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

my guitar is my staff : charged with my energy : it is in symbiosis with me

where would we be without music?

powerful stuff

how does it work?

nobody knows

i can write it i can play it i can sing it

but i got no idea how it works

musics like a car to me

i know if i do certain things i will get to where i want to go

but i have no idea why good music feels so good

how do i write music these days?

well if i’m on my own i fiddle about

i may have some vague shadowy thing in my head

like i want to write a cross between all my favourite songs in one

othertimes i just goes with the flows

like debussy

automatic writing

i pick up an instrument …phrases come to me out of the blue

it is like that for me now with all my endeavours

a geeza sends me a song

sing on this please sk

ok yeah

bang

a couple of hours later i dreamed up the words sang all the parts

no problem

where did it come from?

i dunno but i know it will be there

having duly honoured my muse and creativity

i feel like i am now rolling easy

i can do whatever i want to do

vis a vis music painting and writing

i expect to do something bloody good

and i almost bloody well do sometimes

i observe myself endlessly pulling stuff outta the ether…

i pay for it in other ways tho of course

i am a bit of a foolish fellow…you have to understand

and now half deaf i am almost quite comical

rambling on when i get the wrong end of the stick

i do that quite frequently

i should shuttup and work

my work is all i’m good at

i have so much work to do

i have some serious writing commissioned

i have some paintings commissioned

i have songs commissioned

i have guest appearances being booked

i speak i act i perform i reminisce

i sometimes make em laugh with my old palaver yes

i keep the people here entertained

yesterday i asked scarlet if she’d rather a bike or a unicorn

after a bit of thought she said oh a unicorn i guess

then i rang up the imaginary bloke at the bondi junction unicorns R us

and i’m talking to him in a very grown up voice

and scarlets eyes are widening all the time

yes yes i want a flying unicorn please…do you have any left?

the guy mutters some apology

only 3 left sir this afternoon

i tell scarlet

her eyes are wide now like saucers

she wants to believe it but she’s not saying much

any females? i ask

but the guy says he’s only got males

i tell scarlet about 7 year old snuffly the male flying unicorn

would you like a little male, scarlet?  i ask

but she shakes her head

i have a bit of an argument with the bloke

i mean you’d think they’d bloody well have some little females wouldn’t you?

i mean c’mon is there a unicorn shortage?

anyway  after some grumbling i hang up

scarlet looks thoughtful

about 5 minutes later she comes up

she’s looking very serious now

dad I’ve changed my mind

I DO WANT SNUFFLY!

local colourful identity

ha ha bib pectins back like he never wennaway

cor blimey i’m such a likely lad eh what you betcha little lovely

someone asked me to reminisce th’other night

some top notch awards ceremony in a (scout)hall in broads head

my fave aussie moments in rocknroll c’mon bib please be a rack on tour for us

well christ lemme think i says between champers

and vegi-sushi nibbles with that fucken sauce i don’t like…

i turned to me manager banga pearson who once worked for chuggy himself

i told you not to ever have this stuff served at my gigs

but bib-0 says banga

this aint your fuckin’ gig me old sunny jim jam wham bam thank you ma’am

get on with the story bib you turkey or i’ll dim your bloody sim for ya!

can’t remember what i was saying banga when you interrupted me…

about your fave aussie rock moments in your ill-ustrious careering…

oh yeah well one would have to be johnny hooch and the young new stars

the young new stars were anything but young or new or stars

such is the power of the media

chicks flocked to these mock turtles like yabbies towards a bit of meat

johnny hooch that wasn’t even his real name…

fuck i wish i’d thought of that instead of being bib pectin

or even johnny pectin has a bit of wallop ya know what i mean

although bib hooch is quite a fine moniker too for a refined avuncular wild yet mild man

a swooning crooner who wears the crown

among the cabaret clowns who drown in maudlin towns

anyway johnny friggin’ hooch and the the new young ding dongs

are like in this hotel man down in the east lake airport strip

some hot night they just did a fuckin’ gig and pulled a thousand people

and some bastard ran away with the door

the whole door for the whole night

and hoochie bring some you know ha ha senoritas back to room 113

and he no called hooch for nothing you know what i really mean here

some other idiot gotta speargun

in johnnys room the champagne has been flowing and flown

strewn clothes carelessly adorn the dawning

man i shoulda been floored just by the beer

and whatever was that christmas cheer hooch picked up here

before he flew there where he had a pair of sold out blocks

the first señorita

you see she’s lapping up fames big lie ha ha like a cat yes yes

oh johnny i love your music so much blah blah ha ha ha

oh yeah which song you like best little stranger?

