INTERVIEW: Australian band The Church welcome you to ‘The Hypnogogue’
Photo: The Church’s new album is called The Hypnogogue. Photo courtesy of Hugh Stewart / Provided by Reybee with permission.
The Church, one of the most important Australian rock bands ever, have been going strong for decades, and for their latest album, they decided to bring listeners a bit of a departure. The Hypnogogue is the 26th recording effort from The Church, but it’s their first concept album. And how’s this for a concept? The album depicts characters living in a dystopian 2054, very much like a Philip K. Dick short story, according to press notes.
One of the central characters in the lyrical narrative is Sun Kim Jong, a Korean scientist who dabbles in the occult and creates a contraption called the Hypnogogue. Problems start to abound when Sun’s love interest, Eros Zeta, wants to use the machine to help his diminishing rockstar career.
The Church will bring songs from The Hypnogogue to a wide-ranging tour of the United States in March and April, including a stop at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on April 3. New York City also has a date, March 30, at the Gramercy Theatre.
Steve Kilbey is the bassist for the band and all-around Church extraordinaire, serving as vocalist and band leader. He is joined by Tim Powles, drummer and producer of 17 albums for the band. Rounding out the quartet are guitarist Ian Haug, who is celebrating a decade with The Church, and multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain, who has been with the outfit for a couple years.
Recently Powles exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox to talk about dystopia, science fiction and the recording process. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What made you and the band change gears and produce a concept album?
We didn’t really set out to do a concept album. We were hanging to record together and loving how our “live” muse had grown. Actually I was returning to the drumkit from a broken foot for the first time, so all a bit restless, keen, fresh faces and spirit. We just launched into the unknown a little more than usual. The concept then was simply … discovery.
We jammed up the core in a short moment of togetherness with all five of us in one studio, one beachside villa, for almost 10 days. That seems a relative lifetime ago now. There was definitely magic, almost enough to suffice, but a lurking sense that we could reward ourselves with a greater prize, if we could just allow time and fate to join in, though not all on exactly the same page with that. Then add the universal chaos of the last three years. Our inputs are often separated from different locations and studios, plenty of push and pull, frustrating, and then providing. The interruptions, the surges all kind of transfused and metabolized into the record in its final living form. Steve grew the concept from the inside out, amongst all of this, and found its name and destination. It gathers together everything the music had blurred but always implied; it’s a greater thing. Did it find us?
Are you generally a fan of dystopian fiction and sci-fi stories?
I love the line between dystopian and hopian. The perfect vortex to reside in sci-fi feels like a history lesson from the past or the future. It’s not sure, and does it matter? I don’t dwell much on stories. I like our own. We dig and share Steve’s choices, singing up the imagery in such a paradoxical manner. There’s tragedy and almost danger but always a chance to survive. Maybe? Maybe.
Where does the word “Hypnogogue” come from?
Technically — a place or condition or medium that induces drowsiness or sleep, via a sort of “hypnosis,” and the “gogue,” or place we draw you into, with this record.
Do you feel the sound on this new album is a big departure for the band? Will longtime fans be surprised?
It’s a different shade of jangle and jarr. It’s prog rock in a way we haven’t presented before. There’s grit, an underground kind of leering power behind it, but still beautiful. I think longtime fans will be very happy, some surprised; others know what we’re capable of. That’s why we’re still all in this together!
A lot of musicians who have been in the business for a number of years have stopped recording and only tour their “greatest hits.” You and the Church seem dedicated to putting out new music. Why is making new music so important?
Steve often describes The Church and our manifesto and how it rolls as a magic trick. I agree totally. It’s why I’m still here. We’re magicians, and we never tire of dreaming up new tricks. But, we have tired of repeating the old ones on occasion. Now we’ve learnt a perfect balance of old and new, pretty damn impressive considering there’s close to 500 or so tricks in the road case!
What do you like about the current lineup of the Church?
This Church — Gang of Five — is such a powerfully clean but calmly explosive ensemble. I love the depth of sound and expert versatility of everyone aboard, truly an orchestra of guitars in space! And still just enough things falling apart to fuel the rocket.
What will life be like in 2054?
Where? Here on Earth? In the Hypnogogue? The epic words, music and videos to our first and third singles can answer that best:
The moonbeams were burning
The arrows did fall
Then when the tide went out
The ensemble were dying
A quickening flourish
But that’s another story
Well, I gotta jet
It’s already late
It’s already too soon
I’m ready to jam
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Church’s new album is The Hypnogogue, available everywhere Friday, Feb. 24. Click here for more information.
