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Interview with
STEVE KILBEY
from
THE CHURCH

(4th September 2022)

Interview with Samantha Meuleman

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Photo – Hugh Stewart

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Sam – You’re about to start the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune tour that’s going around Australia in early September. What can fans expect from this tour?
Steve – We’re gonna do a big chunk of our new album that isn’t out and won’t be out for another six months unfortunately, but I’m anxious to play that. We’re going to do, I don’t know, five or six songs off of that. And we’re going to do a general cross section of old, medium and new. Which we haven’t quite figured out yet. After this interview, I’m going in to exactly discover what that is. But yeah, a cross section. And including all the old hits that I guess people want to hear. Yes, we will be doing those.

Sam – Fantastic. So speaking of your upcoming album, The Hypnogogue, which is your 26th studio album. Is there anything that you can share with us about the creative process for it?
Steve – It’s a concept album. “Oh, no!” It’s a very loose concept and it’s called The Hypnogogue. And it’s sort of set in a vaguely utopian future, there’s this machine called the Hypnogogue. Which drags music out of your head. So you don’t have to write it, you just go in and submit to the machine and it sort of pulls the music out of your head. So there’s our hero, this guy, he’s the biggest rock star in Antarctica, which is one of the habitable places on earth and against his manager’s advice. Because always managers advise you not to do things. He journeys to North Korea, where the woman who has invented the hypnogogue lives. And it sort of has disastrous, of course, otherwise it wouldn’t be a concept because it’s all happening. But it has sort of disastrous consequences. So that’s it, but it’s not a tight concept. It’s not like an opera or a musical, that’s just the vague and general framework off which all the songs sort of hang. I guess you would enjoy the album just as much if you didn’t know there was a sort of a concept. But our video’s out, and you can see a bit of the concept in the video, which is the title track.

Sam – Oh that will be fantastic!
Steve – Thanks. We started making it in 2019 believe it or not, and floods, bushfires and plagues got in the way. And this is sort of the earliest we could finish it. And then when we finished it we got a deal with a record company, and they said they couldn’t put it out til 2023. So, it’s been a long time coming.

Sam – I think it sounds amazing. I love albums that you can listen to from start to finish and there is some kind of story of message throughout. If you do listen to it from start to finish will you pick up the story or are things a little more ambiguous?
Steve – Yeah one of my things that I think I’m good at is ambiguity. So, yes, there will be a little libretto, I guess, a little thing telling you the story of what it is. But within that story people will be free to imagine all the action. It’s like you’re given the bare bones of this story and then it’s up to you to, if you want to, you don’t have to participate in that at all, you can just go, Oh, it’s just music, I’m just gonna listen to it. Or you can just listen to your favorite song. Or you can, if you’re really devoted, and you want to, you can sit there and sort of fill in all the gaps for yourself. But I think that’s the most fun part is when you know there’s a kind of a vague story behind something and it isn’t all spelled out. It definitely isn’t all spelled out for you. You can participate as much as you like, and figure it all out or you can just let it all wash over you just like a bunch of songs. And of course, this also gives you the excuse to have songs which are the exception to the rule that don’t have anything to do with it at all. So when someone says, what’s that got to do with it? You go that song doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Sam – It’s its own thing.
Steve – Yeah, it’s very loose thing.

Sam – That’s great. And I think that’s something I love about your songwriting, is that it is quite ambiguous. And you can kind of interpret it as a listener in any way you want. I guess I’ve always been curious. You, you seem like you prefer to come to songwriting from more of a storytelling position compared to, I guess, writing from personal experience. Would you say that that’s true and where does the inspiration come from?
Steve – I think when I wanted to be a songwriter, which I always did, and right from the very earliest days, as soon as I could think, and my dad would put a record on, or we’d drive along in the car, or we even had back in, like this a long time ago, we’d go on long trips, my mum and dad, me and my brother, and they’d buy these little books, and they’d have songs in them, and we’d all sing the songs. And they were really old and weird songs. Some of them are really depressing and strange as well. And I just started thinking about songs. And when I came across a song that I really loved, I would sort of analyze it and go, how are they doing this? One thing I found over and over again, was the ambiguity where someone would sort of give you a few clues about what was happening, that would sort of pretty much leave you alone to decide yourself what was happening. So when I do bring something personal to a song or when I do tell a story, or when, even on the rare moment that I’m protesting against something or doing something vaguely political, whatever it is, I’m always sure to try and leave plenty of room in there for each person to sort of bring their own thing into that. So I think that’s what works best for me. Rather than going, don’t go for the Liberal Party. I’d rather come to that at a really roundabout kind of way. You know what I mean?

