The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

nemo

last night of musical was great

thanks

dunno when it will  be back again

i find myself wearier still than before

simultaneous need to rest and exercise

the wind is strong out there

summer has packed up n gone

a nippy little winter up ahead

my limbs heavy my head n heart too

i hear bad news about friends

this random and sometimes cruel world indeed

and its dips and dives

sooner or later

we all have to crash

vis a vis

so olde and tired

i end up in melbourne

ready to do 2 more nights of van park

come and see it for god sake

mechanics hall oakleigh fri and sat

it may be the final nights who can tell?

now im in a generic hotel cell

not the best or worst

everything muted

no fresh air available

ive done so much stuff lately

i cant even remember yesterdays name

or the music i made in some doped prism

i hurtle into the future nonetheless

hedges houses ditches

i write this and that

and things come together

fall apart

and yet some dream finds continuity in my sleep

where i’m hiding and persecuted in my underground

the traffic drones floors below my high room

mirrored in black glass that same old face

haggard rider of minds

diaspora of suburbia

ibis in glen waverly

tonight with vietnamese food

sam sejavka and john paul young

autumn rolls out of parks and drives

we go up to our rooms

and then sleep hits like a drug

and i dont care anymore

ive done my bit for a day

weary as weary can well be

goodnight

kil/ken i gloria excelsis

one of the best records i have ever worked on

you are everything

i loved our first minimalist outing

i thought our second one not quite so good as the first

but this….this….this is a magnificent collection

some people on here dont like me singing the praises of my other collaborators

feeling like “the church is my main axe why dont i just stick to that”

well as i said before

due to many many issues technical personal financial etc

there is no new church album

there still may be one day but really i wouldnt wait for it if i was you

i am telling you this new K/K album is as good as U23 as good as P=A

and even better in some ways…

first of all the sound

simon fucking polinski has given this record a sheen a gloss a depth

its like his whole life has lead up to mixing this

talk about lush talk about luxurious talk about organic

there is a cast of thousands

strings percussion backing vocals woodwinds pianos

i’ll grant you one thing there is no electric guitar interplay a la church

i know some of you love that more than anything else

martin kennedy is no jimi hendrix …ok

what he is is an amazing musical composer

hes taken a great leap forward between this and  “white magic”

an architect of song now

this mild mannered genius disguised as martin kennedy

has wrought 11  sonic masterpieces ; an honour to sing on them

this is like the blue nile or like talk talk or steely dan or something

not in sound but in the intelligence and love and maturity

it deserves to be number one around the whole world

its universal its personal its spiritual its for everyman

hard to believe that we even made this disc

that he came up with this music

that i came up with these words

it will be almost impossible to top this

where after all can you go after something like this

i want to excite you

i want to enthuse you

i want to make you quiver in anticipation

as i deliver possibly my best singing and lyrics

you want word play ?

you want songs where every line is a little fucking gem?

you want resonant deep soft notes and distant high choirs?

you want drugs and sex and love and death and god and all that jazz?

its no longer a pop record

it is beyond that narrow focus

we have stumbled on a universe of beauty here martin n i

not just one of the best records i ever made

one of the best records ever made period.

yes its that good

here is a track by track preview

the record starts with i wouldnt know

a dialogue with the devil

a chat to the cynical doubting darkness

super melodic as is the whole album

backing vocals la ooooh ooooh

pianos bent out of shape

the singing becomes higher and more plaintive as it goes on

wonderful stuff

next up is everyone

kinda like the title track

(but why do i think that)

it starts with that familiar old aussie/english voice

gruff doing a kinda kilbey rap

bitching about everything

the way only a white hippy elijah can

blaming god and even wondering if he exists

a girls voice comes in

“dear father send me money ”

more existential rapping and bitching

then a lovely oboe solo weaves in and out of nylon guitar

and then

and then martin pulls off his trick

where half way through a song changes gear and morphs before our eyes

this happens 3 times on this record

and every time its a corker

but here the shift is incredible

blinded by the holy light

everything swept up in the majestic strings

the prophet suddenly sees his god everywhere

(you are everything)

“hold on youre everyone” he exclaims

and did you ever really hear my voice sounding better than this

i havent

this is real singing

expressing the wonder and hurt of this world

everything swells up around my voice

repeating that simple phrase

the girl joins in

(leona gray)

she sings unison harmony and octave

and the mellotron strings pile in upping the ante

abloodymasterpiece!

lorelei is a like martin getting in touch

with his inner shoegazer

a huge dreamy soaring chorus

punctuated with twisted darker verses

you’ll hear my voice fucked with and fucked up

i like that

amongst the organic crooning

is some real electro babble

so may it be and so may it rock!

knowing you are in this world

a simple slow song

like spending the afternoon in a quiet monastery garden

or remembering someone who’s gone

or laying your world at someones feet

hushed reverential

you can almost smell the holy roman incense

i find  

weird song

a song about a tourist in trouble

hows this for a clever chorus?

