m just joking…and puts her at ease…

we walk around bondi a bit

we have a little jazzy stuff

and gregs standing in the middle of the road taking pictures of stuff

we rap about songwriting all the time

gregs going to tell me a line of mine he really likes

but our conversation digresses and digresses

weaving around songs and words and tunes and records

yeah when we played here or there …

yeah do ya know such n such…? etc

anyway we take scarlet home

we drive out to the gig

i feel like we’ve known each other for ages

in person he has not disappointed me

his songs are real

hes a diamond geezer

we rehearse one day 

its so fucking loud

I’ve heard quieter jumbos taking off

i return later  and watch the whigs play half their set

we were gonna do one day last but thats too late for me

so i’m going on in the middle

i still gotta get my woofle to schoolio tomorrow after all

and she’s a hard woofle to handle sometimes (i’m thinking bout letting her know!)

anyway the whigs are a great band of course

dulli is a powerful soulful performer

his voice permeates the room

that warm snarling profane hoarse incredible masculine voice

a real baudelaire as I’ve written in a short article soon to be in magnet

gregs words are never accusatory without being first self-accusatory

he finds the good in the evil

he finds the evil in the good

when he’s high and raving no one is higher

when he’s broken and weary no one is more weary

as he said

songs that make you feel something you can’t explain

i love gregs songs

i love the whigs

i love the twilight singers

i love the gutter twins

i love his one solo album amber headlights

hes a great guitarist too

he understands the use of the mellotron

we have begun to tentatively discuss working together

i really believe if it happens it will be some record

i mean we are both exactly on the same page here

we both want to make music that makes you ache

so lets hope this one happens

i want to do this

i have a funny feeling about it

my old mate mark who originally turned me on to the twilights

he keeps urging me to get it done contact dulli and make sure it happens

he told me all along dulli and i could really kick each other

onto something transcendental

so if it happens…….

write to your senator and demand we make a record together

sk

ps i did one day

it was loud

i jumped around

the people liked it

very addictive!

art imitates god

mimesis is an ongoing project involving me simon polinski

and a bunch of excellent musicians from melbourne

especially dave abiuoso and colin berwick

mimesis art imitating life was our first album

it came out in 2007 i guess without much fanfare

i had a listen to it today

impossible to describe really

huge tracts of music stretch out

my voice appears here and there  singing and whispering

sometimes the stuff has a dancey vibe

sometimes its jazzy with all the trimmings

sometimes it powers down into purring pink noise

while tubes and transistors hum and crackle

as the screen before you hooks up to the grid

the sound is lush and powerful

this is polinskis forte this sort of thing

my voice changes and morphs and rebounds

huge orchestras detune amidst polar seas miles and miles away

metallic ringing like tibetan bowls

in the chorused sky creatures seem to bark and babble

an electronic jungle overtakes us full of static and chattering

somewhere between dream a vision stream a consciousness

i’m saying all this stuff you know

in white i tell the story of a next life regression

yes you can go forwards too with hypnosis i guess

if you are directed to future lives i suppose

this is what i found

whiteness

quietness

tranquility in seaside hives

pianos tinkle cymbals like the waves

monkish voices murmur somewhere away from us

everything is swirled into together and all in flux

like a dream in flux the stability uncertain

like a vision

i can’t understand my vision of the future

i saw it all thru someone called wendy’s eyes

filaments of broken transmission spark on and off out there

shadows of sounds at the corner of things

often some subtle menace pervades underneath the layered music

new things come out and disappear

the sky changes to dark

the power switches off

voice reflections in pools shimmering fizz

guitars feedback in passing storms

bongos and tablas tap on

unidentifiable instruments warp into each other

sometimes songs emerge from the music

brief bits of songs just a refrain or something..

pianos revolve devolve evolve

people searching for things and people

but nothing is fixed

*

i have acquired a small limited number of the original cds

i will include an original cd sized artwork with each copy

each copy will be signed

20 aust bucks plus within aust 5 bucks postage

outside aust 10 bucks postage

skp pay 15 bucks for cd but same postage rates

well there you go if you want one

if not no problem no need to apologise

pretty out there stuff …mimesis….go on…!

