CHURCH

Rip It Up, Issue 67, 1 February 1983, Page 4

CHURCH

Russell Brown

Portrait of the young man as an Artist This is Steve Kilbey, bass player, singer, songwriter and spiritual leader for the Church, fresh out of the shower. His thin good looks stop short of prettiness. His manner is casual, vaguely foppish. He conducts the interview reclining on his motel bed, until the camera starts clicking. Then he sits up. Did you enjoy playing Sweetwaters ? "No I didn't. I hope the people who threw things ... I didn't mind : them throwing things at me so much, but I think the things that were going on in front of me were like something out of Dante's Inferno. There were guys hitting each other over the head with fucking cans, guys hitting each other with poles. It was just hell.

I've played all around the world and I've never seen things like that going on.” Your live sound seemed considerably different from your records. "I don't know how we sound live." It seemed a lot faster, more rhythmic. "I suppose, yeah... you have to do that when you're playing to ten thousand people or whatever it was. Audiences seem to want to dance and that sort of thing, you can't be quite as quiet and delicate as you'd like to be all the time."

You'd rather be quiet? • "Yeah, I would. But I don't have much control live. In the studio you can control everything but live you never know what's going on." Does that affect your. enjoyment l of touring? "It does a bit, yeah. I'd rather just make records if it was up to me. But I have to make a living." Have you done any recording recently? . "Yean. We've just finished our third album in Sydney." Anyone famous producing? "Yeah, me." And you wrote the songs. How do you do that? "I've got my own four track studio at home. When I have time off I just go in there and whip 'em out." And bring the completed songs to ; the band?. "Yeah, usually." As the dominant figure in the band, do you ever worry that you're squashing the other three? y "No." Or do you see the band as a vehicle for yourself? "I don't think of it in any terms at all. Ever since I've been playing' I've been writing songs and I've always been in bands and done my songs. So if they want to do it, it's up to them." How long have you been in bands? "Since I was 15." How old are you now? "Somewhere between 20 and 30." That's very vague. "It's none of your business how old I am. It's nobody's business." Surely age does have a bearing in pop music, especially in youth?.. "I'm just being coy and narcissistic so you can write it up in your magazine so I can look more enigmatic to your readers." Are you usually this defensive in ' interviews? ■ "I haven't done interviews for a year and a half. You're very honoured." Thankyou. 'That's alright. I like your magazine." Why don't you do interviews? "I haven't got anything to say. That's really the basic truth." Back to the easy questions. What's the story behind your latest EP, 'Sing Songs'? ■ ;• "It was originally demos that we did last May or June. There were four songs I'd written and we had . TArrua Rock' hanging over from the Blurred Crusade sessions. I just thought 'Let's stick it out and see how it goes.' and that's why it's called Sing Songs, 'cause that's all they are, just sing songs." Many of your lyrics are full of imagery. Have you ever written poetry? ' "I've got a poetry book coming out in about two months. It's called The Crowd Invisible." Any particular theme to it? _ "No. It's just various rantings I've written down. Stuff I've written over the years. I just thought I'd whip it out so I could say Id released a poetry book impress girls in clubs, that sort of thing." Very bohemian. 'Yeah."