Steve Kilbey

Prior to the release of the Church's 21st album, Further/Deeper, Kilbey spoke to the media about his prolific body of musical work that is continually growing saying "Just because I've written that many songs [750] doesn't mean anything. But imagine if you were having an operation on your brain and a 60-year-old surgeon walked into the theatre. You would think, I'm in safe hands. He's been doing this all his life and he's very good at it. I think I have become very good at pulling lyrics and melodies out of the air. Melodies weren't always my strong point; on a lot of The Church's early records the melodies weren't as elaborate as what I'm doing now. In the last few years, I think I am tapping into something ... It's like I'm tapping into the collective human subconscious."

Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church.

He is also a music producer, poet, and painter.

Kilbey formed the Church, together with Koppes and Nick Ward in Sydney in the late 1970s.

Around 1974 he joined a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums called Precious Little.

This was followed by Kilbey forming Baby Grande around 1974 whilst still living in the Australian Capital Territory Koppes was also in Baby Grande for a time but left to travel, then played in a band called Limazine which brought him in touch with future Church drummer Nick Ward.

Baby Grande recorded some demos for EMI Australia in 1977 but were not signed to a permanent recording contract.

Kilbey was also a member of the new wave band Tactics for approximately a month in 1977.

He played "about four gigs" with Tactics before being asked to leave by the band's singer and songwriter Dave Studdert.

Marty Willson Piper joined the band in May 1980 days after his arrival in Australia when he went to see the band play a gig.

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 the 1988 album Starfish, achieved success (Kilbey had co-written the song with Karin Jansson of Pink Champagne and Curious Yellow ).

"Under the Milky Way" appeared in the top-selling singles charts of both Australia and the United States (US).

Kilbey released his debut solo single, "This Asphalt Eden" in July 1985.

Kilbey's first studio albums Unearthed, Earthed the mini-album The Slow Crack were released in 1986 and 1987.

Issued simultaneously with Earthed was a book of the same name containing Kilbey's prose and poetry (published in 1986).

The Earthed album was conceived as a possible soundtrack to the reading of the book, which had come first in terms of conception.

Following the worldwide success of The Church's Starfish album and "Under the Milky Way" single, Kilbey returned to his solo career in 1989 with his third album, Remindlessness in December 1989.

In December 1991, Kilbey released the EP Narcosis, his last solo release for the Red Eye label.

In 1992, Kilbey and his younger brother, John Kilbey launched the Australian record label Karmic Hit.

The label roster included the owners' bands, side projects and solo works as well as those by other artists: the Bhagavad Guitars (John Kilbey's group), Snog, David Lane and Halogen.

In 1997, Kilbey collaborated with brother Russell on the ambient instrumental/electronic album Gilt Trip.

(1997) In May 1997, Kilbey released Narcosis Plus.

Between 2009 and 2017, Kilbey released numerous collaborative albums with Martin Kennedy of All India Radio as Kilbey/Kennedy.

In late 2011 Kilbey revealed that, at the time of the interview, the song was still used for television programmes and advertisements.

Baby Grande's demos surfaced on the internet after about 30 years, and despite initial protests from Kilbey, he has now made four of the five tracks available on his solo compilation album of early work Addendaone (2012).

The Church were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2012.

At the ceremony, Kilbey delivered a lengthy speech as part of the induction that included stories from his musical career and a sung verse from the song "Old Man Emu" by Australian country music artist John Williamson.

In late 2012, as an act of protest against the conduct of the Church's North American label Second Motion Records, Kilbey announced his resignation from the band.

The announcement was made on Kilbey's Facebook fan page following the receipt of an insufficient royalty cheque from the record label.

However, the Church continued as an active band and, in November 2013, Kilbey published an official announcement on his Facebook fan page stating that Willson-Piper was replaced by former Powderfinger member Ian Haug.

Kilbey explained that Haug would join the band for the recording of a new album, for which he had 16 songs written, as well as subsequent touring, and also defended the decision in the statement saying, "If you can't dig it I'm sorry. This is my f—ing band after all and it has existed at times without Peter and in the beginning without Marty and for times in between while he went AWOL."

Kennedy explained the inception of the working relationship in a 2013 interview: "I was working with Steve Long before I actually met him. Steve had heard All India Radio, and he asked my brother John if I had any spare instrumental songs lying around that he could contribute lyrics to."

Kennedy subsequently sent Kilbey "thrown-away tracks" from All India Radio recording sessions.

In July 2013, Kilbey performed at the Fly By Night venue in the Western Australian port city of Fremantle, with local musicians, Shaun and Adrian Hoffmann (The Hoffmenn), Shaun Corlson, Rachael Aquillina and Anna Sarcich playing as his backing band.

As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums and has collaborated on recordings with musical artists such as Martin Kennedy, Stephen Cummings and Ricky Maymi as a vocalist, musician, writer and/or producer.

Ian McFarlane writes that "Kilbey's solo recordings [are] challenging and evocative. They ran the gamut of sounds and emotions from electronic and avant-garde to acoustic and symphonic, joyous and dreamy to saturnine and sardonic".

As of 2020, Kilbey has over 1,000 original songs registered with Australian copyright agency Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).

Kilbey was born in Welwyn Garden City, England, UK, and moved to Australia with his parents at the age of five.

He grew up around Dapto but the family eventually moved to Canberra.

He began his professional music career at the age of 17 when he joined a Canberran five piece "cabaret band" called Saga.