oh i dunno there names johnny i just love the way the feel to me

which is good for you johnnie cos i wanna be good to you too

in those days i used to open for hooch strange as it may seem now

i used to go up to his room

he always had the best fucking room in the joint

and vice versa naturally seeing he was the hooch man himself right

his big number one hit written by boswell scallywag and tob bobbin

banga what was that called…. that one….?

i call you zephyr cause you blow?

nah banga not that one the one about the scrubber in the flat

that really romantic one…?

fuck that was a great song what was it called…..?

recorded by dennis menagerie wasn’t it at nausea studios …?

you mean the old rex vomit place in new oldham….?

not the place wrinkled carrot made hedgehog….?

mate wrinkled carrot didn’t even play on hedgehog that was the old new young stars

but who played the solo on my girl rat?

that was tiggy moss-gosse from fearsome waterfowl

really i never knew tiggy could play like that ….

but what about johnny hooch and the lads…back at the hote-ie…?

yeah a guy turned up was actually mr asias dad mr asia snr

opiated hash carved into replicas of buddha man heavy as your heart

hooch and mr asia snr get totally ripped on the products at hand

hooch smoked almost a whole sid-arthur before he stopped

then mr asia snr says now where iss my munny hooch…?

but says hooch i didn’t get paid at the gig sir i got fleeced as you might say…

things turn nasty

one of the roadies of the flamboyantly dull knocks over the aquarium

shorts out the lights and everyones in the dark

the guy with the speargun fires into the darkness

as the cops bust down the door and a news elly-coptah ‘overs hoverhead

and the guy who signed em to tepid records rolls up with a fucking cheque for a hundred grand

bullshit. he also had a nuff coke-ayne to last a legion of actors and footy stars a leap year

and the models and playboy bunny who was the premiers mistress sister to manny gambini at the cross

he had vatty-kin ties dyed with that lot who whip emselves through the streets of meddy-evil movies

johnny hooch was also a 13th dan jing jing-u master

i saw him take on a senior girls hockey side with ‘is guitar still ‘anging off ‘im

plus the cops were on the take from mr asia snr

it was give n take actually

and hooches twin brother gerald at that moment showed up

he was a senator in some bi election

fuck!

yes!

what happened then?

what?

what bloody happened then?

?

oh well

send five euros to pectin@you’avemunny.org.ie

and i might tell ya what happened next…if yer lucky….

simple minds, devo and the church

This Summer 2012 the church will complete a tri-continental Scottish, American and Australian band bill across Australia and New Zealand by touring with art stadium stalwarts Simple Minds and art rock innovators Devo.

This tour will cover major city venues as well as a day on the green concerts in regional areas where Melbourne contemporaries Models will join the bill.

Although all bands formed in the seventies and entertained the mainstream in the eighties, all have endured and remained creative continuing to tour and release albums to critical and public acclaim.

Do not miss this art rock extravaganza as it rolls into your town.

Australian and New Zealand Tour Dates :

Models will also play all a day on the green shows.

Tickets for all shows on sale Monday July 2 via Ticketek and Ticketmaster.

http://www.adayonthegreen.com.au/news

AUSTRALIA

Friday Nov 30    MELBOURNE Palais Theatre

                              Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Sat Dec 1        a day on the green – Rochford Wines, Yarra Valley VIC

                             Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Sun Dec 2      ADELAIDE Entertainment Centre

                             Bookings thru http://premier.ticketek.com.au/ & 132 849

Tues Dec 4     PERTH Kings Park & Botanic Garden

                              Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Friday Dec 7    SYDNEY Entertainment Centre

                              Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Sat Dec 8     a day on the green – Bimbadgen Winery, Hunter Valley NSW

                              Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Sun Dec 9      a day on the green – Sirromet Wines, Mt Cotton QLD

                              Bookings thru ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Wed Dec 12    WOLLONGONG WIN Entertainment Centre

                              Bookings thru http://premier.ticketek.com.au/ & 132 849

NEW ZEALAND

 Sat Dec 15      a day on the green – Villa Maria Estate, Auckland

Bookings thru www.ticketmaster.co.nz &  0800 111 999.