or maybe not

its not for everybody’s taste…….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nBpYrrNWEE

what have i done….?

within my limited power

not beyond the scope of the source

unconnected or intra-braineously

where does all this stuff keep coming from

this flow of ideas to us

you who whisper these things seem so very far away

but you’re  here  aren’t you ….all around and everything

therefore it is senseless to sin within oneself

and all our trespasses are against only us

i feel your hand as a great sorrow sometimes

i see your eyes in the eyes of beasts abattoir bound

the neglected children abandoned in hells

the great ugliness amid all the beauty

the catch and the barb and the trap and the sting

somehow i’m an actor popped up in this play

i gotta play my part and i stick to the scripture in my head

oh i am someone from so long ago

how many times do we visit this earth

oh i am someone who travels a lot

with anger with mercy moving through time

for the time being me

i don’t know who you are

but i am under a heavy doom doom doom

lets go up to my room

i read a review of my garage sutra

say best ever record from the future

you see once your mind is open to let it come in

verily a council house mystic

my bible is old and fills me full of fear

they should have toned down the brimstone man

concentrate on the angels at the gate of eden

if you want fire i mean

but i do believe that before even noah and arks

the great gilgamesh strives in a fragment of a flood flash

some pre biblical cat some ancient groover

had cooked up this mess a long time ago

in nineveh why i was some big shot cloaked with intrigue

no i was an old slave woman who worked all her life

no i was this priest in a library deciphering omens

no i was a soldier who got an arrow in his neck

no i was a poacher who stole the kings beasts

no i was the drunkard under a tree

many voices clamour within us

starseed  earthbound

stop and listen!

i hear something at work

the pump and throb of blood round the body

beyond that the sea merges with the traffic a distant sibilance

i arrive at a place no words can enter or come out of

nevertheless i came to an unknown a black chasm

i know nothing

in there is everything

where one mans nirvana is another mans nightmare

i did my time in there in dreams when i was a kid

im not surprised the cruel things i did

i dreamt of hell roaring at the top of its lungs

it seemed to scream my name

god help me if this dream is true

hell screamed for me because i had senselessly killed bugs and snails

sparrowfall

everything is noticed

i must make amends

this misery we take on for the sake of the creatures

now i know everything i didn’t know then

i wanted to lord it over material nature

i was angry to be a child again after so much work

i was doing quite well until death came along

suddenly interrupted all of my plans

i was some big shot you know well i can’t quite remember

some strange impulse i can’t put into even verse

i am an authentic copy and that is quite something you know

there are one million stories on the tip of my tongue

on the point of my pen i almost remember it all ….almost

what force then guides my roll at the wheel?

at the end of the day then nothing to say really

just goodnight

sleeptight

i will dream you tomorrow

mercy granted but never taken

talking to the dead of winter

talking to the spirit of a warm long ago

make us then cast in doubt

clothed in deception

cloaked in stupid tricks

disguised as us ourselves

invisible for all see

wow the whole world is but a stage mama

and we’re all co-stars in some two bit space opera

but fuck i am impressed by your method acting style

one could get sick of it easily i guess… its relentless enough

this kind of melodrama causes one to eventually to become detached tho

there is only so much florid slapstick cliche one can absorb

reckless headlong falls into chasms of mindless pointless darknesses

you could lose your way down there

you might never be able to get back out

who will search for us in the ruins of bitter homes….?

karma binds me to its wheel

i sow i reap my grapes of wrath

and i love/hate its dirty taste that i get drunk on

yeah thats my vintage yeah thats my poison

i come staggering up streets bursting into living rooms

ten men to hold me down

poisonous snake voice in my ear

yes yes the one who tempted eve

and the same one who whispers to every traitor and ponce

the same one who whispers to the loser in the betting shop

the same one who whispers to junk sick fuckwits

who pick up the shooter over n over expecting different ending

yeah oh i know the voice who doth whisper in your ear my dear

and he has many many names i’m sure you heard some on your rounds

is there an ear in which

he does not spin his bewildering intoxicating murmurings ?

