Life in the Church of Romanticism

Rip It Up, Issue 76, 1 November 1983, Page 14

Life in the Church of Romanticism

Russell Brown

"You're in the Church, aren't you?" Me? No, I'm just going to write about them. Really. "Come on, you sound Australian. You are, aren't you?" Sound Australian? Me? "I'd | like) to shake your hand!" Look, I can't even play guitar ...

1 suppose that means the Church are pop stars. Steve Kilbey doesn't really want to be a pop star. Well, he wouldn't admit to it if he did.

The songs he has written for the Church's new album, Seance might be pop songs but they aren't. Some people might say they were depressing^M^jQp "I think the. title ■' put a lot of people off, which 1 sort of realised would happen at the time. A lot of ipeople came up to me and said: 'You don't know what . you're doing, you don't want to meddle with things'. 1 think the cover, the name of the band, the title, the video for It's No Reason' all added up to something that could be construed as depressing." Can you understand why people would think that way? "1 can understand why someone whose idea of a good time is watching American cop shows or going .to see movies like E.T. or getting drunk every night would think that. But lT don'tr. think Seance is so much depressing as they couldn't be bothered about it'

They don't deal in those kinds of emotions. "Whether its misplaced or misguided or I didn't achieve it, the album is dealing with very personal, delicate kinds of things. A lot of people would rather hear 'Get down and boogie, feel alright in the city, gonna have a good time', because that's their life.

"I know people like that, they go from relationship to relationship without ever thinking about it. Things that happen outside their own personal', world of consuming and gratifying themselves have no significance. There are a lot of people like that and I can see why an album like Seance is totally unfashionable. "But I don't think it's depressing. It's slightly sad but it's not depressing."

Is there happiness on it? "Happiness? No, there isn't really, is there. But I don't think I've ever written a happy song in my life. Electric Lash' is the closest to happiness but even that's got a sort of sneer which I can’t work out. In fact. I've written all these new songs and every one seems to have this nasty edge to it. Well, not nasty, but it seems very difficult for me to write things that are really straight and positive." Does that reflect your outlook

on life? "Probably, yeah. You see, I think' happiness is a really obvious emotion. think* there are so many areas to explore in sadness and I think. music is a very good medium for expressing sadness. That's what' the album's really all about and |lj hope some people would have connected with some of it and enjoyed it."

The Zephyr's courtesy light briefly silhouettes the I've Seen E.T. sticker in the back window.

There's a good crowd at the DB Mount Maunganui, people are quite excited. It's a long time since a late licence was granted in these parts.

They Were Expendable begin cautiously; the more adventurous dance. As the performance continues, more people begin to react. It's a good gig for the Expendables and when they're good they can be very good. There was plenty for the crowd to relate to, especially in the way Jay cast her personality, but how would Not Really Anything go down? No worries. Their music may be loud but it's a lot of fun too. They play tremendously, like the psychedelic rowdies they are. So much for the support acts, hbw about the main event?

The Church live have come a long way. There's a rapport on stage that wasn't there the last time they visited these shores. The live show has also begun to take on its own identity it verged on the faceless on occasion last time. That identity teeters perilously close to hard rock at times (not that the crowd minded that) and it has its truly tedious moments but there's an infectious Sweep to it that makes it worthwhile.

The addition of keyboards has filled out the sound but the excitement still lies in the jangle of guitars. It's heartwarming to see and hear Marty Wilson-Pip r flail at his succession of guitars looking for sounds rather than notes or chords the closing 'Travel By Thought' was the culmination of that. Both in Mt Maunganui and Auckland (a better performance) it was a chaotic, noisy, joyful and ... yes, psychedelic workout. The other standout was, surprisingly, 'lt's No Reason', also from Seance. A dreamy production number on record it's carried by Kilbey's melody live. I don't think anyone would have claimed the Church were the best band they'd ever seen but at their best they were worth the ticket price.

Kilbey doesn't enjoy playing live all that often. But surely there's an interest in the way the music changes on stage? "You mean more rough and ready? That's just something that happens. 1 mean, I don't know how much people realise you've got no control. On a particular night you go on and you find out how it's going to sound. Not just with regards to soundchecks and that sort of thing but if Richard (Ploog, the drummer) is drunk or something the whole thing will be faster and more sloppy and aggressive. If someone's had an argument with their wife or something it's more subdued. Every night's different and it's really hard to have any control over what's going on. In the studio you have control but live it's more or less

every man for himself." He doesn't seem to relate much ( to the glorious uncertainty of performing live, the "danger" that John Cale speaks of. Maybe that's the problem.

