The Church

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The Church
The Church 2015.jpg
General information
Genre (s) Psychedelic rock , space rock
founding 1980
Website www.thechurchband.net
Founding members
Steve Kilbey
Peter Koppes (1980–1992, 1997–2020)
guitar
 Marty Willson-Piper (until 2013)
Nick Ward (until 1981)
Current occupation
Vocals, bass
 Steve Kilbey
guitar
 Ian Haug
Drums
 Tim Powles
guitar
 Jeffrey Cain
guitar
 Ashley Naylor
former members
Drums
 Richard Ploog (1981–1990)
Drums
 Jay Dee Daugherty (1990-1993)

The Church is a rock band that was formed in Australia in 1980 and has been musically active ever since. In her early years she was mainly inspired by New Wave and Post-Punk , but later an increasing influence of 1960s psychedelia became noticeable. The band can be classified in the "second wave" of psychedelic rock . In her more recent works, in addition to the influences of psychedelic rock, space rock and progressive rock can also be discerned. Her trademark is the combination of the unmistakable, deep voice of the singer Steve Kilbey , his abstract lyrics and the interplay of the two guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper .

history

The founding phase up to the first album (1980–1981)

Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes have played together in various glam rock bands in Sydney , Australia since the early 1970s . In April 1980 they teamed up with drummer Nick Ward and had a few small appearances in this trio line-up. Complemented by the guitarist Marty Willson-Piper from Liverpool , they finally founded The Church (German: The Church). The band name was chosen rather randomly at the time, as it was a group name that was unusual and there was no other group of the same name. However, Steve Kilbey once said that they "are all spiritual in some way," so the choice of name was probably not made by chance. At that time, only Peter Koppes was a trained guitarist. Steve Kilbey was "very error-prone" as a bass player and Marty Willson-Piper "was still looking for his style and place in the band".

With this line-up they created a demo tape with four songs. Due to relationships from Steve Kilbeys time with the previous band Baby Grande , the demo tape of the Australian record company ATV Northern was able to be sent. While the song Chrome Injury from the demo tape was being played in an office , the head of the label, Chris Gilbey, was sitting in the office next door and heard the song. He enthusiastically signed the group. From this demo tape, only Chrome Injury made it onto an album .

The studio recordings for the first album Of Skins and Heart took place late in 1980. Chris Gilbey produced and Bob Clearmountain mixed the finished tapes. Almost all of the pieces were written by Steve Kilbey. The band's first single (and the band's very first ever studio recording), She Never Said , came out in Australia in November 1980, before the album was even released, but went under during the Christmas season. In March 1981, the album and the second single The Unguarded Moment were released, again only in Australia, which rose to number 22 in the local charts . Because of this success, the band went on tour in Australia and broke house records.

By the time the album was released, Nick Ward had already been replaced by Richard Ploog at the instigation of the band's manager. Richard Ploog came from Adelaide and played there as a drummer. This line-up formed the band's first stable phase.

Due to the success in Australia, record companies in Europe (Carrere) and in the USA (Capitol) became aware of the band, so that this album was released there a little later. It was, however, provided with a different cover, simply renamed The Church and contained a slightly different title sequence. Richard Ploog was incorrectly listed as the drummer on this version, even though he actually only played one song. From The Unguarded Moment Capitol created in the US a shorter one minute version that the band was very unhappy and led to tensions between the band and the label.

The Blurred Crusade and Sing-Songs (1982)

The first songs, which were recorded in the line-up with Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Richard Ploog and Marty Willson-Piper, did not initially appear on an album, but as a so-called double single with five songs. Including Tear It All Away , with which the band took a significant development towards more complex guitar structures and with which the typical The Church sound could be heard for the first time. Steve Kilbey summarized this development in the liner notes for the Hindsight compilation with the words: "With this song the sound of The Church began to form." The first group composition appeared with Sisters .

On the second album The Blurred Crusade , which was released in early 1982, Bob Clearmountain was again the mixer and this time he also appeared as a producer. It was musically and stylistically of a consistency and complexity that the previous album had not even hinted at. The songs were very well mixed, the guitar arrangements more demanding and the composition more sophisticated. Richard Ploog's "soft" drumming, which placed more emphasis on the toms , suited the evolving band style much better than that of his predecessor. With Almost with You there was also the band's second hit single, which climbed to number 21 in the Australian charts - certainly one of The Church's most typical songs from this phase.

Due to the renewed success, the band went on a second tour of Australia. The album was also released in Europe and sold so well that the first multi-month tour through Europe began at the end of 1982.

The band had also recorded five demo tracks in 1982 for their American label Capitol, which The Blurred Crusade had not released and wanted to hear more recordings of the band. There you couldn't do anything with these demos and dropped the band. Steve Kilbey wanted to publish the songs anyway and so the EP Sing-Songs was released in Australia at the end of 1982 .

Compared to The Blurred Crusade , this EP was more "Spartan" instrumented and mixed. The EP more or less went under, but later became one of the band's most wanted records. Three tracks made it to compilations over the years, but it wasn't until 2001 when the CD Sing-Songs / Remote Luxury / Persia was released that all tracks were available on a phonogram in the original order.

Seance and Remote Luxury (1983–1984)

In May 1983 Seance was released, the band's third album. The Church was the first to produce itself, but the mix was done by Nick Launay . He mixed the drums, especially the snare , with a slightly distorted, staccato-like sound that the band was not satisfied with. They asked Launay to remix the pieces, but he only turned these effects back a little. You can hear this very clearly, especially with the single Electric Lash . Richard Ploog found the sound hideous and the band is said to have said that "the result would not be The Church". However, with Now I Wonder Why and Fly, for example, it still contains some songs that are considered absolutely typical of The Church. Overall, the album wasn't as well received as the previous albums because it was darker and more cryptic. It sold poorly and buyers began to lose interest in the band. The music press in Europe and the USA, however, was enthusiastic and Creem Magazine in the USA named the band as one of the best in the world.

