Interview Remasters #09 - Steve Kilbey - The Church

Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter.[1] As of October 2014, Kilbey had 750 original songs registered with Australian copyright agency Australasian Performing Right Association.

Music
Early years: Saga, Precious Little, Baby Grande and Tactics
Following his birth in Welwyn Garden City, England, UK,[3] Kilbey was taken to Australia by his parents at the age of five years, and grew up around Dapto, before living with his family in Canberra. He began his professional music career at 17 years of age, when he joined a five piece "cabaret band" called 'Saga' in Canberra.[4] Around 1973 he joined 'Precious Little', a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums.[5]

This was followed by Kilbey forming 'Baby Grande' around 1974 while still living in the A.C.T.[6] Koppes was also in Baby Grande for a time but left to travel, then played in a band called Limazine which brought him in touch with future Church drummer Nick Ward. Baby Grande recorded some demos for EMI Australia in 1977 but were not signed to a permanent recording contract. Baby Grande's demos surfaced on the internet after about 30 years, and despite initial protests from Kilbey, he has now made four of the five tracks available on his solo compilation album of early work Addendaone (2012).

Kilbey was also (while working as a computer programmer) a member of the new wave band Tactics for about a month in 1977.[7] He played 'about four gigs' with Tactics before being asked to leave by the band's singer and songwriter Dave Studdert.

The Church
Kilbey formed The Church, together with Koppes and Nick Ward in Sydney in the late 1970s.[8][9] Marty Willson Piper joined the band in May 1980 days after his arrival in Australia when he went to see the band play a gig. After some success in their native Australia in the early 1980s, Kilbey and The Church went on to international fame when "Under the Milky Way", from the 1988 album Starfish, achieved success (Kilbey had co-written the song with Karin Jansson of Pink Champagne and Curious Yellow[10]). "Under the Milky Way" appeared in the top-selling singles charts of both Australia and the United States (US). In late 2011 Kilbey revealed that, at the time of the interview, the song was still used for television programmes and advertisements.[11]

After recording the Gold Afternoon Fix album in the USA and touring to support it with the Church until mid-1990, Kilbey returned to Australia and made the Jack Frost album with Grant McLennan. He then went on a solo acoustic tour of the US, playing mostly clubs. After this tour, he and McLennan toured the USA together on the back of the Jack Frost project. The Jack Frost band name was derived from mutual friend of Kilbey and McLennan, Joel Eaves of Canberra, whose expression of "another Jack Frost day in Oceana", became a popular Sydney expression during the period.[12] In 1990 Kilbey began to use heroin around the time of his girlfriend Karin Jansson's pregnancy.[13] His use of this drug continued through the recording of The Church's album Gold Afternoon Fix and beyond.

Kilbey had recorded much of his solo work at his home studio in Rozelle, Sydney until around the release of his album "Narcosis", which was recorded at his new 'proper' 24 -track studio in Surry Hills, Sydney. He also worked as a producer with artists such as Melbourne singer Margot Smith and Canadian singer Mae Moore. He also produced the albums by Hex, Curious Yellow and Jack Frost.

In late 2012, as an act of protest against the conduct of the Church's North American label Second Motion Records, Kilbey announced his resignation from the band. The announcement was made on Kilbey's Facebook fan page following the receipt of an insufficient royalty cheque from the record label.[14] Kilbey placed the incident in the broader context of the music industry:

it seems(tho its hard to tell) that the church might have brought in 30 or 40 grand ( i mean starfish alone brought in 6000 on itunes)…but the members of the group got 100 bucks each. i mean he couldnt give us nothing to he came up with 100 bucks each. i am insulted. i have decided to leave the church. this is not a joke. i will complete the current tour and then i’m done. i implore you all not to buy any records from second motion records. as you see none of it will come to us. same as it ever was.[15]

However, the Church continued as an active band and, in November 2013, Kilbey published an official announcement on his Facebook fan page stating that Willson-Piper was replaced by former Powderfinger member Ian Haug.

Видео Interview Remasters #09 - Steve Kilbey - The Church канала The Guitar Colonel