Steve Kilbey
| Steve Kilbey | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Steven John Kilbey |
| Also known as | The Time Being |
| Born |
13 September 1954 Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England |
| Origin | Canberra, ACT, Australia |
| Genres | Alternative rock, post-punk, new wave, dream pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, bass guitarist, music producer, poet, painter, record label co-owner |
| Instruments | Bass, guitar, keyboards |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Labels | Enigma, Rykodisc, Rough Trade, Red Eye Records, Vicious Sloth, Second Motion Records, Karmic Hit, thetimebeing.com |
| Associated acts |
The Church Hex Jack Frost Isidore Polaroid Kiss Fake The Refo:mation |
| Website | thetimebeing |
Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet and painter. As of October 2014, Kilbey had 750 original songs registered with Australian copyright agency Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).
Following his birth in Welwyn Garden City, England, UK, Kilbey was brought to Australia by his parents at the age of five years, and grew up around Dapto, before living with his family in Canberra. He began his professional music career at 17 years of age, when he joined a five piece "cabaret band" called 'Saga' in Canberra. Around 1973 he joined 'Precious Little', a rock band featuring future Church bandmate Peter Koppes on drums.
This was followed by Kilbey forming 'Baby Grande' around 1974 while still living in the A.C.T. 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. 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).
Kilbey was also (while working as a computer programmer) a member of the new wave band Tactics for about 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.
Kilbey formed The Church, together with Koppes and Nick Ward in Sydney in the late 1970s. 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). In late 2011 Kilbey revealed that, at the time of the interview, the song was still used for television programmes and advertisements.
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