what is it that makes us so simultaneously righteous and yet mistaken ?

the voice continues

listen to me

you will do everything i say please

and you inwardly nod yes ok

you are released to create havoc

run amok or disappear

break new unique taboos yes yes mmmmm

by the way have some more of your favourite thing

(insert heroin booze crack gambling eating beating cheating or whatever)

you must be feeling tired with all this persecution

you should relax with a little of the good stuff the naughty naughty stuff

the top shelf over the counter black label poison that is ruinous to mankind

maybe its real hard to find

you’ll find it

maybe it will be easy to find

then strike while the iron is red hot

and then the voice says

fuck them because they fucked you

and you fucked it up so fuck you too

fuck all the onlookers for they shalt get involved

and fuck people chasing after you for they were all fools

if fooled by the likes of you and me so easily fooled and foolishly

yeah sure sure i borrowed from peter to pay fucking paul

i borrowed from samson scissors for delilah

i lent a guy something once though thats for sure

so fuck them in the past they shall be forgotten conveniently

and fuck em in the future coz it aint gonna be pretty without me

and fuck all the ignorant they will become aware of my thrashing

and fuck the aware there nowhere anyway

fuck all those strangers out there what did they do for us?

fuck all the closest because they will end up meek as mice or wild like bulls

fuck all the rules fuck all the regulations

don’t try to rationalise it just fuck em n be done with it!

the voice pauses as if thinking

I will help you build up such fascinating little lies you will be thrilled

careful though not too many at once..oh no ..youve overdone it….again..!

turn down the saturation now a bit

these green skin tones are vivid yes but…

listen to me…

try again

don’t give up

the perfect lie is still out there like a great song waiting to be written

the voice stopped for awhile and then went on in a more confidential whisper

the great lie will be a work in progress for a while

practice on others at first yes

but eventually the great lie you will tell yourself

i cannot tell you that great lie in words

it will unfurl of its own accord a seed within fertile earth

it will grow and devour its own roots leaving its causes untraceable

beautiful beautiful lie for each man and woman unique

each interwoven so carefully the villains and the jerks

the idiots who get used

the idiots who get used up

the idiots who used you

the idiots who used you up uselessly

be subtle beautiful lie not next mans nightmare

be sweet and tender

be soul surrender

oh my lie fuck me fuck me over fuck me up

oh my lie fuck my brains out

oh great lie then fuck me dead

the wonderful clever ambiguous lie

moving under logics iffy radar

passing itself as a real emotion in the market of your heart

standing and commiserating with you at the bar

all those bastards out there are all fucked!

the loveliest lie the very best lie….?

oh but you must live it so well you must be an imitation of anti-christ

where christ was  wise you will be stupid

where he was kind you will be senselessly hurtful

where he was merciful so shall you find yourself vindictive

the lie will fill your mouth with its unspoken words

which will hatch on the breezes like tiny woes

stinging everyone and causing bad reactions

often total  avoiding of all concerned

displeasure sweeps through the bit players who separate you from the poison

anxiety may enter through your entrails at this point

you must cling to your lie if you are to succeed

succeed in what?

i cannot tell you your mission

each man and womans use of their great secret lie is their choice

the more you put in

the less you can ever take out

your mission will be some form of dismay

you will incite anger you will create a vague and incomprehensible chaos

you will break off little bits of the one true lie

and from this you will now be able to model little lies

of originality and breathtaking obviousness

when people hear your smaller lies they will think

why have i never heard that before in my life?

that is simply marvellous! that is simply superb!