IT’S A UNIQUE BAND that finds itself cherished as a bona fide legend in the ARIA Hall of Fame while remaining a virtual enigma to the world that knows its name. But maybe that’s no more remarkable than the mystery that continues to unfold within its own ranks. the church’s accidental signature tune, Under The Milky Way, is like a lighthouse on the brink of a continent forever to be discovered: 25 albums over 35 years and countless diversions that have almost destroyed them a dozen times, yet always reaffirm a mutual commitment to an uncompromising and unparalleled act of creation. At this stage of the journey, FURTHER/DEEPER seems both unimaginable and the only option on their endless quest from chaos to resolution. It’s an album of breathtaking new vistas and intense emotions, of sinister black caskets and gorgeous caverns of light, a work born of immense struggle and effortless expression.

“The magic started on day one,” says singer and bass player Steve Kilbey. “Someone strummed a chord or struck a drum or plucked a note and we were off. We wrote and recorded like demons and it was inspiring to feel every member using all his resources in the service of this record.” Twenty-six songs were born over eight days of exploration in Sydney in late 2013. Guitarist Peter Koppes, recalibrating his personal canvas in the absence of his long-time foil Marty Willson-Piper, drew palpable inspiration from the quartet’s remixed chemistry. “This new incarnation of the band with Ian Haug has brought a joyous energy to the music we’ve written together,” he says. “The rhythm swings more than usual yet the moods still range from melancholy pop to our modern version of heavy psychedelic rock, as in Laurel Canyon, to the epic gothic-progressive dance track, Globe Spinning.” From the ominous allure of the lead track, Vanishing Man, to the beguiling tippy toes of Pride Before A Fall; the chiming keys of Love Philtre to the sheer hammer horror Toy Head; the exhilarating breeze of Old Coast Road and the ultimate, panoramic drama of the mini-screenplay that is Miami, FURTHER/DEEPER delivers on the promise of its title in a combined blossoming of melody, rhythm and audacity.

For Haug, transitioning from the multi-platinum ashes of Powderfinger to join “one of my favourite bands of all time” was an utterly surreal experience, audibly expressed in fantastic new dimensions of the church’s fabled “guitarchitecture”. “The first song we wrote was Miami, and from there we splintered off into several styles of surreal to intense psychedelia — and songs to make you drive fast,” he says. “It was a trip. And an incredible honour to be accepted so readily into a songwriting as well as guitar-playing role.” Drummer Tim Powles was again instrumental in the painstaking alchemy that boiled the explosion of ideas down to 12 potent pieces in the early months of 2014, a process that often saw members working simultaneously in separate studios across multiple instruments to produce a work of singular cohesion.

“After an eternal twenty years in the church I marvel more than ever at how we’ve become masters of our own freedom,” he says. “No strings attached, no view to winning a prize. How lucky are we? Or have we earned it? We’ve got better at it too. Or maybe it’s got the better of us. It seems to devour us. Like magic.”

