Steve Kilbey

Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English-born Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums 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. Ian McFarlane writes that "Kilbey's solo recordings [are] challenging and evocative. They ran the gamut of sounds and emotions from electronic and avant-garde to acoustic and symphonic, joyous and dreamy to saturnine and sardonic".

Career 1954–1979: Early years Kilbey was born in Welwyn Garden City, England, UK, and moved to Australia with his parents at the age of five. He grew up around Dapto but the family eventually moved to Canberra. He began his professional music career at the age of 17 when he joined a Canberran five piece "cabaret band" called Saga. Around 1974 he joined a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums called Precious Little.

This was followed by Kilbey forming Baby Grande around 1974 whilst still living in the Australian Capital Territory Koppes was also in Baby Grande for a time but left to travel, then played in a band called Limazine which brought him in touch with future Church drummer Nick Ward. Baby Grande recorded some demos for EMI Australia in 1977 but were not signed to a permanent recording contract. Baby Grande's demos surfaced on the internet after about 30 years, and despite initial protests from Kilbey, he has now made four of the five tracks available on his solo compilation album of early work Addendaone (2012).

Kilbey was also a member of the new wave band Tactics for approximately a month in 1977. He played "about four gigs" with Tactics before being asked to leave by the band's singer and songwriter Dave Studdert.

1980–present: The Church

Kilbey formed the Church, together with Koppes and Nick Ward in Sydney in the late 1970s. Marty Willson-Piper joined the band in May 1980 days after his arrival in Australia when he went to see the band play a gig. 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). In late 2011 Kilbey revealed that, at the time of the interview, the song was still used for television programmes and advertisements. The Church were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2012. At the ceremony, 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 late 2012, 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. The announcement was made on Kilbey's Facebook fan page following the receipt of an insufficient royalty cheque from the record label. However, the Church continued as an active band and, in November 2013, Kilbey published an official announcement on his Facebook fan page stating that Willson-Piper was replaced by former Powderfinger member Ian Haug. Kilbey explained that Haug would join the band for the recording of a new album, for which he had 16 songs written, as well as subsequent touring, and also defended the decision in the statement saying, "If you can't dig it I'm sorry. This is my f—ing band after all and it has existed at times without Peter and in the beginning without Marty and for times in between while he went AWOL."

Prior to the release of the Church's 21st album, Further/Deeper, Kilbey spoke to the media about his prolific body of musical work that is continually growing saying "Just because I've written that many songs doesn't mean anything. But imagine if you were having an operation on your brain and a 60-year-old surgeon walked into the theatre. You would think, I'm in safe hands. He's been doing this all his life and he's very good at it. I think I have become very good at pulling lyrics and melodies out of the air. Melodies weren't always my strong point; on a lot of The Church's early records the melodies weren't as elaborate as what I'm doing now. In the last few years, I think I am tapping into something ... It's like I'm tapping into the collective human subconscious."

Following the worldwide success of The Church's Starfish album and "Under the Milky Way" single, Kilbey returned to his solo career in 1989 with his third album, Remindlessness in December 1989. In December 1991, Kilbey released the EP Narcosis, his last solo release for the Red Eye label. The label roster included the owners' bands, side projects and solo works as well as those by other artists: the Bhagavad Guitars (John Kilbey's group), Snog, David Lane and Halogen. Kennedy explained the inception of the working relationship in a 2013 interview: "I was working with Steve long before I actually met him. Steve had heard All India Radio, and he asked my brother John if I had any spare instrumental songs lying around that he could contribute lyrics to." Kennedy subsequently sent Kilbey "thrown-away tracks" from All India Radio recording sessions.

In July 2013, Kilbey performed at the Fly By Night venue in the Western Australian port city of Fremantle, with local musicians, Shaun and Adrian Hoffmann (The Hoffmenn), Shaun Corlson, Rachael Aquillina and Anna Sarcich playing as his backing band. Aquillina and Sarcich formed the string section, leading to the naming of the corresponding live recording: With Strings Attached. According to Kilbey's Time Being site, he explored his "back catalogue of solo releases, collaborations and Church classics" during the performance.

Other projects Kilbey founded Hex and Jack Frost.

1988–1991: Hex In 1988, Kilbey formed the duo Hex with singer, songwriter and guitarist Donnette Thayer.

1990–1996: Jack Frost In 1990, Kilbey formed Jack Frost as a collaboration with Grant McLennan of Brisbane band The Go-Betweens. Jack Frost released a debut self-titled album in December 1991, preceded by the single "Every Hour God Sends". The duo released a second studio album, Snow Job in 1996, prior to McLennan's death.

1994–1995: Fake In 1995, Kilbey formed Fake with Boris Goudenov and Sandy Chick. Fake released a self-titled album on Mushroom records in 1994.

2004–2012: Isidore In 2004, Kilbey formed Isidore with John Kilbey and Jeffrey Cain of Remy Zero. Isidore released a self-titled album in 2004 and a second album Life Somewhere Else in 2012.

2007: Mimesis In 2007, Kilbey formed the ambient, psychedelic crossover band, Mimesis, with Simon Polinski, Colin Berwick and David Abiuso. They released an album, Art Imitating Life in 2007 on the Psy-Harmonics label.

2013: Speed of the Stars The band "Speed of The Stars" is Steve Kilbey of The Church and Frank Kearns of Cactus World News. Together they started work on this project back in the late 90's and released the first album in 2016. A second album has been recorded with Barton Price and Hugo Race.

Writing Kilbey released Earthed in 1986. In 1998, Kilbey published a book of poetry entitled Nineveh/The Ephemeron; Kilbey later republished a hard copy version that contained both books and a limited number of 50 copies was released.

In 2017, Kilbey published Fruit Machine: Essays on Rock, a limited edition featuring his own cover artwork. The book is not a formal collection of essays but an extended poetic meditation on rock music.

In August 2013, Uncollected, described as, "A deluxe edition of his books – Earthed, The Ephemeron, Nineveh, Fruit Machine and other selected work", was released on his own Time Being label. Kilbey's inaugural autobiography, Something Quite Peculiar, was then published by Hardie Grant on 1 November 2014.