Brightest Young Things

I have a soft spot for The Church. There was a cute girl growing up that always challenged me, saying how their early psychedelic pop records slayed any of that REM jangle I was listening to. Then they managed to put a timeless tune into the Top 40 while I was in high school, helping justify all this intelligent indie music I had buried myself in. They didn’t slow down either, continuing to create meaningful music for the next two decades and onward. All of that combined to make me want this to be a great interview.

I was terribly excited when I knew that in order to preview their show @ Birchmere this weekend,  I would be talking with Steve Kilbey (he of the mostly bass duties and lead vocals on the bulk of your faves.) Then I caught on to some fans being concerned with the seriousness the band seemed to be portraying themselves with on radio interviews. Certainly post-Top 40 life is a strain on any band, and this is a group that was always comfortable referring to themselves in the company of classic artists. This is a band touring playing three of its albums in their entirety, after all. It had the potential to be a big bomb.

What I ended up with was a skipped over question (oddly enough about guitar hero Marty Wilson-Piper’s new bearded look) and a lot of rapidfire answers that reveal a playful band that takes it’s music seriously, but not themselves too seriously.

Seriously.

Let’s get started.

Lets get this out of the way right at the start - a clutch of bands have taken to playing their classic albums front to back of late, BUT no one has dared to take on three of their albums in one night! What in the world inspired you to do so? (And what moved you towards those three records?)

Well, we got so many albums its hard to pick just 2 so we picked 3; our latest, our masterpiece, and our most popular.

Come on and be honest - you are going to shave a minute off of "Chaos" and cheat us all, aren't you?

No we are not! Now you mention it, I'll keep it going a minute longer!

Do you worry about fans of the Starfish record coming out and being faced with a full run of Untitled #23 and vice versa? Even at the height of a record's release, it would be daring to run end to end.

Yes, I do worry about that...I hope we can win everybody over with all eras.

In that same regard, it is funny that Peter looks oddly the same through it all?

Yeah, he’s been the same forever

What was it like to recently be inducted in to the Australian Hall of Fame?

It was ok you know, I can think of worse things happening...

There can't be much you guys haven't seen in the music business at this point - what is the strangest thing to ever happen to you on tour?

Get a bad review for a gig we never played!

How many interviews have made a Spinal Tap drummer reference in your career, or does everyone take The Church too seriously to poke fun?

Oh god we are more Tap than fucking Tap!

Have you all been together so long that you get angry with one another - and can't even remember why any longer, like demented siblings?

Clearly you all have an undeniable impulse to explore your creative side - spilling out through music and verse and visuals - when did you realize that you were going to have to find a vocation that allowed you to unleash this?

It just sorta all happened as we went along I suppose…

I was shocked to hear from my friends in Brisbane during the flooding, and even with the internet etc... today, it still seemed like something on the other side of the world until I had a personal connection - did any of you have friends or family effected?

Yes – someone’s brother got flooded out I knew.

How much time do you spend in Australia now?

Almost all of my time.

It is totally unrelated, but I may never get another chance to ask - what was it like to work with the late great Grant McLennan?

Grant was an intuitive genius. He was funny he was witty he was often sad in a deep melancholic way. He was never stumped artistically either, music seemed to fall out of the air to him.

By the way, thanks for doing the acoustic tour previously. I have to confess that your appearance on Unplugged was one of my favorite musical TV moments - wonderful versions of Under The Milky Way and Metropolis and Sinead stripped down and Marty and Jules doing Rain!!! (And yes, I am old enough to have seen it live in college.)

Yeah, Unplugged that was a good moment in time.

Favorite painting of all time?

Birth of Venus

Favorite sandwich of all time?

Avo Tomato Lettuce.

Which one do you love more?

Than what?

And lastly - when can we expect a tour where you three play your solo records from 86-87 from start to finish? (I always wished you had released them in the same design with different faces, like KISS did in the late 70s.)

Don't hold your breath on that one!

Looking forward to seeing you here in DC! You can catch The Church at the uber comfortable environs of The Birchmere this Sunday.

I’ll leave you with Steve’s edgy/funny Hall of Fame acceptance speech:

Previously in BYT interviews:

• 5/18: INTERVIEW: Jasmine Solano
• 5/18: Interview: Richard Linklater
• 5/17: Interview: Penguin Prison
• 5/16: Interview: Brian Regan
• 5/15: Richard Davies (Cardinal) Interviewed by Archie Moore
• 5/11: Interview: Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle
• 5/10: Reflections on a Conversation with Mickey Avalon
• 5/9: Inside the STYLELINER
• 5/8: The Politics of Mastodon
• 5/4: Preview: Mucca Pazza @ The Kennedy Center's "Look Both Ways" Festival