“in brazil the eyes of love are on you

imbecile the highs are right above you”

ive done a remix of this one for the double cd

East side West side

a song of philosophy and hedonism

the second song that changes in the middle

martins music taunt threatening

so often reminding me of low/heroes

indeed david bowie is the godfather of much here

eno n berlin and all that

martin n i both revering krautrock its only natural

but this one is the most germanic of all

and then it changes

and the teutonic stuff all comes back in spades

man i wish i was in Cologne

“its so funny

the clowns that surround you

do you proud”

a better day

bewildered lost dislocated song

strings drifting along

a simple poignant song

always melodic always organic

all the world

starts simply strummed

but evolves into a revolving door of sound

strings and whispered voices come in

echoing things and electro spirit voice

then for the third time a song changes into another

and intersects with itself again

the strings bend in a seasick swoop

cymbals clash and drum machine starts up

effortless crossing merging styles

this is every good “adult contemporary” record you (n)ever heard

brother moon sister sun

a commissioned song martin fell in love with and couldnt let go of it

so he decommissioned it n brought it back in the fold

and its a rousing corker too

with anthemic chorus etc

it deserves to be here after all

cant get free

k/k go prince someone has already said

and who am i to disagree

sexy taut and terrific

one of my real faves!

finale

a twisted creepy little ender

scenes of a distant childhood

or some mad person in a garret?

ooh how strange……

so there you go

you are everything

to me and martin kennedy

—————————-

CD purchases are available here http://thetimebeing.com/shop/music/you-are-everything-cd/

Digital downloads here http://stevekilbey.bandcamp.com

gds gibson

you know

one thing i realised

is that you guys want me to write about music

more than anything else

after all thats why youre here

so i’m gonna write about music for a while

i’m gonna write about what i know about

and thats my own music

on that i am at least an expert

lemme see

i first encountered music at an early age

music seemed really important to my father

he constantly sang musics praises to me

we listened to the radio together on drives around town

and he talked to me about what he heard

and of course he could play the piano

its his birthday tomorrow

he woulda been 90 i think

anyway

it was certainly inculcated in me that music was a very good thing

i spent a bit of time thinking about music

when the beatles hit i was 9

and after that i was up and running

i wrote a couple of songs in my head at age 10 or 11

they were ok i guess i was certainly no mozart

i took piano lessons but fell out with my teacher

when she wanted me to play classical stuff only

i wanted to learn something i liked

“march militaire” was the final straw i s’pose

some stiff old boring fussy racket

i wanted to play paperback writer or paint it black

so

me and her parted ways regretfully

she said i had the makings of a good pianist

but my idiot/savant brain was going somewhere it didnt like

it never had, it never has , it never will (good name for a song)

so at age 16 i became obsessed with the bass guitar

(who wouldnt?)

master this plank and youre cool i thought

eventually through much trial n error i learnt to play the bastard thing

the mystery of music revealed itself little by little

how it kinda worked and all that stuff

i learned about chords and keys and riffs and basslines

i learned about amps and guitars and PAs and microphones

i learned about choruses and verses and codas and intros

i learned about timing and majors and minors and sevenths and suspended 4ths

i learned about vibrato and tremolo and muted palm ostinato

speeding up n slowing down and volume and tone and sustain

and haircut and clothes and boots and attitude

and booking gigs and moving gear and being on the road

and all that jazz my friends

in the end i got lucky i guess

at the relatively late age of 25

i formed the church

peter k would be an asset to any musical endeavour

but for the church he was essential

already at 24 a beautifully accomplished guitarist

who already was thinking outside the box

it didnt hurt at all our chances that he was tall n good looking either

i was lucky to know him

the 1st drummer i was not so lucky to know

that was a bad move to have him

marty came along and i knew he was right tho

ploogy came along and the puzzle was solved

and then tim when ploogy was tired of drumming

one would have to consider oneself lucky

to know these characters really

and this kind of luck cant be fabricated

i was furiously writing songs

just going for it!

