The Church

Rock group

Critics' descriptions of the Church's sound have varied with the band's ever-changing albums, but the group's distinctive style and ambience remain a constant. The group was formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1980 and over the years has garnered international attention. "Once upon a time," vocalist Steve Kilbey recalled in Raygun, "we were four young fellows starting a band in Sydney in 1980, and we all ate the same things, and looked the same way, and wore the same clothes."

Those four young fellows—Kilbey, guitarists Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes, and drummer Richard Ploog—made up the Church's original lineup. The year following their formation, the band released Of Skins and Heart, their debut album on Australia's Parlophone Records, featuring the single "The Unguarded Moment." In 1982 they landed a deal in the United States with Capitol Records and released The Church, which included most of the cuts from their first Australian release plus three other songs from a double-45 single.

The Church stopped making records for Capitol after their self-titled U.S. debut; instead they continued to produce albums in Australia, including 1982's Blurred Crusade, with critically acclaimed tunes like "I'm Almost with You" and "Come Up and See Me," and 1983's Seance, featuring the tracks "Travel by Thought," "Fly," and "Dropping Names." Then, in 1984, the Church signed a deal with Warner Brothers and released their next album in the United States, Remote Luxury. With "Constant in Opal," the hit single and video from the album, they started developing a dedicated cult following in the States.

That same year, the band went into the studio with producer Peter Walsh to record Heyday, which landed in record stores two years later. The Church moved toward stronger and catchier melodies with songs like "Tristesse" and "Myrrh."

Though the Church's following had built steadily, they had yet to attain hit status or gain widespread recognition in the United States. They opted to switch record labels once again, and in 1987 inked a deal with Arista. In the meantime, Kilbey, Willson-Piper, and Koppes each signed solo deals with Rykodisc and began working on their own material.

Determined to promote the Church, Arista suggested that producers Greg Ladanyi and Waddy Wachtel work with them on their next album. A year later, Starfish got them the attention they were waiting for. "Starfish is the best in a long line of great Church hymnals," wrote a Rolling Stone contributor, "thanks to the band's refined studio poise and a bumper crop of jangle-and-strum jewels like 'Blood Money,' 'Reptile,' and Marty Willson-Piper's 'Spark.'" In addition, their hit single "Under the Milky Way" received significant radio airplay, and the Church made their first major tour of the United States. Arista re-released the band's entire back catalog that same year, and the band developed a whole new fan base. The song also became a mainstay of television and film soundtracks meant to evoke the quintessential sound of the 1980s. Kilbey said in an interview for Michigan's Royal Oak Daily Tribune that the inspiration for "Under the Milky Way" came to him in a flash, recalling that the song "just came falling out of the air." The subsequent exposure of the song in the film Donnie Darko and The O.C. even earned Kilbey fans in his own household. "The exposure has helped us gain interest from newer people," he told the Royal Oak newspaper. "My 15-year-old twin girls are now really interested in what I do. They tell me, 'Hey, dad, you're alright. You're in 'The O.C.' You're in a great band!'"

After touring to support the album, the Church went back into the studio to work on their next album, Gold Afternoon Fix. When they finished recording, they booted drummer Richard Ploog out of the band and recruited Jay Dee Daugherty to replace him. Gold Afternoon Fix, released in 1990, featured the singles "Metropolis" and "You're Still Beautiful," but failed to live up to the popularity of Starfish. However, the band's goals didn't necessarily include getting the top spots on the charts. "I feel that it's really important to just write songs without worrying whether it's going to be a hit or not," Willson-Piper noted in the band's Arista Records press biography. Chris Mundy, writing in Rolling Stone, described Gold Afternoon Fix as "the Church's invitation to visit its murky, ethereal world. It's an invitation that should not be refused."

As a conceptual lyric writer, Kilbey has often been asked to define the songs on the Church's albums, and Gold Afternoon Fix stimulated the question with cuts like "Pharaoh," "Terra Nova Cain," and "Russian Autumn Heart." "Simple pleasure is the most important thing," Kilbey stated in Musician.

For the Record …

Members include Jay Dee Daugherty (member 1988–93), drums; Steve Kilbey, vocals, bass guitar; Peter Koppes (left group 1993; rejoined 1996), guitar; Richard Ploog (member, 1980–88), drums; Tim Powles (joined 1996), drums; Marty Willson-Piper, guitar.

Band formed in Sydney, Australia, 1980; released first album, Of Skins and Heart, in Australia on Parlophone Records, 1981; released self-titled debut album in U.S. on Capitol label, 1982; recorded for Carrere Records in Australia, 1982–83, and Warner Bros. in the U.S., 1984–86; signed with Arista Records, 1987; Willson-Piper and Kilbey released first album as a duo, 1994; released Uninvited, Like the Clouds and embarked on acoustic tour, 2006.Member 1988–93.Left group, 1993.Member 1980–88.

Addresses: Record company—Cooking Vinyl USA LLC, P.O. Box 246, Huntingtion, NY 11743, e-mail—[email protected].

