Last Updated on October 18, 2023, 12:06 PM | Published: October 18, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — The sea change that was 1980s goth and post-punk spawned countless buzz-worthy, hit-making bands that often vanished from the scene as quickly as they’d burst onto it, leaving only a few records and some perennial reunion rumors in their wake.
But one band that has never faltered, and rarely stumbled, is Australian indie/goth/psychedelic/post-punkers The Church, an act that has been holding its ground and dropping album after album consistently for more than forty years, including the mammoth, conceptual opus that is 2023’s “The Hypnogogue.”
Ahead of a hotly anticipated stop at Tower Theatre on October 29th, I chatted with singer, bassist, founder, and last remaining original member of The Church, Steve Kilbey, about the head-spinning concepts at play in the new album and the natural evolution of the band’s music and energy over time.
“It’s not just all about me,” Kilbey told me. “Everybody who’s played in the band has added something and brought something to it. But when people talk about the longevity of the band, I feel a little like ‘wow, the longevity of me,’ because I’m the only one left. So it’s tricky.”
It might feel tricky for Kilbey to discuss his role as the now-singular driving force behind a band that’s seen its power dynamics and lineups change numerous times over the past four decades, but his visions and intentions for The Church’s sound have remained intact since the beginning.
And that, of course, leaves him locked in the precarious balancing act between recreating iconic classics like 1988 hit single “Under the Milky Way” in a true-to-the-record approximation and allowing the band’s sound to evolve naturally along with the youthful, creative energies of its newer players.
“Is it possible to be both of those?” he asked, laughing when confronted with the choice between which approach he prefers. “It’s the contradiction of struggling to stay true to whatever it was that you had right in the beginning that people liked and letting it blossom and billow forth with different players. Whatever you liked about the old band is still there, but it’s a fresh take on it.”
For Kilbey, that natural evolution is never something that he wants to fight.
“It’s sort of like adaptation in nature, you know,” he said. “It’s always going to be the same animal, but it can start to get a different coat in winter.”
These are big questions for any enduring, long-running artist, but they’ve been particularly at the front of Kilbey’s mind in recent years.
In fact, it’s these same questions of the evolution of music, memory, and what we carry with us from the past that makes up much of the narrative behind “The Hypnogogue,” The Church’s first album in six years and easily one of their most dense and ambitious.
“It’s very much a concept album,” Kilbey explained. “The idea is that there’s this thing called the Hypnogogue, and it sucks all the music out of your head. And if I was to go under, it would be sucking my old songs out, but all of the other music I’ve ever heard as well. So that’s why I’ve allowed an enormous amount of David Bowie and prog-rock and even my old records and my old self into the album. It’s all fair game.”
Part of what makes this a particularly special tour for Church diehards is that each show makes available a full, tour-only companion album that elaborates further on Kilbey’s surrealist tale entitled “Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars.”
But the unhinged, unbound storytelling fun that Kilbey’s having with the new album doesn’t stop there.
“In an incredible explosion of ego, I’ve written a book as well, and it tells the whole story,” he said. “But it’s a very loose concept, and you don’t have to know anything about it if you don’t want to. If that puts you off or it’s too much time to invest in that kind of idea, you can just listen to the songs. I’m happy with that.”
It’s clear that, for all of the changing iterations of the band, all the new players and new energies, and all the years, albums, and challenges behind him, Kilbey is happy just to be writing music and playing it in front of audiences at 69 years old.
Even if none of his own story has ever really gone the way he expected.
“If I met my younger self, and he said, ‘What the hell are you doing with this band I started?’ I’d have to say, ‘I don’t know, I’m just trying to keep it going,'” he told me. “But it’s like, what else would I do?”
The Church takes the stage at Tower Theatre on Sunday, October 29th. For tickets, visit towertheatreokc.com.
The band’s newest album “The Hypnogogue” is available now via Communicating Vessels Records.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