Steve Kilbey wrote the main part of the songs for the seance and had recorded a total of twenty pieces at home on his 4-track machine . However, he encouraged the other band members to compose their own songs. It was clear to him that in the long run things could not go well if the other band members were always told what to play. In the end, however, only one piece made it onto the album that wasn't just written by him: the very experimental Travel by Thought . Kilbey and Willson-Piper had also co-composed 10,000 Miles for this album , but it was considered "unusable" by the record label - which annoyed Kilbey as he considered the song to be an essential part of the album. Later it came out on the album Remote Luxury .

In 1984 the two EPs Remote Luxury and Persia were released in Australia, but were not particularly successful commercially. Compared to the seance , the songs were not so dark, but more poppy and were complemented by the keyboards of guest musician Craig Hooper. With No Explanation there was even something like a happy, easy-going summer song. Maybe These Boys is again one of the most atypical pieces of the band and is viewed as a failure in fan circles and by the band. Again, almost all of the pieces were written by Kilbey alone.

Outside of Australia, these two EPs came out together as one album called Remote Luxury . In the US it was the first release since the debut album. Due to the interest aroused there, the first tour through the USA followed in October / November 1984. In New York and Los Angeles there were 1000 visitors per performance, in other places only 50 in some places. The tour therefore ended financially lossy.

Overall, the band had reached their first minor low in 1984. The successes of the first two albums could not be repeated and the creativity of the band declined. Steve Kilbey believes Seance and Remote Luxury could have been better albums than they actually were. His songwriting had gotten worse back then, the band had played worse and they had sunk into a sea of ​​apathy and waning enthusiasm.

In 1985 the band was quiet at first. The individual band members spent their time in Stockholm , Sydney and Jamaica . The only release of the year was Steve Kilbey's first solo work: the single This Asphalt Eden .

Heyday (1986)

In 1986, Heyday was released, a record with which the “perfection of individual style” was sought. Translated, the title means about heyday or elation and aptly expresses that the band had regained their full creativity with this album. For the first time, almost all of the songs were written by the band together. Producer Peter Walsh had cleverly mixed the style elements together and produced a very warm, organic sound. This was underlined by the replacement of the keyboards with real strings and brass . Many of the subtleties of the pieces were only revealed after listening to them several times. From an artistic point of view it was the band's most mature album to date and stylistically it paved the way for the following records.

After the album was released in Europe and the USA, it was called a classic by the local music press. In April 1986 the band began a month-long tour of these areas. Marty Willson-Piper left the band for a week, so that the gig took place on June 10, 1986 in Hamburg without him. The reasons for this were tensions within the band, which had built up due to many small frustrations during the long European tour.

This album was not commercially successful enough in Australia either and as a result EMI dropped the band. The record label's plans for a live double album called Bootleg have also been canceled. The band's situation in Australia turned out to be increasingly difficult. They were much more successful in the US and Europe at the time. It had long been a wish of the band to record in Europe - not because of better technical possibilities, but because of the different atmosphere. And with the loss of the contract with EMI, the opportunity arose, if not in Europe, then in the USA: Arista Records signed the band in 1987 for four albums. Other record labels had shown interest as well, but Arista's offer was the most appealing to the band.

Starfish (1988)

1988 was the year of the band's great commercial success. With the album Starfish and the single Under the Milky Way she achieved her biggest hit so far, which was represented in various charts worldwide. The single was and is one of the most accessible songs the band has ever written, and it was also received by a wider audience. In the United States, it was a long-running hit among college radio stations. In 1989 it won the Australian Recording Industry Association's ARIA Award for best single. The warm, soft mix of the song cleverly combined Kilbey's sonorous voice with the catchy chord progression of the acoustic guitar , the reserved drums and the playful electric guitar. Kilbey's otherwise rather cryptic lyrics turned out to be a stroke of luck: the chorus with the text "Wish I knew what you were looking for, might have known what you would find" was on the one hand open and interpretable. On the other hand, due to its simplicity as well as the images and emotions that could be triggered in the listener, it had a high recognition and identification value.

This great success came as a surprise, even if the producers recognized the potential of the song and paid particular attention to it. Kilbey has emphasized several times that he cannot specifically write hits. If he knew how to do it, he would do it. And when he tried it once, it was a total failure. However, he refuses to say which album and which tracks he is referring to.

The album was produced, recorded and mixed in Los Angeles by Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi . Working with them was a huge challenge for the band as there were a number of levels of conflict. Kilbey: “That was Australian hippies versus West Coast folks who know exactly how they want things done. We were more undisciplined than they thought. ”Kilbey doesn't see this as a disadvantage, but rather as a fruitful collaboration due to these conflicts, which has had a very positive influence on the album:“ I don't think we became best friends. But that's not the point. The album is decisive. The idea was to use all of their knowledge to make the album we've always wanted to make. ”They had also been tricked by the producers into using techniques that they had previously avoided. Among other things, Steve Kilbey had to take singing lessons, which helped his voice a lot. In retrospect, Kilbey thinks these singing lessons are very important because they taught him a lot about what to do with his voice. Until then, he had assumed that he knew everything about singing and could not learn anything, so that through this experience he also showed a new openness to other areas.

The band's stay in Los Angeles was another aspect that had a major impact on the album. Steve Kilbey: “The Church came to Los Angeles and rebelled against the place because nobody really liked us. I hated where we lived, I hated that hideous red car that was driving me around on the wrong side of the road. I hated that nobody was walking, and I missed my home. ”And further:“ A lot of the lyrics by Reptile , Lost , Destination and North, South, East, West are influenced by it. ”

Compared to the previous albums, the sound of Starfish focused more clearly on the guitars. Kilbey: “The electric guitar is the most expressive instrument there is. All the keyboards, horns and strings ruined our previous albums. ”Production took longer than the other albums and the recordings were mostly live after a long rehearsal phase of four weeks. The aim was to capture the band's dynamic live sound as well as possible. From the band's point of view, this goal was only partially achieved. Willson-Piper says that the key difference between actually performing live and trying to create the atmosphere on a studio album is the fact that you are there - seeing and hearing the performance the moment it is played happens. The band does not consider the mix of the album to be that successful as it is relatively simple and not multi-layered like Heyday or Priest = Aura .

