The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

i gotta method
i always hadda method
right from the first time
i wrote my first poem for
the lyneham high school magazine
between the lynes 1970

everyone said to me oh you should write a poem for the mag
ok
i sat down
and i wrote the first line
it came to me unbidden
in its complete form
(despite impossibility infinity has been reached)
i didnt know what it meant
but i knew it was the beginning
the mag came out
everyone LOVED my poem
they all saw different things in it
they all saw my sinister half meanings n ambiguities
that i had accidentally n randomly thrown in there

i knew i was on to some thing
onto something
and then when i got my 4 track machine in 1977
it all become obvious
there is a method to raw creativity
there is an in
as i said
everybody got their own in
my in
was
to perceive the creative process
as
just that
a process
a process to be duly followed
into which
you throw
influences
mistakes
random flux
info n disinformation
memory
dream
hi jacked fact n nicked fiction
religion
collective subconscious
technique
lack of technique
but
nonetheless
the process is a process
it is not a miracle
it may be a series of tiny leaps of faith
but it is not one huge miracle (usually!)
so if youre a poet
let it begin with a blank page or screen
if youre a musician with your record button ready to go
as a painter you have your board or paper prepared
it doesnt matter
as a film maker you have all the disparate bits
and then you START
thats right
how obvious kilbey
you start
you start with something
and you stick at it
you start with something small
and you trust in the process
that the line will grow into a poem
the first click will turn into a song
etc
and then you manipulate it
use all your tricks
explore technology
stretch the system to its limit
do whats comfortable
talk about what you know
or what you dont know
i dont know
its easy
like picking foxes from a tree
its gotta look n sound easy
dont frown over it its fun boy
my method wrote song after song for me
i work with people but they cant really use it themselves
they aint got the tiny leaps of faith
like a true artist i can quickly identify n manipulate
elements within the process
like a cake isnt just the ingredients
its the cooking
you gotta experiment with the process
itll always yield something
you can start anywhere
a vague idea n your away
copy something to start with
then bury it in the background when the time comes
just start
just believe
just be yourself
dont talk yourself out of it
dont hesitate all the bloody time
dont question fate or good luck if they come yer way
tune in to your inner marc bolan
he worked miracles with simple techniques
and juxtaposition of themes
the song i wrote yesterday was very marc bolan
at its root
its ok to allude to him but not too much
go as close as you can
but dont directly imitate
i always felt rocknroll was the right medium
to express my biblical aspirations
to recreate the feeling of some ancient city
rome….very rocknroll
nineveh too
lemuria is more chill out ambient
england is forever in the summer of love in my mind
america is brutal like iggy
and its soft like the beach boys
and its wiry like bob dylan
and its smooth like the byrds
and australia is the triffs n the go bes
and the twilight zone is the church
because our songs are sposed to be mostly spooky
or strangely sad
or strangely sad/strangely triumphant
and i created me own tiny little genre
and now cats sit around n try n write songs like me
and they rarely can or do
hardly anyone can even do a good cover version of old utmw
because i dont know
it seems obvious to me to leave that song alone
voice in another room : take your own advice!
anyway
you start with your tiny thing
n you build n build
like you build a house
like you build a plastic model
like you build a bridge
i can write a song from any chords
the chords dont matter
forget your fancy chords
forget your fancy words
get simple
master simple
master short
master brevity
master getting out n still leaving em wanting more
listen / look for the possibility in the minutest things
examine everything you come across
suffer the slings n arrows of criticism
i print most of the good n bad comments
to show you it aint all rosy
of course my carping critics have become obsessed with me
they cant stop reading/watching
and they have become addicted to their negative gearing
i throw up an ingenious little song
they throw up more tedious bile
it is a phenomenon for sure
and it should be considered
when some
‘friend” tells ya what you do is iffy
so have some confidence n take heart
open up your garage band
and know theres a song in there waiting for you
start off unambitious
my song yesterday had a one note bass line
but did you think about that?
leave space or get dense
vary the two
get real dense if you wanna
make up the words
thats right make em up
the way i make em up
you just…make em up
you just say…fuck it…i’m gonna make some words up
5 minutes later you should have yer myrrh or yer block
or yer whatever
it dont take long
singalong
some words’ll come out ..you’ll see
thats what grant did
he just opened up his mouth n sang
n whatever he sang was usually it
and let it contain enough ambiguity
so someone else can get inside it n grok it
or make it totally impenetrable
make it a wall or a sieve
make it a screen or a salvo
manipulate the tiny elements a bit more
new technology allows for this like never before
dont listen to people who
say you cant do anything good on what you got
if you cant get a decent tune outta garage band
go n give up
or
refamiliarize yourself with the method
the method always delivers
as long s you follow the process
start with something
continue with something
give it some heart
give it some history
give it some mystery
keep it simple
keep it sweet
thats it
instant sk on a styx
i do it the same as i always did
my method with its process
i dunno if i can explain it anymore than that
id have to give demonstrations to show you
and still
the leaps of faith would remain invisible
i work on hints n hunches
songs hang in the air as fragile as smoke
someones ill timed words can dispel them
good god
i been writing songs since i was 15
thats nearly 4o years soon
still the process rules
still i believe
now i’m fast so fast
too fast for you
i instantly hear n see n know
but you gotta stick at it
stick stick stick
guess what?
i still love it
i love writing songs
i love the immediacy of garage band n the net
i love that i write n record n video it in a few hours
its up
n very kind people have subscribed overnight
in the old days that may have been a 2 year process
i never been much into hi fi or lo fi
however it comes out
i’ll make it sound good somehow
thank you to all my listeners
thank you even to the pests who haunt these pages
with their tedious tripe
your hatred surely borders on love
and yet
youre still here…why? we ask…why?
because…is it…
i am everything at once
ha ha
its funny
how i can be so much
and
so little
so rich so poor
so old yet…younger than most of you kids in deed n thought
and i knock out more good stuff
i am tireless n moving into the future
breaking the rules about getting soft
my stuff is cool
i know its cool
because i am an arbiter of cool
and yesterdays song
by my own standards was cool
cool as hell
and all because of my method
now
for your secret mantra to unlock all creativity
you’ll have to stay tuned
and all will be revealed
or
maybe not…..

