Interview: Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes

The Church was founded in 1980 in Sydney, Australia. Their first album, 1981’s Of Skins and Heart, included the song “The Unguarded Moment” which enjoyed some success as a single in Australia and New Zealand. Other early Australian hits included “Almost With You” and “Electric Lash”.

Things really took off for The Church with the 1988 album Starfish, featuring “Under The Milky Way” which became a hit in the US and elsewhere, plus other notable songs like “Reptile” and “Destination”. With this, their sixth album, their lush, neo-psychedelic sound finally resonated with the worldwide masses.

Other albums followed, and while they didn’t enjoy the commercial success of Starfish, The Church stayed true to its musical vision. Their latest release was 2017’s Man Woman Life Death Infinity.

The following interview with Church co-founders Steve Kilbey (singer/bassist/primary songwriter) and Peter Koppes (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist) was done by email, with answers received on 4/23/19 and 4/24/19, respectively. This was for a preview article for noozhawk.com for their concert at SOhO in Santa Barbara on 5/4/19.

Interview: Peter Murphy

Singer Peter Murphy is often called the “Godfather of Goth”, and although he doesn’t seem to like that label it is undeniable that his singing helped to make the Bauhaus song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” one of the seminal songs of the goth rock genre. Other notable Bauhaus songs from their first active period of 1978-1983 include “Dark Entries”, “Terror Couple Kill Colonel”, “She’s in Parties”, and a smoking cover of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”.

After Bauhaus folded and the short-lived band Dali’s Car, Murphy launched a solo career that has brought us songs including “Cuts You Up” and “The Sweetest Drop”. His latest album, 2014’s Lion, came out of sessions with Killing Joke’s Martin “Youth” Glover.

This interview was done by Skype on 6/5/15 – fittingly, Murphy was speaking from a cafe in Istanbul during a storm – and was for a preview article for his 6/13/15 concert at SLO Brew in San Luis Obispo.