you will pull together weird combinations of characters stung by their own lie

you will put characters from wrong time sequences in erroneous places

it won’t be all hard work

there will be some lying around stoned into a black stupor

or writhing around like a louse in an electric lice comb

or screaming silently in a dream you couldn’t get out of

or twitching like a drunk in a pharmacy

the lie is therefore becoming alpha and omega

it tries and sentences and executes its own suspects

it investigates the one million trespasses of enemy

it examines the same evidence over and over until its evaporated away

its the answer before you ask

the suggestion in your ear

your excuse your rationale your alibi your last defiant words to a traitor who’s had enough

now go out there

abdicate from society if you like

why do what they want you to do when you don’t have to?

someone will come along and sort it all out….

yes people will forgive us if we tread on their toes

we can miss stuff out here and there

we can lie to the lie and the lie can lie back

the voice had stopped

i listened but heard nothing

the sea pounding the shore

the light tap of the rain

the wind in the trees which is whispering something as well

i wonder if the wind blows your little lies

on and up to me as i stand here listening….

keeper

experiencing difficulty

not asking for advice

i’m talking to the virtual silence

not asking for sympathy or suggestions

i merely murmur into the net

alcoholic elemental won’t let up

that old black spirit always demanding more and more

throws everything into chaos

first i battle my own addiction for 10 years

now i battle my addiction to someone else’s addiction

boy heroin looks like an easy foe next to alcohol

i mean heroin packs some fucking miserable wallop

but booze….. man its everybloodywhere…..

in yer cafe

in yer coffee bar

in yer face in boutique pubs and ads and billboards

alcohol blah blah blah

bottles of wine painted beautifully huge up n down the road

drive-thrus byos liquorshops off-licence bottle-Os go for it you idiots

fuckin’ booze is everywhere a blight on society IF EVER THERE WAS ONE!

its a joke they wouldn’t let you have it if it wasn’t so bad for ya!

thats right the people who protect ya have given us booze n cigs n dead meat

but i digress

a text book co dependent

going up n down with some fiend hell bent on their own destruction

stupid slurred pointless “conversations”

missed appointments

missed opportunity

missed payments

missed life

other idiot drinkers join in

oh they blame n blame n blame other people these drinkers

the world owes them a living

and i’m the reason everyone drinks…

how thoroughly stupid it all is

why don’t i do something?

what can i do?

its all my fault why don’t i do something?

why don’t i throw more money at the drinking?

why don’t i throw more time at the drinker?

after all i twist their arms n make em all drink don’t i

my kids are all sick

we all have some cold or flu making us demoralised and sad

they start picking on the little one

we go out for a walk in the park

the nasty stuff between the sisters keeps going

the stupid phone calls n texts still going off in my pocket

i fall further n farther behind in all the things i’m trying to do

oh well….

its hard to get around to getting any work done….

thats what i guess i mean

alright

will see you all soon

http://www.deadcoolshop.com/music+cinema/live-show-picks/new-church-tour/

Tickets for the Simple Minds, Devo, Church, Models Tour will go on sale via Ticketmaster and Ticketek tomorrow. Click on our calendar link for individual shows http://thechurchband.net/calendar/

demonstration of power

ok i find myself incredibly bizzy bizzy bizzy

dividing my time between painting writing music and family

i have music brewing solo music and collaborations

i have sung on 4 or 5 songs for a group called polaroid kiss

the main guy brandun is a very self-possessed guy

knocking out very sharp eighties-ish sounding songs

but its the kind of eighties sounds i like

like ultravox sounded on systems of romance

then theres alienskin

george and i have collaborated on a dreamy gleamy song vaguely eighties-ish

but things i loved from the eighties

this is a swoony gorgeous track

its very romantic and i think you’re gonna like it

i have sent a load of music off to hu dost to sing on or tinker with

google them if you want i don’t know how to explain their trip

anyway be nice to see what they can do

polinski and i got off to a good start with mimesis 2

we have some good stuff in the can already

martin kennedy arrives in sydney tomorrow morning

i will be picking him up and we will be working on kil/ken 3

we will be recording the vox here in tree-top studio

or should i call it barking up the right tree studio….?