i did this today on garage band and i movie
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black velvet inside a silver guitar case
black label whisky
black clothes
grey eyes
on planes
off planes
signing a big big deal
smile off camera
the rip chord
a stab in the darkness
the boys with their quiffs n sideburns
the girl with the tattoo on her ass
the powder comes toppling out of the envelope
the money changes hands
the call is made
the drums feed back
the monitors are overpowering
i feel sick
the pressure builds up
i caress my fucking instrument blindly
in the wings
in the pit
in the shadows
the intro tape goes on
the hotel keys fall out of someones pocket
smoke and mirrors
little showbiz routines
the crash/ride the 4/4 the thud thud thud
unbelievably loud
like machinery shrieking
like an earthshaker
like a skyskraper
wobbling down the isle at 2 am
falling asleep wide awake in your seat
the internet falters
the memories of magnetic heaven
the bass strings me along a while
i travel down the lines
i sing between the phases
i search my head for the words
i fall hoarsely
i get shocked by the charge
i snort contempt
i sweat buckets of ink
there must be a lotta people out there
but the cymbals have blinded me
the blood congeals in the dead songs
we wade through a lake of backing vox
all retuned and chopped about
edit snap edit snap
i delete information ruthlessly
the tiny crystals burn my stars
fuck i’d love to….
alignment in unspeakable delight
sweet saltiness
strumming down hard on you
on you hollow body
on you shapely neck
run my hands up your white notes
tighten up your octaves
flute your tiny piccolo
sing in tongues baby
the machine will remember your moves
the amp needs more grunt
the distortion is leaking beyond the music
the thunder us down of the big bass drum
the wretched screech of the fiddle
the grind down of the organ
i cant agree with anything
we argue over the set
the lights come up
the curtains have left the building
the rats gnaw on
the wires short out
the power arcs up
kaboom
crash
wallop
bang!
i lie there in the dreamless black
black keys
black shoes
black horizon
is that enough ? someone asks
yeah…i say
thats enough

once upon a time recording something was hard work
when frank sinatra recorded only the lonely
that stuff is all one take
no overdubbing
all down/done in one go
wow
all that stuff
those little trills n fills
all in one go
sometime later
someone invented overdubbing
wow

