Steve Kilbey

Steve Kilbey
Birth name	Steven John Kilbey
Born	(1954-09-13) 13 September 1954 Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Origin	Canberra, ACT, Australia
Genres	Alternative rock, Post-punk, Dream pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, bass guitarist, music producer, poet, painter, record label co-owner
Instruments	Bass guitar
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Enigma, Rykodisc, Rough Trade, Vicious Sloth
Associated acts	The Church Jack Frost Isidore Polaroid Kiss
Website	http://thetimebeing.com

Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954, Welwyn Garden City, England) was the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet and painter.

Music career

Kilbey began his professional music career at 17 years of age, when he joined a five piece "cabaret band" called 'Saga' in Canberra, Australia. He then joined 'Precious Little', a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums, followed by 'Baby Grande' around 1978 while he lived in Canberra.^{[citation needed]}

The Church

Kilbey formed The Church, together with Koppes, Nick Ward, and Marty Willson-Piper, in the late 1970s. After some success in their native Australia in the early 1980s, Kilbey and The Church went on to international fame when "Under the Milky Way", from the 1988 album Starfish, achieved success (Kilbey had co-written the song with Karin Jansson of Pink Champagne and Curious Yellow). "Under the Milky Way" appeared in the top-selling singles charts of both Australia and the United States (US) and in late 2011 Kilbey revealed that, at the time of the interview, the song was still used for television programmes and advertisements.

As an act of protest against the conduct of the Church's North American label Second Motion Records, Kilbey announced his resignation from the band in late 2012. The announcement was made on Kilbey's Facebook fan page following the receipt of an insufficient royalty cheque from the record label. Kilbey placed the incident in the broader context of the music industry:

it seems(tho its hard to tell) that the church might have brought in 30 or 40 grand ( i mean starfish alone brought in 6000 on itunes)…but the members of the group got 100 bucks each. i mean he couldnt give us nothing to he came up with 100 bucks each. i am insulted. i have decided to leave the church. this is not a joke. i will complete the current tour and then i’m done. i implore you all not to buy any records from second motion records. as you see none of it will come to us. same as it ever was.

Solo work

Kilbey has released 14 solo music albums, one EP and has collaborated on recordings with musical artists such as Martin Kennedy, Stephen Cummings and Ricky Maymi as a vocalist, musician, writer and/or producer. One of Kilbey's early solo albums Earthed was released in conjunction with a fictional book of the same name that was also written by Kilbey (published in 1986); the album consists of instrumental electronic music and features another composition that was co-written by Jansson, "The Empire Mourns Her Sun Without Tears". Kilbey's solo albums have been released on various record labels, such as his own 'The Time Being' label, Karmic Hit, North America's Second Motion Records and Melbourne, Australia's Rubber Records.

Alongside Australian artists such as Dan Kelly, The Herd and Archie Roach, Kilbey was one of the contributors to the 2007 Kev Carmody album Cannot Buy My Soul: The Songs Of Kev Carmody. Kilbey recorded a rendition of the song "Images of London" and also performed at the Sydney and Brisbane, Australia concerts for the album.

Other projects

Kilbey has founded numerous musical projects in addition to The Church, such as Jack Frost with the late Grant McLennan of Brisbane, Australia band The Go-Betweens—Jack Frost released its debut self-titled album in 1991 and released two full-length albums prior to McLennan's death. Hex, Gilt Trip and Isidore are other examples of Kilbey's musical ventures beyond his primary band.

Writing

In addition to Earthed, Kilbey published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled Nineveh/The Ephemeron;^{[citation needed]} Kilbey later republished a hard copy version that contained both books and a limited number of 50 copies was released.

Awards

The popular song "Under the Milky Way" won the "Best Single of the Year" award at the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards event in 1989. For his work with The Church, Kilbey then accepted, together with his bandmates, an induction into the ARIA "Hall of Fame" in 2010—Kilbey delivered a lengthy speech as part of the induction that included stories from his musical career and a sung verse from the song "Old Man Emu" by Australian country music artist John Williamson.

In 2011, the Australian Songwriters Association inducted Kilbey into the Australian Songwriters Hall Of Fame and Kilbey performed a live rendition of the song with a backing band at the awards ceremony.

Personal life

Kilbey has resided in Australia; Stockholm, Sweden; and Los Angeles, US, and, as of July 2012, raises three children.

As documented in the authorised biography No Strings Attached (written with Kilbey's involvement), Kilbey was dependent on the drug heroin during the 1990s, an aspect of the musician's personal life that was mostly hidden until Kilbey was arrested on a drug-related charge in 1999 in New York City, US. Kilbey eventually ceased using the drug after a period of detoxification in 2000. In a 2012 interview, Kilbey reflected on his personal history: "I also have a lot of regret that I didn't do it better, that I wasn't a better person, that I wasn't nicer to people or make better records and that at times I would slack off and just do any old thing. I wish I hadn't made so many mistakes with the drugs."

Discography

Albums

• Unearthed (1986)
• Earthed (1987)
• The Slow Crack (1989)
• Remindlessness (1990)
• Narcosis EP (1991)
• Narcosis + (1997)
• Acoustic & Intimate (2000)
• Dabble (2001)
• Freaky Conclusions (2003)
• Painkiller (2008)
• Art, Man + Technology (2009)
• Garage Sutra (2012)
• Addenda One (2012)
• Addenda Two (2012)
• The Idyllist (2013)

Compilations

• Artifacts (2006)
• Monsters N Mirages box set (2010) - released with a bonus mp3 collection The Bedroom Demos^{[citation needed]}

Other projects

Hex (with Donnette Thayer from Game Theory)

• Hex (1989)
• Vast Halos (1990)

Curious (Yellow) (with Karin Jansson)

• Taken By Surprise (1990)
• Charms and Blues (1990)
• Love Itself (1991) - Single.

Jack Frost (with Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens):

• Jack Frost (1991)
• Snow Job (1996)

Fake (with Sandy Chick):

• Fake (1994)

Isidore (with Remy Zero's Jeffrey Cain)

• Isidore (2004)
• Life Somewhere Else (2012)

Gilt Trip (with his brother Russell Kilbey)

• Gilt Trip (1997)
• Egyptian Register (2005)

Mimesis (with Simon Polinski)

• Art Imitating Life (2007)

Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy

• Unseen Music, Unheard Words (2009)
• White Magic (2011)
• Instrumental & Ambient Mixes (2009)
• Live at the Toff in Town (2010) - mp3 only release.
• You Are Everything (2013)

GB3/Steve Kilbey:

• Damage/Controlled (2010)

David Neil (with Ricky Maymi)

• The Wilderness Years (2011)

Collaborations

Stephen Cummings

• Falling Swinger - producer and writer

Into The Sun (with Penny Flanagan and produced by Tim Powles of The Church)

• Light Sleeper (1998) – guest vocalist

Pocket:

• "Hear In Noiseville" (2009)

Starling

• Semaphore(2012) – producer, vocalist, bass and keyboards

Polaroid Kiss

• Weakness of the Beautiful Souls (2012) - guest vocalist

Bibliography

• Earthed, Nineveh, and The Ephemeron, 2004, Impressed Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9751618-9-0

External links

• Kilbey's official site
• Kilbey's biography on The Church's official website
• Art gallery selling Kilbey's art
• IMDB entry
• Video interview with Steve on InFrame.tv
• Amplifier Magazine Interview
• Solo acoustic performance
• Kilbey's blog (no longer updated)
• Official website for Isidore