"One straight from the factory" - Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)

Spurred on by the starfish success, the band went back to the studio after an extremely grueling nine-month world tour. Arista was expecting an equally successful follow-up album. If Under the Milky Way was a chance hit, this time it was planned more precisely. Former Led Zeppelin bassist and arranger John Paul Jones had approached the band and agreed to produce. Jones was already considered a highly innovative, demanding producer who made himself accordingly rare. The band loved it, but the record company didn't allow them to work with Jones. Because they wanted to reproduce the success of Starfish, The Church should record again in Los Angeles, California with Waddy Wachtel.

The newly created song material differed significantly from the Starfish pieces. Of course, the guitarist teamwork dominated again. Instead of the dense, psychedelic arrangements on Starfish , the new pieces appeared more transparent, more sparingly arranged. They increasingly used acoustic guitars, which led to an overall softer sound. However, on some songs this was enriched with ambient sound effects that could have come from a David Lynch film : clinking metal, the rustle of the wind and creaking machine parts. Steve Kilbey's lyrics this time had a completely different color than the lyrics of the previous album, which were characterized by wanderlust and mystery. The opening track Pharoah [sic!] Is a pitch-black, barely claused examination of the mechanisms of success in the music industry. A resigned tone can also be noticed on other pieces ( Monday Morning ). There are also passages inspired by science fiction ( Essence ) and drugs ( Terra Nova Cain ), which Kilbey linked freely with associations.

During the recording of the album, which was to be called Gold Afternoon Fix , it became more and more clear that drummer Richard Ploog had become a factor of uncertainty. None of the band members had made a secret of the fact that drugs were an important part of The Church's creative process. Ploog's drug addiction and a rapidly deteriorating relationship with Kilbey resulted in him being virtually excluded from the recordings. Ploog was not replaced by a session drummer or a new permanent line-up, but Wachtel had his drum sounds sampled . The drum track was constructed from the digitally stored drum sounds on most of the songs. The official position of the band today is that the other members were also reluctant to go to work: Willson-Piper was about to become a father, and Kilbey was plagued by relationship problems.

The result of these adversities is a record that neither lived up to the expectations of success nor the demands of the band. Gold Afternoon Fix threw off two smaller hits with Metropolis and the cynical You're Still Beautiful , but neither of them could remotely match the success of Under the Milky Way and Starfish . Even so, more than 200,000 copies of the album were sold in the United States alone. The strong business pressure and private problems had left their mark. Band interviews from this time showed more than once an extremely irritable band. Steve Kilbey, in particular, put off numerous journalists with his simple refusal to give longer and coherent answers to questions, which resulted in mixed press coverage.

After the release, the band went on tour for a good two years. Richard Ploog's place on drums was taken over by Patti Smith drummer Jay Dee Daugherty (Smith's career had been idle since 1988). Kilbey soon rated Gold Afternoon Fix as a "very common, uninspired" record. “It was kind of cobbled together and we did it with a producer that we really didn't want to work with, we were in a place that we didn't want to be; so it all fell apart and it was quite simply a miserable record. "

The Opus Magnum: Priest = Aura (1992)

The work on the follow-up album turned out to be very relaxed after the disaster of Gold Afternoon Fix . Since the pressure to succeed after the commercially disappointing record was rather low and the band no longer had to land a hit at any cost, they were essentially left unobserved. Every day they met and improvised in Studio 301 in Sydney. Individual songs crystallized out of a multitude of fragments, ideas and chord changes, which were then refined. Willson-Piper suggested naming the songs with cryptic one-word names that should encourage the listener to create associations while reading. Scottish producer Gavin MacKillop supervised the improvisations. The band members expressed their satisfaction with the song material and production while they were working. After three months the album was ready. The mysterious title Priest = Aura (read: “priest equals aura”) came about by chance: A Spanish-speaking female fan had talked to Kilbey and he noticed that the woman kept an English vocabulary book in which “priest = cura” was entered was. Kilbey had misread “cura”, the Spanish word for “priest”, as “aura”. Since the title of the songs was freely associative anyway and Kilbey always emphasized the role of uncontrolled chance in the creation of texts and music, Priest = Aura fit into the concept.

Priest = Aura surpassed every The Church album to date. It contained 14 songs with an average playing time of a good six minutes, including the sprawling nine-minute noise experiment Chaos . MacKillop had encouraged the band to build the pieces in complete freedom and encouraged them to experiment. Not to be underestimated is the creative input from Jay Dee Daugherty, who not only contributed the drums, but also bass and keyboard voices. His playing is very different from Richard Ploog's straightforward style. Daugherty uses the drums like an orchestral instrument and plays in great detail, with lots of off-beats and percussion instruments, which complements the sophisticated guitar sets by Koppes and Willson-Piper.

Willson-Piper's playing had reached a new quality, possibly due to his experience with the group All About Eve , of which he had been a permanent member since 1991. On their 1991 album Touched by Jesus Willson-Piper worked on two tracks with David Gilmour , which could explain this leap in development. In order to achieve an orchestral sound as a solo guitarist, Willson-Piper had experimented with various effects devices on Priest = Aura . Particularly noticeable is the use of a volume pedal, with which he could steplessly fade in and fade out individual notes and chords and which sets the style on the album. Koppes, on the other hand, provided an elegiac, string-like background and dark, rocky rhythms.

From a major label's standpoint , Priest = Aura had to be considered a flop compared to Starfish. The band itself still calls the record an artistic triumph and a definitive The Church album. Although the concerts were quite successful, the biggest turning point in the band's history should come soon after Priest = Aura . In view of the dire financial situation, Daugherty was not ready to become a permanent member. After the tour, founding member Peter Koppes got out. Kilbey speculated, “He's had enough. He was fed up. What ultimately made the difference was that we toured and it was completely sold out. Sold out every night. And then we end the tour, there is still no money and Peter wonders, 'Why am I doing this?' I also think that he believed he could make a breakthrough as a solo artist, but I don't think it went the way he thought it would. ”Another very important reason for leaving Kilbey is the different reception of the Personalities of Koppes and Willson-Piper and how this is reflected in reviews and articles. Koppes is the rather calm and reserved type, while the showman Willson-Piper is more conspicuous, especially live on stage. This reception was specifically shown in the liner notes for the best-of album Almost Yesterday , in which Koppes was accused of having been in a blues band during the first albums and that Willson-Piper was the decisive guitarist. Kilbey emphasizes that Koppes was by far the most capable musician of theirs in the early days. When Kilbey wrote the songs, Koppes was primarily responsible for arranging the earlier records.

