Steve Kilbey

Steve Kilbey
Steve Kilbey
Background information
Birth name	Steven John Kilbey
Born	13 September 1954
Origin	Welwyn Garden City, England
Genres	Psychedelic rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, bass guitarist, music producer, poet, painter
Instruments	Bass guitar
Years active	1971 - present
Labels	Enigma, Rykodisc, Rough Trade, Vicious Sloth
Associated acts	The Church Jack Frost Isidore

Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954, Welwyn Garden City, England) is the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter.^[1]

Kilbey began his professional music career at age 17 when he joined a "cabaret band". He then joined Precious Little, a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums. Kilbey followed up with another band, Baby Grand, around 1978 while he lived in Canberra. Soon after, he formed The Church along with Koppes, Nick Ward, and Marty Willson-Piper.^[1] 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 their 1988 album Starfish) became a hit.

Kilbey has released six solo music albums and collaboratively written and/or produced recordings with the late Grant McLennan (of The Go-Betweens), Stephen Cummings, and Kev Carmody. Earthed, a book of fiction, was published in 1986, in conjunction with an album of the same name of instrumental electronic music. His book of poetry, Nineveh/The Ephemeron, was released in 1998 and was later republished.

Kilbey, lives in Bondi, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, with his wife and three of his five children. ^[2] His brothers, Russell Kilbey and John Kilbey, have also led successful Australian bands. ^[1]

A biography of Steve Kilbey titled No Certainty Attached was released in June 2009 by Verse Chorus Press. Also in June 2009 an album with Martin Kennedy (from All India Radio) called 'Unseen music, unheard words' was released. Kilbey's first solo record in 8 years, entitled, "Painkiller" was released in North America on Second Motion Records early 2009.

Steve Kilbey of The Church - California, 1986

Discography

Albums

• Unearthed (1986)
• Earthed (1987)
• The Slow Crack (1989)
• Remindlessness (1990)
• Narcosis EP (1991)
• Narcosis + (1997)
• Dabble (2001)
• Painkiller (2008)

^[3]

Collections

• Acoustic & Intimate (2000)
• Freaky Conclusions (2003)

Collaborations

Hex (with ex-Game Theory's Donnette Thayer)

• Hex (1989)
• Vast Halos (1990)

Curious (Yellow) (with Karin Jansson)

• Taken By Surprise (1990)
• Charms and Blues (1990)
• Love Itself (1990)

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

• Jack Frost (1991)
• Snow Job (1996)

Fake (with Sandy Chick):

• Fake (1994)

Into The Sun (with Penny Flanagan)

• Light Sleeper (1998)

Isidore (with Remy Zero's Jeffrey Cain)

• Isidore (2004)

Gilt Trip (with his brother Russell Kilbey)

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

Mimesis (with Simon Polinski)

• Art Imitating Life (2007)

"Hear In Noiseville" single with Pocket:

• Hear In Noiseville (2009)

Bibliography

• Earthed, Nineveh, and The Ephemeron, 2004, Impressed Publishing, ISBN 978-0975161890

References

External links

• Kilbey's blog
• Kilbey's Biography on The Church's official website
• IMDB entry
• Art gallery selling Kilbey's paintings and poster
• Video interview with Steve on InFrame.tv
• Official website for Isidore
• Amplifier Magazine Interview
• Solo acoustic performance