the initial burst of success made me write even harder

a revolving cast of characters often including russell k

and members of his band were there in the room

i produced songs out of thin air for all to hear

i was lucky to have this gift

altho many watched me do it

few could reproduce it

i could spot a good thing for a song a mile off

the smallest sound sent me off

it still does

i am always on the lookout for a spark for a song

i could spot things no one else ever seemed to hear

some feeding back echo

some drum thing

some chord or some word or some name

i guess i was a born to do this

i used to think this was random

but after so long so many people have assured me of the pleasure

they enjoy upon hearing my songs

i am forced to conclude it was meant to be

ive made some people happy here in this world

just an awkward  skinny oaf from canberra ACT

i was writing stuff that made people happy

i got paid quite well too

i never made a huge fortune

but i did alright considering it was music

defying all odds and predictions

i made money out of my music

of course by the time this was happening

i was embroiled in my soap opera

LSD trips , swedish girlfriends,

getting signed and dropped and signed and dropped

imagine how it feels getting dropped by a label

pretty fucking bad i tell ya like getting sacked from a job

we spent months in studios recording

we were big in london n new york and briefly even europe

gee i lost myself somewhere in there

we had millionaire managers with rocks of coke and swimming pools

malibu here we come

the fragrant bud the burning nostril the free guitar

restaurant on cafe on snort on drink on smoke on girls

interviews and tourbuses man

famous friends and gullible geese

motels and airports and truckstops and bars

then wham

adulation comes

oh steve you are my hero oh steve you are my man

are you serious

fuck yes look they are…!

these people will do anything for you man

how will you handle that then?

will you pass the test?

probably not…i’d say….

still the music

glowing reviews awful scathing ones too

gets confusing to oscillate between best n worse

too bad theres a photo shoot and a interview

youre late for dinner now old boy

youre letting down your friends

youre too thin or putting on weight

wait youre looking old now

wait youre looking ok

wait theyre not opening the curtains for another ten minutes

wait! they need to rewind the tape

all the time producers engineers agents roadies managers girlfriends wives children breakups

steve come n meet the folks from blah blah records

steve come n meet the folks from hoo hah records

arguments by the tons

everything was arguments where we was eating or staying or playing

you can well imagine

the little blips we get on here is nothing

i am immured to it all

cock? cunt? ive been called that in about 23 languages and 7 dialects

poser wanker donkey and ass

they called me good things too

but i refused to believe any of it

i am a lucky bloke

i led a good life and i met some nice people

i played my music without fear or favour

i hardly ever compromised my music for anything

my music isnt like that

you cant really compromise it or it will die or wither or something

ha ha

so theres some insight into my music

i’m not what anybody thought i was really

neither good or bad

i was lucky and persistent

i had some good DNA from my dad in regards to music (and painting)

i knew some good people

i was in the right place right time (sydney 1980)

cos it was just blossoming into something intense

never before had so many bands jammed so many punters

into so many venues

the church were picked up and hurled along with this explosion

we have survived luckily but for how much longer?

who can tell?

theres some more insight

it isnt up to me all the time

i dont cause everything or not cause everything

still here we are 2013

i rock on regardless

i know that idyllist and skins n heart are miles apart

somehow i reckon tho the 25 year old me would have liked it

i’m still carrying the flag for whatever it is

i love music still

my obsession is tempered but my ardour is strong

the songs were all out there

i just perceived em first

love is a good thing

sk bondi march 2

rain i dont mind

putting up a new blog

but nothing much to say

been doing some interesting work

had a few things to sort out which maybe are sorted now

life is bizarre

a slender thread holding us all here

i have much on horizon

some tv some live stuff

some of this n some of that

and a bit extra on the side

greg dulli has been in sydney writing songs with me indeed

we certainly have got some good stuff

it is has been a great productive time

the comments wars rage on :

i write a free blog with no strings attached

the same old couple of complaining blokes..

again i ask: why stay around to complain?

please depart with my blessings !

i guess most of the people here like my stuff

why hang around hammering the point?

it only indicates the intensity of your own obsessions

that you rail against the old geeza you once loved….but now….?

you have been slighted by your former hero…my my how sad it is?

you bought all his records to “support” him too….

so the sensible thing is to go your separate ways, right?

unfortunately this is my blog

you tend to forget that

so you must go off elsewhere i suppose

off to anonymity where no one will read your tawdry predictable vitriol

let me re-iterate again:

you can sign any name you like to your infatuations gone wrong

but i know who you are and where you live by virtue of the IP address

its not like the old blog on gmail

this one can let me see exactly where the stuff originates

handy, huh?

normally i wouldnt bother to check

why would it interest me that someone came from ,say, pensacola FLA?