anyway i can think of studios with worse views

still in pipeline :

tarot of the time being

its nearing completion being slowed down by me not having yet checked the proofs

sorry mem i’m getting round to it…..

also the church tour from 1990

hoo boy that’ll be an eye opener for all of us

well thats still on the film cassette thingys so no time too soon…sigh

meanwhile i’m vaguely planning a super TIMEBEING book

a book with all the best art music words auto-bio archival personal memoir blah blah

something big and colourful with lots o’pictures

i intend to send y’all another skp song soon

its coming

i got loads of bits of music coming to fruition

i gotta get my head around this digital sound tho

it aint doing what my tape recorder used to do

you could chuck stuff onto tape a bit of reverb

it used to kinda settle down and go all nice n warm

computer music can’t and don’t do that

its just all sitting there (for me at least)

unfortunately i gotta get more involved in engineering not my strongest point

figuring out EQing out things which don’t sound like much

but they’re gobbling up all the space somehow

i am negotiating with quite  few different characters various schemes

still in infancy maybe none will ever come to anything

the church are reconvening at end of year

read all about it as it comes to hand

in some ways i am a foot soldier in the rock wars

i go where i’m told and i fight accordingly

i am in the thick of it

sometimes with strange allies and enemies

still i yearn to strike a blow for the cause

the cause of the church

of course ever dearest to my heart

my flagship thing which i am but one admiral

so i parachute into wineries and ent cents

blasting the damned audients with rocknroll salvation

lo my big bass will be shooting low

hitting men in the chest and ladies deep inside somewhere warm

and my voice will proclaim the great truth of rocknroll

that it is all a lie

a fantastic amazing crazy ridiculous lie

and i will whisper my fragments of god given nonsense

into powerful electric transmitters which will blast them towards their heads

but i cannot make them listen only hear

they will hear our great machine but will they listen?

somehow all those lies set to music are becoming true again

what is happening? i am confused

so i turn up in summer on a stage in austra-lazier

and there i am wispy hair white beard freckles earrings incredible calves

i have lived a fantastic life

i have experienced many of the inner and outer worlds this world has to offer

i have turned this charade around

i am now more authentic than almost anything else you’ll see

we are more authentic

every guy in the band is authenticity in flesh

as in some cat who loves music and has excelled in his sphere

can you imagine being able to play guitar or drums like those guys?

after a lifetime we stand together still with minor disruptions yes

but we come back and we’re still swinging those axes hard

so yeah there you go fiendss

thats why i do it all

will we convert thousands to our cause

which is the pursuit of excellence in words and music but still rock….?

yes maybe this will be the time

the dullened proles and phillysteins will finally open their eyes and see that

although there are verily many paths to rock heaven

that the church’s path  will certainly lead you to rapture

but it is a subtle rapture and it takes some time to realise

(like all the very best drugs…!!)

and many do not have the imagination or faith to hear our mysterious allure

fuck em then ! as i always have n always will say fuck em!

i will lay my lovely dishes out for them to see

if they refuse to partake then…….

well its sunday morning

and yeah i’m writing some essays on bands for those great coffee table books

the ones sam does

and well i’m writing essays on a whole load of musical legends

and its hard time consuming work

i’m dj ing my 2 fave records in kings cross on thursday nite

fuck

i’m bizzy gee whiz la di dah

so there you if you wonder

skp songs coming atcha soon

almost done my backlog of art commissions

commission a song

commission a painting

commission something from me

bandcamp has a lot of my stuff up there now

more coming

tracking down all the bits n pieces to make everything available

now i’m getting old i want to make everything available

open all vaults and get it out to anyone who may want it

i have books and books and archives full of stuff

its just so time consuming

and

i’m exhausted now just thinking of it all

oh yeah and melby premiere for short film comeback 18th july

its free

am i really possibly the greatest ever actor ever…?

nope!

but gee its  nice little film

bye now

over n out

sk