Time of Transition I: Sometime Anywhere (1994)

First, a phase with many solo projects was inserted again. Koppes tried his hand at a solo career and formed a new band called The Well . With The Well, after the highly complex Priest = Aura , he realized rather simple, psychedelic rock songs. Willson-Piper recorded the album Ultraviolet with All About Eve . It continued the psychedelic experiments of Priest = Aura , combined them with shoegazing elements and meant commercial death for All About Eve. Kilbey worked with Grant McLennan on a second Jack Frost album called Snow Job , which wasn't released until 1996.

Kilbey and Willson-Piper decided to continue The Church as a two-man project with the involvement of guest musicians. Still with a record deal behind them, they built songs on a new principle. Each musician played a multitude of tracks, from which something was eventually subtracted. The musicians compared this working method with the work of a sculptor. They wanted to reinvent the The Church sound - open to different styles, free song structures and unconventional instrumentation. Marty Willson-Piper's childhood friend Andy Dare Mason, who had already produced his solo albums, added to the production team. Numerous session musicians expanded the sound palette. The appointment of the New Zealand drummer Tim Powles, who had already drummed for the Jack Frost project and was later to become a permanent member of The Church, was to have consequences.

Although Sometime Anywhere was largely positively received by the criticism, the fan base was rather put off by the dominance of electronic experimentation. The tour formed a contrast to the complex sound of the record. Originally full-blown concerts with Kilbey, Willson-Piper and guest musicians on piano, drums and violin were planned. After it was foreseeable that Sometime Anywhere would also flop, the band lost their record deal and financial support. Kilbey and Willson-Piper therefore moved through smaller clubs and pubs as an acoustic guitar duo .

Time of Transition II - The Crisis: Magician Among the Spirits (1996)

After losing the record deal, The Church seemed to be at an end. Kilbey and Willson-Piper started new recordings even without a contract. The concept of a core duo with guest musicians was continued and led in 1996 to the release of the album Magician Among the Spirits on their own label Deep Karma . The Utungan Percussionists, violinist Linda Neil and Tim Powles worked on this album. The fact that Peter Koppes was featured as a guest musician and co-author on three songs sparked speculation in fan circles about a return of the guitarist.

Magician Among the Spirits is now referred to by Steve Kilbey as "a load of tripe" (= about "a pile of junk"). The album clearly indicates a return to guitar-dominated arrangements. The stronger Krautrock influence is new . The title track, which runs for a good quarter of an hour, combines psychedelic guitar sounds with ambient music. The record contained a cover version for the first time since 1982 - with Ritz , The Church recorded their variant of a Steve Harley song. The producer Simon Polinski, who made a name for himself primarily with the Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi , produced this guitar album basically like an ambient record. The single Comedown , which was reminiscent of the pure guitar sound of the Blurred Crusade era, caused a stir .

The album was doomed simply because it had virtually no distribution outside of Australia. In America and Europe, the record was deleted from the catalogs shortly after its publication. The American distribution went bankrupt, so that the band lost numerous copies of the CD without getting paid. In total, the band delivered 25,000 CDs to American distributors, for which they should receive 250,000 Australian dollars. The exact numbers of losses for the band are not officially known, but they run into at least the tens of thousands and can run to as much as 200,000 Australian dollars. For a small band like The Church, this was almost the death knell.

Overall, the band, or what was left of it, was at the rock bottom of their career at this point. Kilbey said in May 1996: “This could very well be the end. Things are falling apart. The core falls apart. Our management, the whole thing collapsed. (...) We don't have a record deal. We owe a lot of money and we are broke. We are trying to get this money back through lawyers. Marty and I are no longer in contact. Nobody is managing us at the moment. So this could really have been the last album. "

Magician Among the Spirits is considered a work of transition. On the one hand, Peter Koppes was back in the band, on the other hand it became increasingly clear that Tim Powles had become a permanent member and that a step back from the project to the band would be possible. However, the unfavorable circumstances initially called these developments into question.

Consolidation (1998-2001)

Another active phase, filled with solo work, followed. The workaholic Willson-Piper worked within a year with Brix Smith ( The Fall , Adult Net ), Linda Perry ( 4 Non Blondes ), Cinerama and their own project Seeing Stars (in the cast of All About Eve without singer Julianne Regan). In between, songs for a solo album were created. Kilbey wrote the soundtrack for the Australian film Blackrock and recorded an ambient album called Gilt Trip with his brother Russell . A project that was basically The Church without Marty Willson-Piper should have more consequences. Together with Tim Powles and Peter Koppes, Kilbey recorded enough material in just a few sessions for a complete CD, which was released in 1997 under the band name The Refo: mation and the eccentric title Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units . PDCHWEU , as the CD is called in fan circles , bundled the sprawling psychedelic experiments of Magician Among the Spirits in tighter songs. Peter Koppes was given a lot of space for his guitar playing and showed that his filigree style, which emphasized sound surfaces, could definitely carry an album. According to Kilbeys, this album was not released under the name The Church just out of kindness to Willson-Piper.

It was mainly drummer Tim Powles who convinced the band to work together again and actively tried to ease the tension between the members. Koppes and Willson-Piper had differences because mostly Willson-Piper was the focus of public interest. And Kilbey and Willson-Piper had also ended their collaboration. Several successful concerts with a full, electric line-up followed, but Steve Kilbey announced the imminent end of the band: There should be a worthy final album and The Church should be finally dissolved. According to Kilbey, this album was to be her " Dark Side of the Moon " and had the working title Au Revoir Por Favor . However, the farewell concert in Sydney was such a resounding success that there was no more talk of the end of the band.

The resulting album should initially be called Bastard Universe , which Willson-Piper was too negative. Eventually the title Hologram of Allah was chosen . Concerned about a possible fatwa , the title was then changed again to Hologram of Baal . The album was the first self-produced record (Tim Powles had gained experience as a producer and was about to set up his own studio). Hologram of Baal is a return to the classic, song-oriented The Church sound, but increasingly incorporates influences from the 1970s. With Glow Worm - after 18 years of band history - this record contains the first pure love song from Kilbeys pen. A limited edition included the almost eighty-minute bonus CD Bastard Universe - a recorded jam session that was reminiscent of the psychedelic prog and herb rock of the 1970s.