nonetheless things must be slow down there

even if you drive to atlanta and back (say)

anyway i love my mugs

they are big and impressive and ive heard nothing but good things

whats wrong with bags and mugs merch ?i ask

beatles stones zepplin they all got it

so the mugs stay and the obsessive ninnies go i say

maybe to not print their tiresome twaddle anymore…?

dont give them a place to air their melodramatic imaginary grievances ?

no i shouldnt anymore…

many have written to me privately and asked me to refrain from printing their bilge

yet i have been mindful of always showing the downsides of things

the downsides of drugs? addiction! ruin! the downsides of music? deafness. record company ripoffs.

the downside of fame and adulation?

well here they are

now hopefully departed

not even reading these words they have already gone into that good night, havent they?

havent they?

i bet we aint really seen the end of em tho

(sigh) (yawn)

NO PEEKING NOW BOYS!!!

oh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA!!!!!

boom sha la la lo

ok

mystery guest artist may or may not arrive tomorrow

lets hope so

i’m all set to go 1 2 3

have  done a rehearsal for musical reprising in melbourne in march

during the festival of suburbia

am almost finished doing a re-mix of a kil/ken song called “i find”

my first ever re-mix…not as easy as i first thought

you got all the bits n pieces n you can assemble any way you like

so much choice

no responsibility at all

just do whatever you like

you think itd be easy wouldnt you

it is i guess if you just do the usual old thing…

meanwhile my concert with george ellis n orchestra is set for 21 sept.

i will also be doing something with george n ork at canberra gig 11 march

the church will be there too

(cue strains of the last time )

the idyllist should be with you soon

i apologise for the delays

i am very happy with the response so far..believe me…

so next up is the extraordinary “you are everything”

when you hear it you will know what i mean

unlike the hodgepodge nature of idyllism

you are everything is a deep hard blast of seriously “heavy” music

nothing jolly or breezy here

you will  find intensity brilliance darkness and light

from the beginning to the end holding you rapt

it is not anything like what went before with albums one or two

here we emerge as equal masters of our domains

martins music and what he has achieved here is stunning ….

no one saw this coming certainly not me these huge epic songs

epic in their solitary quiet spirituality or their orchestrated grandeur

more low/bowie/eno influence that german sound and feeling

have my words ever been better? my voice more smooth and sometimes more chilling?

the melodies the arrangements the intent

you are everything

in a new league of its own

probably one of the best 3 records i ever worked on

i dont say it lightly!

elegant elegiac modern classic strange

turbulent disturbed and yet so fucking lovely

yeah i know i can blow my own horn

but just wait till you hear this

an album of pop songs yes and much much more than that

an album that charts the struggle of the soul

an album of fragility regret and repentance

an album of top class numbers every single on of em

so thats coming

april i believe with show in melbourne too

and …

yeah…

i’ll keep you all informed as it all starts to pan out

sk

white pastel pencil

sorry the cds are all on their whey

there was an unforeseen delay but theyre coming atcha

the idyllist in yer mailbox

coming through your door

your postie knock knock package for you sign here please

i apologise for the hold up

next week i hope to start on a new collaboration with someone

i’m not gonna say who it is until they get here but i’m excited

but you never know in showbiz do ya?

and things can go wrong at anytime

i got so much on the boil

sometimes i cant think that straight

still to come are coral kingdom n hu dost collabs both works in progress

kil/ken is looming large

you will be surprised by this record i guarantee it

and of 21st of september i am doing a solo show with orchestra in sydney

thats with george ellis from OH days

i’m writing painting working

try to stay moving

my rib is still hurting having xray tomorrow

wrote 2 cool new pieces of music quite unusual

i blah blah blah

ok?

here is a new video featuring

music by me

photos by RB

hope you enjoy

orange as warm

saturday afternoon in bondi becalmed

warm grey windy day

think of old times think of the past

think of the band think about music

a door opens to a warm rainy summer somewhere then

but it can never take me back in

memory fade slow burn out to pure white in negative black

no avail no avail

girls clomph thru bondi in high wedge shoes

they look like galloping hippopotami

as they race up Campbell Parade hailing a cab

the place is packed with cars ice cream chips fish gulls swimmers

kids dogs bouncers spruikers deadbeats hippies spaniards

swedes by the bucketload yibber yabbering up Hall Street

cops and beggars and looneys and saints

inside the shops do the jostle

buy a slurpee or  a surfboard or board shorts or wetsuit

you want thai food haircut manicure pilates tattoo?

you want frozen yoghurt gelato full cream haagen norgen NZ ice?

you want cigs wigs coats clothes bikinis wax brazilian mexican vietnamese ?

