Somewhere Called Nowhere
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The Church have returned with a b-sides album, and are adamant that the future is rosy. Steve Kilbey interviewed by Rob Morris "Music is the most sublime art form" says Steve Kilbey from his home in Sydney. "It exists on its own terms." I had started out by asking the writer, and Church frontman what he had been doing lately, which, among other things, includes knocking out a lot of paintings and drawings and exploring further the possibilities of automatic writing. What you pretty quickly learn about Steve is that his artistic output would probably impress a lot of us who are not right in there with the prolific day to day scene in Kilbeydom. Wretched storm heaved itself over the threshold There have been "sixteen or seventeen" kosher Church albums, about ten solo projects, musical or spoken, and God knows how many "small" projects with sometime collaborators like his two brothers John and Russell. Connectivity and credibility pulse like a kirlian aura around this most eclectic baby-boomer. Yep. Steve is 50 this year, and the beautiful mod of two decades ago is still "amazed" by what art offers those willing to risk engaging it on its own terms. I see her standing in the square, hawking her wares, the What about poetry books? Earthed appeared in 1986. In 1998 came Nineveh/The Ephemeron which is a chap book in two parts. Only 500 came off the presses and they are rare and prized artifacts. "They're virtually impossible to get," Steve concedes. Now that's a pity. What is cool is Graham Nunn's plan to do a new run of both of these much sought after spoken wordies for this year's Festival. (Graham is a major fan and I'd like to acknowledge his help in providing recordings, fanzines and generous stacks of cool detail for this piece.) During long nights the Kings would pore over formulae Steve was 16 when "this smartarse kid" wrote for the school magazine he edited. Despite impossibility These are heady thoughts for a schoolboy anywhere. The trip was about to begin. The Penguin Modern Poets 10 had just been released letting loose upon the world the whip smart work of Adrian Henri, Roger McGough (also a musician), and Brian Patten (the so-called Liverpool Poets). Steve dug them and still remembers vividly the gorgeousness of McGough's "Summer with Monica." As a teenager he started exploring "the French guys" as he called them – Symbolists like Rimbaud and Baudelaire. Decades later he would read Season in Hell on Songs of Inspiration, a strange brew of stuff the late Brett Whitely dug. Karmic Hit studios was used to record the Loudspeaker: Word on Groove CD containing shimmering Kilbey contributions and also featuring Kev Carmody and John Clare among others. Then there's the Brisbane connection; Jack Frost and Snow Job, the two albums with ex Go-Between Grant McLennan. It's amazing how often the Brisbane line features in current Kilbey projects. who is the man who touches her breasts This year 2004 will mark the 23rd birthday of The Church. It is 31 years since Steve, at 19, moved from Wollongong to Sydney to marry his dreams to big city talk. "I always wanted to be a pop musician" he declares during our phone chat. "It's a whole way of dealing with things." Obviously as a long time high Church lover I was very interested to know his views on the current music scene. His sensibilities favour bands like Jersey, Dappled Cities Fly, and All India Radio. Not long ago he toured in West Virginia with The Waifs, whom he likes a lot, too. When I ask him if he has a favourite form of expression – musician, lyricist, painter, poet – he deadpans, "I want to be good at all these things." As an artist, Steve has, as he puts it, always been about "kicking against the pricks" trying to sustain your artistic integrity and be your own person. Steve's writing travels toward the big neon underbelly of mystery, the arcane, Anglo-hip surrealism (what?), beauty and obsession. When he produced that other Steve, ex-Sports singer and novelist Steve Cummings, it was truly the merging of two extraordinary Australian artists. Kilbey's is a revelatory voice no matter how he presents it: cosmic mod or inheritor and regenerator of a Wildean dreamscape. The ghost of Noel Coward possesses Steve Kilbey to do "20th century Blues," Marc Bolan moans... Steve's alright, Steve's alright And then you look through the ectoplasmic dusk to espy the ghost of Dylan Thomas, a writer who for decades has been a Kilbey favourite both for his humour and for his lyrical genius. There's a huge slippery grin on his face. Irony and an understated droll humour run through both men's work. The magician's apprentice There has always been a strong connection between the art school scene, gleeful appreciation of the exotic and adventurous in writing and the formation and development of many of our best and most lyrically fascinating bands. Our anthems were born this way. This Bowie generation who came to adulthood in the 1970s dipped into the glad bag of new and old poetry, novel writing, music, painting and the allied arts such as drawing, theatre, fashion and fun. Like treasure hunters they looked for the purest "chemistry and mystery." The best pop lyrics and their inventors would often stay in the consciousness over many years, sometimes all our lives. Many Church fans possess this passion for the work of Kilbey and Co. with a dedication honed over a couple of decades. As Bowie put it Who needs T.V. In Australia we had our faves; of course right up there is The Church. Pop music has produced some of the best lyrics – good lasting poetry – articulating experience now and producing work that will electrify the scene in 100 years. Kilbey's is a multidimensional quirky talent whose new work is always eagerly awaited, whose best earlier work is still revered and considered one of life's little luxuries. That's authentic achievement. Both his solo shows and Church tours are genuinely anticipated events especially for those who see the greatest reward in following a seasoned artist through the years, viewing themselves perhaps as a minor but active component in that artists journey. A few Kilbey facts.
A final thought. "We're somewhere called nowhere" announced Steve's young daughter recently to her appreciative dad. The wheel turns. |