Tony could have been purposebuilt as a roadie. When the band plays, concentration and dedication are etched on his face as he tunes guitars, changes strings with a torch clenched between his teeth. Occasionally he lets loose a smile, as if to encourage the band.

"When I first started to work for this band I heard they were real pricks to work with, but they're fine. 1 heard the lead singer was the worst, but he says bugger-all," he says. "Of course, about once every six weeks 1 have to give them a talking to and remind them what's what."

Kilbey’s lyric writing is perhaps the most common target for critics of the Church. He's conscious of

"I can’t understand why people have such high expectations of us that they don't have of other

bands. I mean there's people like those idiots in Australia writing lyrics like 'get down on your knees woman and suck me till you're blue' and that's fine and yet some people go through my lyrics with a fine-toothed comb trying to find an absurdity or somewhere the rhyming scheme doesn’t work properly. I don't know why that is." Do you think your lyric writing is improving?

"It's getting hard to push the lyrics any further. I'm sometimes a bit disappointed with them. I'm just too impatient to really work on them and get the best out of them. I put something down and think: 'l'll come back to that later' and I never do and it ends up on the album." Do you think people can identify with your lyrics? "What do you mean by identify?" Alright then, understand them "I don't know if it's all that important that they understand it. 1 don't understand .it myself. 1 think a lot about lyrics and with a lot of songs you look at the lyrics and they're just meaningless. My lyrics are there as ... an abstract pointer to what the music is, I don't know. Some of them are quite easy and understandable and some I write because, quite frankly, they rhyme. Doesn't everyone do that? That's why songs aren't really a good vehicle if you've got a thought to express to the general public. You've got all these constrictions of rhyme and metre and there are certain words you're not allowed to use in rock n' roll ..."

It's good to see that Kilbey doesn't put a great deal of stock in his lyrics, they're written quickly and quite a few are pretty silly. But amidst the most barnstorming pseudery he can come up with gems like: "I turn to leave, as if in a cameo," from Electric Lash'. His strength isn't in his words but it

isn't all'in his music. The Church among themselves are far from as morose as you might expect from their records. They all crack jokes. Kilbey cracks the most but nearly all his humour is barbed. Ploog and Wilson-Piper seem the most outgoing they sat around on their hotel beds talking to various locals before and after the Auckland concert. They'd have reason to be despondent. A heady rush of success degenerated into an international trek, playing nearly every night and not seeming to make much progress. They're now in debt and can't afford to leave Australia again for Europe this month as they'd planned. Is Kilbey disillusioned after this year's events? "More disillusioned, yeah." Did you expect to do better? . "Well, 1 didn't expect to do the same thing over and over again." Is there any way out of the grind? "If I knew that I wouldn't be sitting here in Auckland now. I'd be back in England. It's just getting the money to finance things." So the Church will go into the studio to record an album early next year. On this album Kilbey wants everyone in the band to do some writing. In the meantime they'll be playing things low-key. But how about long-term goals? Would you like to develop your songwriting or don't you see it as a craft in that way?

"No, no, I don't think of it like that. That phrase freaks me out actually Would you like to develop your songwriting?' It's just a continuing process, not something you necessarily get better at. In fact, history shows that most great songwriters have stagnated after a point." You've got a book of poetry coming out soon. Can you see yourself as an author in the future? "I don't see myself as anything

except someone who's struggling really hard to make a bit of money. I don't have any illusions, I really don't." Like his countryman Nick Cave, Steve Kilbey is fond of taking pleasure from his pain. They're happily unhappy, the pair. It's a good way to create

so long as you keep a shrewd eye on yourself. But unlike Cave, Kilbey doesn't haye a towering, blasphemous onstage persona. He's ill at ease before a crowd. He doesn't have Cave's brutal lyrical conciseness either. But he does have a real gift for melody that can express things he can't get out otherwise. He's a romantic, in a

different way. Nick Cave sluices down whisky, Steve Kilbey smokes marijuana. The Church are a young band. They can still get excited in a quite charming way. But it must be hard to get things done when your greatest strength lies in your naivety.