i decided sometime in 1969
that i wanted to play the bass guitar
something just gave me a great big hunch
that thats what i was supposed to do
its like a feeling
its like a calling
its like discovering something that makes you very excited
a bunch of kids fantasized about getting a band together
we planned our record covers n everything
in 1970 i nagged my dad into buying me a bass guitar
it cost 80 dollars and it was a violin shaped
my dad made an amp for me out of an old p.a. system he’d come across
playing a bass was nothing like i thought
it was hard yakka
i tried to figure out bass parts in other peoples songs
little green bag by the george baker selection
yeah thats my first riff right there
i played it in A
which meant i only had to use one finger
this lesson of the easy one finger lick was not lost on me
after that i figured out 25 or 6 to 4 by chicago
over and over n over until the “oldies” begged me to stop
some rellies came over and requested a performance
on stevens new electric guitar
i got my bass out n played them my grab bag of licks
by now i’d added yellow river by christie
and some led zepp stuff
my rellies were completely underwhelmed
my uncle bought me a jose feliciano record
and said
thats how a guitar should sound!
i pressed on regardless
i jammed with other novice guitarists n drummers
and we kinda figured it out together
we played rock round the clock for hours
i hated it!
but i wanted to learn
one afternoon
a very cool guy called ben
with red hair came over
and in 1 hour flat
he showed me scales, slides, slurs and bends
and the inside scoop on how paul mccartney played
applying this knowledge
i found myself improved by leaps and bounds
i began to sing and play bass
because no other fool would sing my silly words
playing n singing at the same time is hard at first
how do you do it?
practice
time
detachment
now it seems as easy as rolling off a log
i listened hard to the bass guitarists i liked
chris squire from yes blew my tiny mind
he had a new sound
a trebly tremeloey thing
that elevated bass guitar right outta the accepted ballpark
and implied so many possibilities
of what could indeed be done
strangely enough
soon i discovered i had my own style
it was a lazy easy style
it wasnt all uptight and pushy
it wasnt very technically brilliant
but it was my way of doing it
and i liked it
after about a year or 2
i became very comfortable playing the bass
i could never achieve that degree of comfort with a guitar
the bass and i feel joined
i feel at home
i feel like ive kicked my shoes off and i’m safe
anyway
its a lovely instrument
and my current bass is a real rolls royce
even and true
a real luxury to play
rich and deep and resonant
it says things that other basses cant say
it throws up music other basses could not hear
it has become charged with much mojo over the years
and it sometimes discharges blasts of its reserved power
right up my arm and into my brain
this only happens when the church is rocking hard
of course
but i go into an anaesthetized state
cant feel the weight of it
cant feel gravity at all
my fingers still nimble luckily
they pluck n pluck like fat little hummingbirds
faster than the I can see
and after a long time
you achieve symbiosis with your axe, man
you got a thing going with it
an understanding
it wants to resonate
it wants to deliver
its thirsty for music
it wants to seek the heat n fury of rock
so you strap it on
and you go out there
into the beckoning limelight
you blink under the lights
the crowd check you out
you gotta prove yourself
but you got the rollsroyce bass on your side
like the rifleman had his rifle
you got your fender jazz
and you wait to hear the click of the drumsticks
that counts in the first song
click click click click
youre off and running
you stand back and it all happens
the fingers fly to their positions
they automatically run around the bass
the words come rushing out your mouth
in a solid stream
and me
whoever i am
i just stand back
and i gently guide the
fingers and voice
adding n subtracting bits
trying new innovations
sometimes fucking up n having to correct it
breathing
moving
thinking
relaying
reacting to the others
none of them see it like me
none of them see it like each other
music has a million ins
and all of us got our own in
if you got no in you might as well give up
i cant explain my in to you
i stumbled on it and its non transferrable
i believe if you stumble around long enough
youll find your in
i believe musical ability in the family is a big plus
music seems to run in families
peters dad is a musician
my dad n his mum played the piano
martys brother plays the guitar in cabaret bands
tims son plays guitar in a street light song
craigie our keyboard players mum was a piano teacher
it seems to be in the genes
but its also in the fact
that if you see someone you know doing it
you realize it cant be that damn hard
anyway i was born n destined
to play the bass guitar
the only instrument i am truly proficient on
i try to make my bass parts
interesting
sexy
warm
pulsating
snaky
throbbing
simple
melodic
different

thank you for listening
sk

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from the moment that wriggling sperm
hits that deep ovum
and somehow you manifest
and you get a name
and you get a number
and you get a mummy n dad
and you get a school
and a dog
and a friend
and some more friends
and a girl
and a car
and a bass guitar
and you get some words
throw it together in a song
and you sing your song
and you get a fan
and you get a audients
and you get a big cheque
and you get nice car
and you get a holiday
and you get a hit
and you get a miss
and you get another miss
and you get a habit
and you get a bad reputation
and you get bad teeth
and you get arrested
and you get clean
and you get better
and then get going again
and then you get another habit
you get more bad reviews
you get dropped
you get left
you get dumped
you get ignored
you get in debt
you get used to losing stuff
you get on a losing streak
you get forgotten
you get dismayed
you get depressed
you get way behind
you get angry and angrier
you get bitter
you get careless
you get fucked over and over
you get down
you get stoned
you get drunk
you get problems
you get sick
you get remorseful
you get lost
you get it all mixed up
you get a no
you get a negative
you get a short straw n a long face
you get yourself into more hot water
you get a new place
you get a new wife
you get some new kids
you get a chance
you get a blog
you get some readers
you get some comments
you get some exercise
you get some yoga
you get some blah blah blah
riding you a letter
i shoulda known better
my autoblography