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Sam – Yeah, I do and I love that. So I adore, like many people do, Under the Milky Way, which does have a lot of ambiguity in it. And that’s probably why it’s connected with so many people, do you think that ambiguity works hand in hand with the connection people have to it?
Steve – Totally! It couldn’t have connected with so many people if it hadn’t been so ambiguous. There’s almost nothing in that song to hang on to. I mean, I guess that’s the most successful version of this that I’ve ever done. With the combination of the music and the words, it’s sort of like a door for each person who listens to it, to open that door and go into. And I’ve had so many people, for example, a guy who was working in the outback, as a ranger, and he said, oh you know when I drive around on my own in the middle of nowhere, that song says everything to me, but for other people it’s a song about, you know, the day their budgerigar died and someone else’s about the girl who broke their heart and somebody else’s about that time when I used to live in blah, blah, blah, or, you know. So if you can get it right, which I can’t always, because the trouble with ambiguity is sometimes it can fall into meaninglessness. You’ve got to get it right on the line, where you’re just giving people just enough, it’s a bit like a guided meditation. You’re giving them a little bit of info, and they can fill in the gaps. And the music helps them fill in the gaps, the music sort of gives them the clues. It’s a very inexact science. Obviously, if I knew how to do it again, and again, and again, I would have written 30 Under the Milky Ways and I’d be living in my villa in Switzerland, instead of being in a flat in Coogee. So yeah, but that ambiguity is what it’s all about. With the words and with the music you set something up for people to inhabit themselves.

Sam – Yes! I feel like that’s an aspect of music and songwriting that’s so powerful and just really special. So back to performing live. I was lucky enough to photograph your set at April Sun in 2021. What was it like stepping back into live performance after everything that was 2020 and 2021? Is a different? Do you have a newfound appreciation for it?
Steve – Yeah I do. I think everybody on every side of this, the musicians, the audiences, the road crews, the techies, you know, the people who put up the fence posts, I think everybody took this for granted that this will go on forever. There would always be shows, there’d always be audiences, there’d always be musicians. And then I think when it all got taken away, the musicians went, gee, I miss the audience. And the audience went, gee, I miss the musicians. And also think, a few people, more than a few people discovered that of all the things that get you through hard times music is one of the very best. It’s even better than TV and maybe books are pretty, books get you through hard times too, but music… Music really is something that can heal wounds and take you to other places and times. And a lot of people have said to me, since all of that lockdown business, you know, I went back and rediscovered my record collection and I reconnected with music and I discovered how important it really is. And I was very lucky and I’ve said this a million times, but it’s true. My dad took me aside when I was a very, very small lad. And he said, music is the most important thing in life, understand that. He was a piano player. He said, music is THE thing. It’s the best thing we have. And he said, just you understand that. My dad’s great tragedy was my mum didn’t like music. And he used to say, whoever you take up with, I don’t care who it is. Just make sure she likes music. So it was really weird for me, because I have, of course, they’ve both passed away now. But I have diagnosed my mother as having a condition called amusia. And amusia, apparently it affects 15% of the population, believe it or not 15% of the population music could actually annoy them, or they don’t understand it, or that it makes no sense. And my mother just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. She didn’t know. And my dad was the opposite. He was like so into music. He loved music so much. So it was strange to watch this dynamic at work. of one who loved that one who didn’t like it at all, and didn’t understand it and didn’t know what it was all about. But yeah, coming to the end of my long live, I’ve got to say music, it is the best thing we humans have. John Lennon used to say this music is capable of doing things that the other art forms aren’t capable of doing. And I sort of got to agree with that. A really good song can do more than a painting, can do more than a film. In three or four minutes, and all of life can be within that song. So I’m still amazed to find that’s true. And I think that the lockdowns really showed a lot of people that that was the case.

Sam – Yeah, completely. And I definitely understand that. I think in that scenario, I’m your dad, and my partner is your mom.
Steve – Oh no!

Sam – I love music. And he’s like, oh, yeah, it’s cool, but I don’t really understand, and I’m like, okay. But, yeah, I completely agree. Music is just so powerful.
Steve – Yeah, this amusia. It’s a really unfortunate condition. I think. It can actually annoy them, or they can make no sense of it, or it could just be like, it just doesn’t have any effect. It’s sort of like someone being colorblind, I suppose. Or someone that can’t smell.

Sam – Yeah. Like they’re missing out on a sense. It’s that important.
Steve – Yeah. But, I was sort of, sucked into music at a very early age. And I still don’t understand it. I don’t understand how it all works. I don’t think anybody ever will. Nobody will ever have the full story. And just when you think you’ve heard everything, you know, some new person will come along and discover some new thing in it. So it’s really, it’s amazing stuff. Amazing stuff. Yeah, absolutely. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to hear that.

Sam – Haha that’s all right. But yeah, I think that your music in particular, really talks to a lot of people so I’m sure that they’re super excited to go and see you live in September!  So thank you so much for chatting. It was really, really lovely. And I love being able to talk music to people.
Steve – Thank you Sam. Thank you for that.

Sam – No problem and enjoy the tour!
Steve – Okay, I’ll see you on the rocky road!

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“The Hypnogogue”
Written & Performed by The Church
Mixed by Darrell Thorp
Mastered by David Ives
Music Video directed by Clint Lewis
Distributed via The Orchard

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Follow THE CHURCH
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter

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Press Release 30th August 2022 (below) HERE

THE CHURCH
return with epic new single
“THE HYPNOGOGUE”

+ Australian tour
ON NOW

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AMNPLIFY – DB