More than any other ingredient, the chemistry existing between band members seems to have sparked the Church's creative output. Kilbey, Willson-Piper, and Koppes all had their solo projects to express their individual creativity, so when the band came together, they concentrated on unifying their ideas. In 1992 they produced Priest=Aura, featuring the single "Ripple." "It was the classic, introspective, ambiguous Church album," Willson-Piper said in the Boston Phoenix. Moving away from the more commercial sound of their last two albums, the Church seemed to head in a darker direction with Priest=Aura. "Set against this elegant soundscape, not so quiet storms add a glint of savagery, bringing moments of drama and beauty to stately songs," proclaimed Ira Robbins in a Rolling Stone review of the album.

The Church toured worldwide once again, with a last stop on their home turf in Australia. Just hours before their tour of Australia began, Koppes announced his intention to leave the band. He agreed to finish the tour, but quit as soon as they completed their last set. Kilbey and Willson-Piper dismissed Jay Dee Daugherty not long after Koppes's departure. "We weren't sure if the band was going to exist anymore," Willson-Piper said in the band's press biography. "I figured we would just know if and when the time was right to get back into the studio."

In the middle of 1993, Willson-Piper left his home in Stockholm to join Kilbey in Australia, and the two of them started working on the next Church album. "Originally, we were worried about the chemistry being different after all that time together as a four-man band," Willson-Piper explained in their press biography. "So we just started messing about together in the studio. Once we recorded "Lost My Touch" we knew everything was going to fall into place." Sometime Anywhere—written, recorded, and mixed in two months during the summer of 1993 and released in 1994—became the first Church album produced by the two remaining members.

"Two Places at Once," the first single from the album, reflected a true collaborative effort by Willson-Piper and Kilbey. After they had cowritten the music for the song, they each penned separate lyrics and then decided to combine the two, with each member singing his own version until the end of the song, when the two would combine. Pulse! contributor Scott Schinder considered the material on Sometime Anywhere to be "denser, darker territory" than the band's earlier releases, and Brian Q. Newcomb commented in the Riverfront Times that in its new incarnation, the Church was still aiming to deliver "contemporary, intelligent rock."

The group re-formed in 1996 with the return of Koppes and the addition of drummer Tim Powles, and by the middle of the next decade, the Church had released material that continued to display their creative vitality.

The Church's 2006 tour followed the release of one of their strongest albums since their first decade. Uninvited, Like the Clouds returned the group to its neo-psychedelic heyday without a whiff of nostalgia. Instead, the songs sounded fresh and contemporary, beginning with the kickoff track "Block." Kilbey took particular pride in the song, telling the Royal Oak Daily Tribune, "All the songs feature the same thematic elements that have concerned me for a long time, including space, time, dreams and surrealism."

Kilbey has said he believes that the band's longevity is due to "the promise of what we could do with the music, which is what kept us together at first and keeps bringing us together to make good music."

Selected discography

Of Skins and Heart, Parlophone, 1981; reissued, Arista, 1988.
The Church, Capitol, 1982.
The Blurred Crusade, Carrere, 1982; reissued, Arista, 1988.
Seance, Carrere, 1983; reissued, Arista, 1988.
Remote Luxury, Warner Bros., 1984, reissued, Arista, 1988.
Heyday, Warner Bros., 1986; reissued, Arista, 1988.
Starfish, Arista, 1988.
Gold Afternoon Fix, Arista, 1990.
Priest=Aura, Arista, 1992.
Sometime Anywhere, Arista, 1994.
Magician Among the Spirits, Griffin Music, 1996.
Hologram of Baal, Thirsty Ear, 1998.
A Box of Birds, Thirsty Ear, 1999.
Under the Milky Way: The Best of the Church, Buddha, 2000.
After Everything Now This, Thirsty Ear, 2002.
Parallel Universe, Thirsty Ear, 2002.
Forget Yourself, Cooking Vinyl, 2003.
El Momento Descuidado, Liberation Blue, 2005.
Uninvited, Like the Clouds, Cooking Vinyl, 2006.

Sources

Books

The Trouser Press Record Guide, Ira A. Robbins, editor, Collier Books, 1991.

Periodicals

Billboard, November 10, 1984; March 5, 1988; April 23, 1988.

Boston Phoenix, May 20, 1994.

Flagpole, May 11, 1994.

Honey, May 1994.

Melody Maker, February 13, 1982; July 10, 1982; August 7, 1982; December 15, 1984; April 6, 1985; May 31, 1986; March 12, 1988; March 19, 1988; April 23, 1988; March 24, 1990; May 19, 1990.

Musician, October 1988, September 1990.

Pulse!, July 1994.

Raygun, June 1994.

Riverfront Times, June 1, 1994.

Rolling Stone, April 21, 1988; May 19, 1988; December 15, 1988; May 17, 1990; April 16, 1992.

Royal Oak Daily Tribune (Michigan), Aug. 11, 2006.

Scene, May 19, 1994.

Variety, June 22, 1988; June 20, 1990.

Additional information for this profile was obtained from Arista Records publicity materials, 1994.