Like magic. As Kilbey sings in the desperate, beatific throes of Delirious:

“These pieces

Are easy

Try to put them together

It’s impossible…”

…and yet…

mile after mile burn after burn return

i first met donnette thayer in 1984 in san francisco on tour

4 years later despite both having someone else

we fell into an incredible glamourous decadent collaboration

and called it hex

in fact dt had put a bit of a hex on me

one day after catching up with her in san francisco

i woke up and realised i was totally hooked on this person

i could not think straight

my system had delivered some kind of endorphin hit

and it was screaming out for more

but she lived with a guy who was a lead singer

he was the main man in her group called game theory

who were an eccentric and quite wonderful band

who had absorbed some big star and were incredibly melodic

the songs had strange turns

dt was the other guitar player n sometime vocalist

game theory were doing pretty good they were doing ok in their scene

make no mistake their records had some brilliant bits

anyway i was touring america for almost a year straight

and calling dt for an hour during her lunchtime at the lab

she had a fucking degree in chemistry for christs sake

but eventually she flew out occasionally to where i was playing

and we entered a world of our own conspiring

in strange and luxurious and run down and nondescript hotel rooms

we began to hatch hex i guess

when donnette wasn’t around i stayed in my room and wrote music

i vividly remember certain hotels in certain cities

in tampa florida on a warm night

after the show

i plugged in my sequencer

and i composed the songs that would be on our album

all this pent up confused feeling i had

came out as this music which i diligently crafted into the night

the next day i’d ring her at lunch n play her stuff over the phone

i wrote the music to impress her

it was the best i could do

i was hearing a new sound in my head

electro pop music that would feel like romantic acid

incorporating lots of reverb and howling guitars

incorporating the sampling of voices and re-playing them back in

incorporating weird sad beautiful lyrics

and here was donnette thayer

in some parallel universe she could have been a pop star

to me she was like one of those heroines in forties n fifties movies

she contained many opposites and was of a feline bent

and she oscillated between the sacred and profane

she could be urbane american or goddamn cowgirl from denver

she seemed dedicated to me like an apostle or something

and yet she was tough cynical and resilient

the fact that someone like her thought i was so great impressed me

it was 1988

my life was now in a whirlwind

after a long slog to crack it

we are touring the states incessantly

only interrupted by brief stabs at europe

then back in the usa

so i put a lot of work into the record

as i get insulated from this real world out here

into a strange bubble oh boy

at the end of 1988 dt and i go to nyc where we record hex

we were staying in my managers apt uptown somewhere

it was winter and dark and snowing

at night we worked during peoples off hours

donnette and i worked on the lyrics together

theres some real good things here …some great words

it all kinda started to coalesce for me

i added the guitars and basses and percussion

i played around with different recording tricks and techniques

i think the singing on here is pretty good

it was exactly what was needed

some of the songs on this record suddenly burst through the clouds

and hit ecstatic plateaus

we were influenced by absolutely no one here

this was instant hex

as a labour of love i had conspired these songs

guided by my intuitive instinct for pop

and my intrinsic desire to transcend

the music and the words we summoned out of the ether

because something told us to do it

we bickered a bit and sometimes she rebelled against my meglomania

but she endlessly concentrated on working

she was ready for experimentation

and she usually sang quite in tune

and she could suddenly get very shrill very fast

like cilla black could

go from soft velvety to passionate and edgy in no time

usually i liked this tho dt sometimes had a tendency to overdo it

but mostly i was able to get these great performances as you hear here…

when margot smith heard the last song on hex

she insisted on doing it on the spot

so you will hear it on her album touch

anyway it got some good reviews but generally it sank without much notice

i don’t know why

in 1988 this was quite a futuristic record

the final piece in the hex puzzle was engineer bryce goggin

we met him in new york and he mixed it for nothing

he not only mixed it

but he contributed greatly to the albums sonic wallop

by replacing some of my dodgy sounds with some very cool ones

and then he mixed it and nailed it in a crystal dreamy innovative way

i will always believe this record was a masterpiece

it was just too good to be understood then

the few people who came across it were amazed at the songs herein

we were searching for euphoria

sometimes we goddamn almost find it

vast haloes is a different story

hex was written in a fevered dream a honeymoon period

i had been reborn a star and i had dt as my disciple

if you’ve seen judy davis playing william burroughs wife in naked lunch

you can kinda get the idea of how donnette was

languid sleepy tired sometimes