you want hustler fumbler crook and society bitch in her black land crusher 4wd

you want surfer graffiti skater biker bikie surfie grommet and boob jobs?

you want botox shots parking ticket bottle shops prams tourists ?

you want celebrities nobodies somebodies has beens never was?

you want salt sand umbrellas pines palms g-strings tits n ass?

you want cafe bar restaurant brunch tapas aioli rocket boutique beer?

you want phony flaky lousy silly awful funny curious blase fucked up?

you want real estate agent and waverley council ranger?

you want one way street you want eternal construction machine?

you want home renovation all around the street and wild parties?

you want rich man poor man bored man thief?

or what?

me …i just dont care at all…

see dee

Final thoughts on the idyllist

Oh boy I gotta lotta on my plate so I wont linger longer on idyllist

So much happening all at once you see

Now my internets down n I’m writing this in “word”

So that accounts for all the fucking capitals n stuff

Anyway the machine knows better than me what I want to write

Ok idyllist is a sprawling drawling mélange

A hodge podge of all the music I ever heard baby n then some

Its un-apollo-getically eclectic

There is no theme no rhyme or reason

In that it reminds me of todd by todd rundgren

A tour-de-force of a slightly unhinged nutty genius just running amok

Ie one song does not prepare you for the next

One mans variety is another mans lack of continuity I guess

That’s the funny thing with me I manage to be right n wrong at same time being

Ok so I just listened to the cd up loud

Theres some glaring brilliant bits and some brilliantly glaring bits

Theres a few sonic problems here and there

Theres a few bum notes

Theres a few things too loud a few things too soft

Things that shoulda been but were…uh…yeah you get the picture..i know

its Kilbey its his solo album what would you expect fucking TOTO?

Its raw its earthy its undisciplined its loose its ragged

Its spontaneous its silly its dopey its comi-tragedy

Orchestras barge in outta nowhere

Strange foreign instruments pop up all over the place

All the little jingly things tap away

12 string strum strum strum

typical of yer sk stuff as always was from 1977

I always strumming my twelve you know so well my listeners

Usually never far away from sk and his song

Theres that simple bass impudently insistent bullying every song

The bass is the subtext

It tells you whats really going on

The e guitars doing my usual scratchy shifty fucked up racquet

Some naively amazing moments when it all goes right

Some glorious collisions when it doesn’t

My bum notes like my chequered past baby

Oh just let it all hang out !

Idyllist grew up and had a life of its own

Its not what I expected

It must have made its self because I cant remember making it now

I don’t know what some of the words are

Its become another one of my albums now

Its probably gotta be one of the best

The banal and accomplished butt heads and dissolve

Suddenly it all seems to mean so much then its gone by next song

It is no ordinary record yet not extraordinary either

It is the beatles Dylan bolan bowie regurgitated thru my eyes

But at some uncontrollable random generation

The ideas all stand next to the other bizarrely juxtaposed

In some songs everything is all woozy lurching

The words are …oh how can I explain…why would I even try..

Nobody writes words like me

It isn’t possible and who would even want to

I stand alone here in my niche

No one will ever replace me as better at doing this

I know that

I have it all under control believe it or newt

And I got more amazing music and collaborations coming atcha

A very exciting project I will announce as soon as confirmed

The next kil/ken is a mindblowing giant of a record

Seriously I love to blow my own cor anglais

But cor blimey “you are everything” is a blockbuster

A deep spiritually wry album full of huge arrangements

Mixed to a pristine yet experimental perfection by s polinski

Quite different to idyllist

Which is a chaotic record compared to that records careful order

I am proud of idyllist tho I cant really take it in anymore

But through all that I know its pretty good

Its indefinable its strange quirky absent minded

Its an interesting record if nothing else

It heralds a kind of new beginning

And it is therefore a fresh start

And I hope with everything I learned

That the next record totally solo will be apokrypha

That elusive and monstrous masterpiece I hear in my head

Certainly there are elements of that here

The outro to truth aint enough etc

Theres some of it on here already

But idyllist is full of light n shade but apok wont be

It will be one incredible thing

This is many scattered things

Look in the end

I like it

How couldn’t you like it?

All those years I should make good records

I sure cant do much else

This is my calling my living my vocation my manifest destiny

Making records and now taking back more control

I sincerely thank those who have already purchased it

We will get it out first thing tomorrow incl posters for lucky hundred

Finally to Thank skp people too who made it possible

Ie alleviating financial pressure enabling me to do this at all

Each one of you is a patron of the arts

That’s it you wont hear anything about it again for a long time

I guarantee it

And the next record is already almost waiting in the wings…

Love sk bondi beach 2013

see dee