INTERVIEW: THE CHURCH IN CONVERSATION WITH STEVE KILBEY

Interview by Cecilia Pattison-Levi

Steve Kilbey from The Church talks about: Singles, Tours and New Music

Steve Kilbey of The Church chats to No Barriers about the band’s upcoming Australian ‘The Singles’ Tour, Red Hot Summer and their new album ‘Lacuna’ that will be out later this year.

When The Church takes their ‘The Singles’ Tour around the nation in November, they will be bringing 45 years of superb atmospheric Australian rock to their fans. The Church has crafted a back catalogue of songs that spans from jangly post-punk of the early 1980s to sprawling psychedelic soundscapes of their new songs from 2024s ‘Eros Zeta And The Perfume Guitars’ and the forth coming 26th album ‘Lacuna’ which will fill the gap in creating more new deep songs and cuts “That we hope fans and people will enjoy,” said Steve Kilbey.

Steve Kilbey opened up about his complicated relationship with singles versus albums and the concept of “dropping a song”. Also, why he's conflicted about playing a hits tour and a Sandstone Point gig, and how The Church's deep catalogue offers “byways, highways, shortcuts and cul-de- sacs that fans can explore,” said Steve Kilbey. “And, the poster will give a clue about what fans will hear beyond the well-known songs and albums”.

“It's very hard to curate a singles tour,” stated Steve Kilbey. “The Church’s singles always started life as songs – as part of albums. Then, if the record company or radio thought the song was good, they became singles, because somebody thought that they would be. Sometimes they were right, and sometimes they were wrong. There will still be a lot of what we (in the band) now call ‘deep cuts.’ It's just that they happened to be singles too. And, we will argue about what will fill the two one hour sets and encore. The only single we actually deliberately made was ‘Metropolis’. We cannibalised it from a few of our songs and said – right let’s make a single. It’s the only one.”

Steve Kilbey delivered the news that “Our new album ‘Lacuna’ which will be out later in the year – it also has no single – we have twenty songs. It has some great new songs but we will wait and see which ones become singles. Hopefully, one or two will be out before we head to Sandstone Point and tour with Crowded House and the Red Hot Summer team”. Steve continued: “We want to make both the Singles Tour and the Red Hot Summer Tours meaningful. The singles need to blended and done properly – not chronologically. We will mix it up and the singles need to be delivered with the right feeling – and some whoomph! The tours are so different and will need some thought about how we bring them together – and that process has started”.

As Steve Kilbey stated “For, The Church, the singles were more like a focus track or a taster—a teaser or something. And, we hope that the new album ‘Lacuna’ - which is a double album made in Austin, Texas with Darrell Thorp who has worked extensively with the Foo Fighters and Radiohead – and an album we are proud of – will be well received by fans”. The new album ‘Lacuna’ will have Steve Kilbey’s introspective lyrics and the band's signature guitar interplay combining to create their signature sound.

The Church are looking forward to hitting the road and as Steve Kilbey said “Well, I am constantly playing live. Sometimes four times a week. I do a strange form of fitness in training for the tours. It is important to pace yourself and not flap out in the first three minutes. When I was young, I used to go so hard with the bass and the vocals. I am not more patient now. But the tours, the new album and solo work – they are all different and require a different approach. I am looking forward to delivering that different musical odyssey to music fans”.

Be sure to get your tickets to see The Church at their ‘Singles Tour’ and for ‘Red Hot Summer’. The Church will play their classic ‘Singles Tour’ in November 2025 and celebrate their career.

Setlist may include, and is not limited to:
Almost With You
Already Yesterday
Columbus
Constant In Opal
Destination
Electric Lash
It’s No Reason
Metropolis
Numbers
Realm Of Minor Angels
Reptile
Ripple
Tantalized
Tear It All Away
The Hypnogogue
Under The Milky Way
Unguarded Moment
When You Were Mine