Not even a year later, the next record was released - the cover album Box of Birds . With two exceptions, cover versions were not featured on the regular albums; The Church often played versions of strange songs at concerts, such as T. Rex 's Life's a Gas , Patti Smith's Dancing Barefoot , Neil Young's Cortez the Killer or Hawkwind's Silver Machine . They had actually planned a live album, and two cover versions were to be released exclusively in Fanzine North, South, East and West . After the live record was not made despite the material available, the band decided to record eight more covers and release a complete album. The unusual selection of songs throws a surprising light on favorite records and influences: psychedelic music of the 1960s and 1970s, glam, post-punk and prog. The selected artists: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band , The Beatles , Ultravox , Iggy Pop , Mott the Hoople , Hawkwind, Neil Young, Kevin Ayers , Television , The Monkees . Box of Birds has ten different fan-designed cover designs.

The tour continued. Steve Kilbey did not appear for a concert in the New York Ballroom in October 1999 . He was arrested while trying to buy heroin on the street . The other band members played the concert anyway: Willson-Piper played a short solo set, then the other musicians performed; a roadie took over the bass parts and Willson-Piper improvised his way through Kilbey's lyrics. Kilbey spent one night in jail and was sentenced to one day cleaning the subway stations in Manhattan . "Any aging rock star should have been in bed for drugs at least once," Kilbey said later.

New strategies and creative work from 2002

The recordings for the following studio album turned out to be extremely lengthy, as the musicians were again pursuing numerous projects. Willson-Piper appeared again with the reformed All About Eve ; however, the new edition was short-lived and did not result in any new studio material due to artistic and personal differences. In addition, he released his solo album Hanging Out in Heaven after five years . Koppes also emerged with a quiet, sparingly arranged album called Simple Intent . It was not until January 2002 that The Church's next regular album, After Everything Now This, was released . Partly recorded in Sweden, partly in Australia, it was kept much quieter than its predecessor. The musicians experimented with spherical sound surfaces, which had been realized with numerous effects entirely with the guitars. The Church went on a world tour again; however, they essentially did without electric guitars and played with amplified, effects-laden acoustic guitars and guest pianist David Lane.

Tim Powles worked with artists from Sydney on remixes of all songs from After Everything Now This , which were released as Parallel Universe in late 2002 (a second CD contained residual material from the recording sessions). Back in Australia they went straight to the production of another album, which was released in Australia in autumn 2003: Forget Yourself . This album reflected almost all styles of the Church up until then in thirteen songs. Overall, the sound was much harder and rougher, as Forget Yourself - after the usual preliminary improvisations - was recorded as good as live with only a few overdubs . The review highlighted the fresh, monumental sound and the encyclopedic yet economical use of unusual guitar effects.

In the meantime, during live performances or in the studio, the usual distribution of instruments and roles has occasionally been dissolved and the instruments swapped. An example are the recordings for Forget Yourself , where a guitar was played by the drummer Tim Powles with Sealine and the drums with Maya guitarist Marty Willson-Piper. Another example is the 2002 tour, where the bass was played by Marty Willson-Piper for the track Magician Among the Spirits and a guitar by Kilbey.

The Church had worked since 2001 with the American marketing professor and The Church fan Kevin Lane Keller, who advised the band, which had been a disastrously managed band, on their business strategies. Since then, they have been using the strengths of the independent system, which they combine with new sales channels via the Internet. In addition, a larger concert presence, diverse projects and the concentration on the "home country" Australia were set. From now on, there were also numerous releases accompanying the regular studio albums: the jam session CD Jammed with two long improvisations, the outtake collection Beside Yourself (which was nevertheless upgraded with completely new songs) and the acoustic album El momento descuidado (bad Spanish for the title of their first hit, The Unguarded Moment ). El momento descuidado wasn't just an unplugged CD. Rather, various songs from twenty years have been remodeled, some radically, in acoustic, chamber music ensembles. For the first time they interpreted The Unguarded Moment again (of course in a very different form), although they had distanced themselves from the song as early as the 1980s. In a purely acoustic line-up, with Peter Koppes on the piano, they played several extremely successful concerts at the end of 2004. In 2005 El momento descuidado was nominated for the Australian ARIA Awards in the category Best Adult Contemporary Album , but did not win.

In late 2005, the album Back with Two Beasts was released , which had been announced as the successor to Jammed with the subtitle Jammed II . In contrast to Jammed , however, the pieces contained vocals and, with one exception, were limited to song lengths of less than seven minutes. Although the instruments had actually been recorded in jam sessions, this was hardly noticeable with the pieces, as their structure was more closely related to that of the regular albums and less of the random character typical of jam sessions. The surprise in the fan base that Back with Two Beasts was more of a regular album in terms of structure and sound was very big and they received it enthusiastically. Just like Jammed before , it was only available in the band's online shop and was limited to 1000 copies.

The band performed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Melbourne , where they played a version of Under the Milky Way recorded with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra . The opening ceremony was broadcast live on television in many countries. It is estimated that over a billion people watched. This version of the song was simultaneously released on a CD called Melbourne 2006: Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony , which contained the music for that opening ceremony.

On April 17, 2006, the new studio album Uninvited, Like the Clouds was released. The Block EP was released beforehand , which was initially only available in the online shop on the band's homepage. Easy was released as the official radio single.

At the beginning of February 2007, El momento siguiente was the continuation of the acoustic series. The line-up was expanded to include the backing band The Mood Maidens , including Amanda Brown, a former violinist with the Go-Betweens . At the same time as the release, the band went on a major tour of Australia. In April 2007 an extensive European tour followed, which, in contrast to many appearances since 2002, was not semi-acoustic, but electrified again.

For the first time, the band also recorded songs that were explicitly intended as a soundtrack for a film. The book author Jeff VanderMeer was able to win the band over for his 15-minute short film Shriek , which is based on the author's book of the same name and was published online and freely available in August 2007. It was not until much later, in the last days of 2008, that the soundtrack was released under the title Shriek: Excerpts from the Soundtrack , whereby it was marketed as a “soundtrack for the book” (instead of the film).