funny the more tired she looked the more i liked it

she looked good tired i don’t know why

she really knew a lot about guitars and amps

she was a good guitarist too actually

she could actually play

but i was a tyrant

and the purity of hex depended me playing everything

that having been said donnette ran into a guy called jim mcgrath

he was a percussion master

and he played all over this record and added much colour and spice

he added organic energy too

now while hex had been very sparse electro and in some ways restrained

vast haloes took on other genres with varying results

vast haloes has a bigger sound in some ways

a few songs on here are pop masterpieces i have no doubt

recorded in la at various studios including a+m

its a record made on the way down

its high points are maybe higher

its low points a bit lower

over all its still a special record

i played it produced it co-mixed it

i controlled everything

sometimes i lost my judgement

sometimes i came up with fantastic lush stuff like aquamarine

imagine this

a room at the hollywood roosevelt in the dead of winter

dt had her own joint down the road

she wasn’t always there

alone in a wet cold alien winter

i looked out onto the empty blue pool and jacuzzi

smoking new strains of powerful ganja

i came up with this music

dt would come back we’d think up the vocals

we’d get another few days somewhere on the cheap

or as a favour to our manager mike lembo

he never realised hex was actually pretty good

it got a couple rave reviews in england too..but….

i stayed there for quite a while in that same room

there was no one on hollywood boulevard it seemed

slightly unhinged by my whole life

its successes and failures

and reacting badly to too many bad things

too bad i didn’t know then what i know now

still theres some stirring moments here

some unusual things some arcane and fabulous moments

after the first records austerity necessitated by time and technology

i crammed everything but the kitchen sink onto this record

in an effort to emulate todd rundgren a la wizard a true star

so theres stuff going on everywhere

sometimes its vulgar and comedic

sometimes its intricate and quite mysterious to me now

how did i ever dream some of this stuff up

yes there is some great transcendent pop music here

the birth of trip hop someone once said

during the making of the first hex one day donnette and i got food poisoning

and we both lay in bed hallucinating in a cold fever

one day i looked in the mirror

there i was gaunt dishevelled tired stoned unshaven

man i was every popstar i ever wanted to be rolled into one

my head was bursting with ideas for music

people in australia were beginning to twig i was drifting off

they would ring me and persuade me to come back

but i didn’t want to

i was in new york city

it was winter

i had a bit of money

it was cafes and restaurants and cabs to the studio

i bent all my focus on the first record

my life was suddenly impossible groovy and alien

i really was a bit of a popstar

we went to bars and we drank a bit and watched comedians

once in the middle of a deadcold winter night

a comedian stopped the show and pointed to dt and said

hey lady you got something going with this guy aint ya?

at christmas time instead of returning to australia

i went to donnettes mothers place in denver colorado

oh man!

a truly extraordinary time!

donnettes mother and boyfriend were quite youngish

they were extremely groovy and turned on hipster types

they made me more than welcome

they also laid on many many special refreshments

my christmas gift was a wonderful refreshment

her mother was an amazing character

madeleine stowe always reminded me of her mother

we used to go to the best mexican restaurants

and we’d drink beer and have a really cool time

these were no byron bay hippies

these were the real deal

travelling all over america

her mother was like a tough pretty funny classic american type

the type i had seen in the movies so much as a young kid

feisty women who chart their own course for reasons known only to them

donnettes  sister turned up too

she looked like donnette maybe not so tired

she kinda kept up a mostly good natured string of little jibes at me

i didn’t mind that much

it all seemed like a movie

my first american christmas

i’m in denver colorado

my record is in the charts here in the US

i’m staying in the suburbs of denver

its snowing and all that

sometimes i take a walk with her mother

she remains totally unimpressed by my stoned blather

its a thing i liked about her

we did lots of touristy things with the family

there was another half sister who only lived nocturnally

one did not see much of her

we went skiing we went to the hot water springs on freezing days

we hit the most authentic mexican places a lot

sometimes we would play some new board games at night

but the refreshments were there too

but the atmosphere was very relaxed and warm

it really was like being in a film

eventually of course

rightly or wrongly

i was compelled to return to australia

hex was done

i had no pretext whatsoever to tarry

the brief golden age of hex was already over

the first record represents that on every level

the second record represents hexes glorious fall

on every level

you can download either of these records now from this site

see details on the left about bandcamp