In July 2007, the double CD compilation Deep in the Shallows was released . In contrast to all previous compilations, which were mostly understood as "best-of" and were shaped by the personal taste of the respective compiler of the compilation, Deep in the Shallows contained nothing other than all A-sides of the singles from 1980 to 2006. This corresponded most of the songs exactly the version as it appeared on the respective album. Occasionally, however, there were versions that had been remixed or shortened especially for the single release. These partly extremely rare versions were - if they existed - included in the compilation instead of the album version. Specifically, these were She Never Said , When You Were Mine , Ripple , Louisiana , Song in Space , Unified Field and Easy . The booklet was elaborately designed and, in addition to many photos, contained a five-page homage to the band, written by David Fricke, an editor of the music magazine Rolling Stone .

Late successes and further projects from 2008

In September 2008, Under the Milky Way was voted the best Australian song in 20 years by readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine .

After the band had initially founded their own label with Unorthodox Records , the Coffee Hounds EP set the starting point for a series of further releases in February 2009 . The EP included a cover version of Kate Bush's song Hounds of Love , which The Church had played live many times in previous years.

A short time later, The Church's next regular album called Untitled # 23 was sold for the first time in March 2009 on the band's tour in Australia at that time. The album was released on April 4th in Australia and on May 12th in the USA. Shortly before that, the Pangea EP (March 2009) was released as the first single of the new album, followed by the Operetta EP (November 2009) and the Deadman's Hand EP (April 2010).

In the year of its 30th anniversary, The Church was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on October 27, 2010 . The band celebrated their thirtieth anniversary on April 10, 2011 with a successful concert at the Sydney Opera , where they were accompanied by a symphony orchestra and professionally filmed. In May 2014 the concert was released as the band's first official live album on double CD and DVD.

After the band members had devoted themselves to their various solo and side projects, Steve Kilbey announced work on a new album in November 2013. Without giving more precise reasons, he also stated that Marty Willson-Piper was "not available" and would be replaced by former powder finger guitarist Ian Haug. In September 2014, the album Further / Deeper was announced on the band's website for October 17th, 2014.

On June 27, 2017, a new album was announced on the band's website with the pre-release of the video for a new song called Another Century , which was released on October 6, 2017 under the name Man Woman Life Death Infinity . The line-up was the same as on the previous album.

On February 1, 2020, the band officially announced that founding member Peter Koppes is leaving the band and Jeffrey Cain (formerly guitarist for Remy Zero ) and Ashley Naylor (guitarist for the Australian band Even ) will be accepted as new members. Jeffrey Cain had been a touring member for a couple of years by then.

style

music

The Church's style has changed significantly over the years. The early songs were for the most part simply structured. The first single, She Never Said , had a new wave-like staccato rhythm topped by Kilbey's Bowie-inspired chant. Short, guitar-focused pieces also dominate the debut Of Skins and Heart . Parallels may be found with the early XTC , Television , The Beatles, and Echo & The Bunnymen . Unusual for the time, however, were experiments with overlong songs with different "sections" ( Is This Where You Live , 1981). The incisive use of Willson-Piper's twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar brought The Church comparisons with the Byrds , although there is hardly any stylistic similarity.

The second album, The Blurred Crusade , refined the sound and put the sixties influences even more clearly in the foreground. The single Almost with You is representative of the early The Church style: the bell-like arpeggios of Willson-Piper's guitar, atmospheric solos and sound effects in unusual voicings by Peter Koppes, Richard Ploog's rather hard, driving drum sound and Kilbey's dark voice with its intonation in between Singing and recitation. Also, The Blurred Crusade includes the nine-minute You Took a psychedelic art rock -Stück.

Seance , the third album, was an attempt to update The Church sound with synthesizer sounds and more "electronic" production. Created under the aegis of Nick Launay ( Midnight Oil , Kate Bush ), the eccentric, cannon-like drum sound is particularly striking. With Travel by Thought , the Seance contains a psychedelic improvised sound experiment. The follow-up album Remote Luxury also works with keyboard soundscapes and experimental guitar sounds. The clear separation of lead guitar (Koppes) and rhythm guitar (Willson-Piper) dissolves more and more in favor of a "textured" sound ideal. Solos and riffs are increasingly being replaced by a complex web of several guitar voices that mesh like gears.

Heyday (1985) almost completely dispenses with synthesizer sounds. The production by Peter Walsh ( Simple Minds , Scott Walker ) is, with its transparent sound, for the majority of the mid-eighties productions, downright lateral. There are hardly any solos, instead a kaleidoscope-like sound dominated by twelve-string guitars with massive use of guitar effects (echo, e-bow , drone ). Kilbeys singing is clearly different from David Bowie . Instead of synthetic strings, a real symphony orchestra is used on some of the songs. Starfish (1988) combines the array of guitar effects with, in contrast to Heyday's psychedelic soundscape, more sharply contoured, rockier guitar voices. Voicings with open strings and modal scales shape the sound; this direction continues in an even more transparent way on Gold Afternoon Fix .

Priest = Aura (1992) again integrated elements of Prog Rock. The interaction between Koppes and Willson-Piper is becoming more and more complex. The band's creative process in long jam sessions creates songs with a multitude of often opposing melodies and unusual chords. The mostly minor or modal songs become more elegiac and more and more sophisticated. A multitude of small details are hidden in the mix; the song structures become more elaborate. Noise and white noise (possibly inspired by the experiments of My Bloody Valentine ) are also amplified as sound elements.

Sometime Anywhere (1994) reflects a radical break triggered by the departure of Peter Koppes. What complexity is lost in the guitar movements is compensated for by the massive use of sequencers and electronically generated sounds. With his unanimous experiments, Willson-Piper's game clearly differs from his previous style. This line is continued, somewhat less electronically dominated, on Magician Among the Spirits . In addition, the influence of “ Krautrock ” bands like Can or Neu! . The recording of Steve Harley's song Ritz pays homage to the 1970s. Hologram of Baal , on the other hand, is an attempt to find the way back to the more compact sound of the starfish era after Peter Koppes' re-entry , enhanced by elements of ambient music . After Everything Now This , on the other hand, is characterized by a soft, flowing, elegiac sound, in which an orchestral, string-like guitar sound predominates; Steve Kilbey's lyrics have much more personal, emotional content.

Forget Yourself (2004) represents a kind of conclusion from the various phases of The Church's sound. After the worn After Everything Now This , The Church again tends towards rougher timbres and, at the same time, encyclopedic use of a multitude of guitars and effect boxes with often highly unusual song structures : One example is The Theater and Its Double , which begins like a waltz and escalates into a bizarre, flamenco- like solo. The production stands out due to its brittle, live-like and yet multi-layered sound.

Texts

Steve Kilbey is responsible for the largest number of texts by far, who has also written all the albums up to Heyday almost single-handedly. While Kilbey always brought ready-made songs into the studio in the early stages, which were arranged by the musicians together, the creative process changed from 1985 onwards. Since then, jam sessions have determined the origin of the songs. First the music was completed, then Kilbey wrote lyrics to the music.

Kilbey's poems are often referred to as surreal , and they are particularly cryptic on the album Priest = Aura . Kilbey always denies that his texts have a fixed meaning. So he wants to present it as art pour l'art . However, if one surveys the entire oeuvre, several constantly recurring themes emerge: myths and legends , dream - and nightmare - visions , drug fantasies and orientalism , biblical (not Christian) motifs. These topics are linked in an eloquent style with numerous puns and references . Kilbey himself recently said that his lyrics revolved around love , fear , temptation , creation and the eternal search for meaning . He often tries to sketch a complete epic course with just a few lines and hints , the design of which he leaves to the imagination of the listener.

The Church are in a way subversive with their texts. It is particularly noticeable that the band refuses to have the lyrics printed on the records. Sung texts are there to be heard, not to be read. Kilbey also likes the idea that the text is at least partially constituted in the head of the listener and creates new, unforeseen meanings there. It was only with the advent of the Internet that it was possible to obtain a complete collection of texts. To this day, however, some verses in The Church texts have not been transcribed with absolute certainty , even in English-speaking countries . The misunderstanding is part of the concept.

Discography

Albums

Many of the older albums were reissued at later times, with some remastering and adding bonus CDs that contained additional music videos or B-sides .

album year Remarks
Of Skins And Heart 1981 Australian first publication
2002 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
The Church 1982 Of Skins And Heart was released outside of Australia under this name with a slightly changed song list
The Blurred Crusade 1982 Initial release
2002 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Sing-Songs EP 1982 Initial release
seance 1983 Initial release
2002 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Remote Luxury 1984 outside Australia combined the two EPs Remote Luxury and Persia on a regular album
Heyday 1985 Initial release
2002 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Starfish 1988 Initial release
2005 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Gold Afternoon Fix 1990 Initial release
2005 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
A Quick Smoke At Spots 1991 is subtitled Archives 1986–1990 and contains some B-sides and unreleased songs
Priest = aura 1992 Initial release
2005 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Sometime Anywhere 1994 First released, a limited edition included a bonus CD called Somewhere Else
2005 Re-release, remastered, with bonus CD
Magician Among The Spirits 1996 Initial release
1999 Re-released as Magician Among The Spirits Plus Some with additional tracks from the Comedown single
Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos With Echo Units 1997 released under the band name The Refo: mation
Hologram Of Baal 1998 a limited edition included a bonus CD called Bastard Universe
A Box Of Birds 1999 only includes cover versions
After Everything Now This 2002
Parallel Universe 2002 Double CD, Disc 1 contains remixes of songs from the album After Everything Now This , Disc 2 contains unreleased tracks
Forget Yourself 2003 a limited edition was released in the United States with bonus CD whose pieces later on Beside Yourself published
Jammed 2004 contains only two very long instrumental pieces
Beside yourself 2004 includes u. a. Forget Yourself's limited bonus CD and unreleased songs
El momento descuidado 2004 Acoustic album (1st part)
Back With Two Beasts 2005 is considered the successor to Jammed and the backing album to Uninvited, Like The Clouds
Uninvited, Like The Clouds 2006
El momento siguiente 2007 Acoustic album (2nd part)
Shriek: Excerpts from the Soundtrack 2008 Soundtrack album. It was re-released in 2009 as a corrected "remastered" album due to various production errors in the 2008 first release
Coffee Hounds EP 2009
Untitled # 23 2009
A Psychedelic Symphony: Live at Sydney Opera House with The George Ellis Orchestra 2014 Double CD. The band's first official live album , recorded on April 10, 2011 with a large orchestra. At the same time, a DVD with the concert was released.
Further / Deeper 2014
Man Woman Life Death Infinity 2017

Compilations

Compilation name year Remarks
Hindsight 1987 Double CD with hits and rarities between 1980 and 1987
Conception 1988 Contains songs from 1980 to 1982 only
Almost Yesterday 1994 Best of 1980-1990
Under The Milky Way: The Best Of The Church 1999 A best-of from the USA
The Best Of The Church 1999 A best-of from Australia
Sing-Songs // Remote Luxury // Persia 2001 Sing songs for the first time on CD
Tin mine 2006 was only available at the band's concerts
Deep In The Shallows 2007 Double CD, contains all single A-sides from 1980 to 2006
The Best Of The Radio Songs 2010 published for induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame

Singles

single year Remarks
She never said 1980 was later re-recorded for the album Of Skins And Heart
The Unguarded Moment 1981 from the album Of Skins And Heart
Too Fast For You / Tear It All Away 1981 not originally featured on any album, Tear It All Away was released on The Church outside of Australia
Almost with you 1982 from the album The Blurred Crusade
When You Were Mine 1982 from the album The Blurred Crusade
A Different Man 1982 from the Sing-Songs EP
It's no reason 1983 from the album Seance
Electric Lash 1983 from the album Seance
Constant In Opal 1984 from the album Remote Luxury
Already Yesterday 1985 from the album Heyday
Tantalized 1986 from the album Heyday
Columbus 1986 from the album Heyday
Disenchanted 1986 from the album Heyday
Under The Milky Way 1988 from the album Starfish
Reptiles 1988 from the album Starfish
Antenna 1988 from the album Starfish
Destination 1988 from the album Starfish
Metropolis 1990 from the album Gold Afternoon Fix
You're still beautiful 1990 from the album Gold Afternoon Fix
Russian Autumn Heart 1990 from the album Gold Afternoon Fix
Ripple 1992 from the album Priest = Aura
Feel 1992 from the album Priest = Aura
Two Places At Once 1994 from the album Sometime Anywhere
Welcome 1996 from the album Magician Among The Spirits
Comedown 1996 from the album Magician Among The Spirits
White Star Line 1997 exclusive single for The Church fanzine NSEW
Louisiana 1998 from the album Hologram Of Baal
Numbers 2001 from the album After Everything Now This
Song In Space 2003 from the album Forget Yourself
block 2006 from the album Uninvited, Like The Clouds
Easy 2006 from the album Uninvited, Like The Clouds
Unified Field 2006 from the album Uninvited, Like The Clouds
Pangea 2009 from the album Untitled # 23
Operetta 2009 from the album Untitled # 23
Deadman's hand 2010 from the album Untitled # 23

Producers

The Church have worked with numerous well-known producers throughout their careers . The Church has been producing their albums themselves since 1998 under the direction of drummer Tim Powles.

Bob Clearmountain ( Bruce Springsteen , David Bowie , The Pretenders , INXS , Bryan Adams and many others)

Peter Walsh ( Simple Minds , Scott Walker , Peter Gabriel , Peter Murphy , Yo La Tengo and many others)

Waddy Wachtel ( Bob Dylan , Rolling Stones , Randy Newman , Robbie Williams and many others)

Gavin MacKillop ( Mae Moore , The Chills , Barenaked Ladies , Toad the Wet Sprocket and many others)

Nick Launay ( Kate Bush , Midnight Oil , Talking Heads , Silverchair , Nick Cave and many others)

John Bee ( Hoodoo Gurus , Icehouse , Divinyls and many others)

Simon Polinski ( Yothu Yindi , Paul Kelly , Andy White and many others)

Solo albums and projects

All band members have released a total of more than a dozen solo albums , with Steve Kilbey being the most active. They also work either as producers or as musicians in other projects. Details can be found on the pages of the band members Steve Kilbey , Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes .

From the large number of projects, here are a few examples:

Record label

The band was signed to the following record labels :

  • Parlophone / EMI Australia (1980 to around 1986)
  • Arista (around 1987 to around 1994)
  • Cooking Vinyl (around 1997 to around 2008)
  • Unorthodox Records (founded his own label around 2008)

Chart placements

The band has only achieved a few chart positions in the course of its history , the best-known and most successful of them with the single Under the Milky Way in 1988. Apart from that, a few other albums and singles have made it into various charts. However, the following list is not exhaustive or representative as there is not a great deal of information left about it.

Albums

album country space year
The Blurred Crusade Australia 10 1982
seance Australia 18th 1983
Heyday
Australia 14th 1986
United States 146 1986
Starfish
Australia 36 1988
United States 41 1988
Hindsight Australia 36 1988
Gold Afternoon Fix
Australia 12 1990
United States 66 1990
Priest = aura
Australia 25th 1992
United States 176 1992
Sometime Anywhere Australia 27 1994
Further / Deeper Australia 50 2014
Man Woman Life Death Infinity
Australia (ARIA Australian Artist Album Charts) 13 2017
Australia (AIR Albums Chart (Independent Labels)) 2 2017

Singles

song country space year
The Unguarded Moment Australia 22nd 1981
Almost with you Australia 21st 1982
Under The Milky Way
Australia 5 1988
United States 24 1988
Metropolis Australia 19th 1990

The music in the film

  • Donnie Darko is a cult film from 2001. Set in 1988, it uses a number of songs that were current at the time to support the plot. Below is a two-minute scene of Under the Milky Way . The cut and plot of the film are cleverly coordinated with the song, which in turn allows the piece to support the meaning of this scene very well. In the audio commentary on the film, the director and actor emphasize how well the song fits into the scene. Nevertheless, in the director's cut of the film , which was released in 2004, it was moved to a different scene, about 50 seconds long, in which it played quietly in the background on the car radio.
  • A Foreign Affair (2003) uses a cover version of Under the Milky Way played by a band called Tripping Jar
  • The Australian television movie Walking on Water (2002) uses Under the Milky Way almost entirely. A cover version of the song is played in the credits.
  • Looking for Alibrandi (2000): Australian independent film that uses The Unguarded Moment almost entirely.
  • For Tequila Sunrise (1988) the band contributed the song Unsubstantiated , which only appears for a moment in the film. It appeared on the film's soundtrack and has only been released there so far.
  • Storm Riders (1982) is an Australian surfer film using the B-side Life Speeds Up (later appeared on the Hindsight compilation ) and Is This Where You Live from the album Of Skins and Heart .
  • Also in the German road movie Friendship! (2010) Under the Milky Way is highlighted several times.
  • In the series Cold Case with the title Family , Season 3, Under the Milky Way is recorded.
  • The series Miami Vice played from the starfish album Blood Money .

literature

swell

Much of the information comes from the following sources:

Web links

Commons : The Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Milky Way judged the best song from down under . The Australian
  2. ↑ 2010 ARIA HALL OF FAME
  3. ↑ The Church - A Psychedelic Symphony ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.au.timeout.com
  4. ^ The Church's Steve Kilbey replaces Marty Willson-Piper with Powderfinger's Ian Haug Sydney Morning Herald, November 26, 2013
  5. ^ The Church release Another Century band's homepage, accessed October 13, 2017
  6. ↑ 14,600 Nights of Space RocknRoll, the first 40 years announcement on the band's official Facebook page on February 1, 2020
  7. ↑ Information about the production errors of "Shriek" ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the discography @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.earthlink.net
  8. ↑ a b Chart Discography Australia (from 1988)
  9. ↑ a b US chart history (Billboard)
  10. ↑ ARIA Australian Artist Album Charts , October 16, 2017
  11. ↑ AIR Albums Chart (Independent Labels) , October 16, 2017