MWP talks to EJ Cartledge from Inpress Magazine, March 2009


"It's very difficult to make a living from the music business these days, especially when you're older. Usually by our age you've given up or you're U2"

So says guitar maestro Marty Willson-Piper of veteran pyschedelic bliss merchants The Church. But, far from raising a white flag, he and his bandmates are continuing to compose lush soundscapes for their modest but devoted global following. With a new album in the wings plus two new EP's, a soundtrack and an eastern seaboard tour, the good ship Church is in no danger of becalming anytime soon. According to Willson-Piper, the processes are right and the band is content. "There's still a big creative energy but without a massive audience", he says. "So we need to be as efficent as possible, be creative and productive and get along as people and we can therefore continue. We do everything ourselves, from making the music, using our own studios, designing the artwork. Everyone contributes greatly to what The Church is. We've somehow managed to fit into some kind of completely original world whereby we can still be creative and still make engaging records and we're not U2 and we're not 19."

With that creative energy in mind, Willson-Piper suggests there is generally an excess of material when The Church reconvene (hence the two EP's to accompany new album Untitled #23). "This time around we felt we were ready for a focused record and we had a buch of other things still in the mix that work nicely on the EP's. We tried to make a record that ran together well. Sometimes we make albums that are eclectic and other times we make records that are very focused. For example, After Everything Now This was very focused, whereas Forget Yourself was more eclectic, Priest=Aura was very focused, Sometime Anywhere was eclectic, and so on.

"And look, we're a productive band. The first EP gives you another half an hour of Church music. The nature of what we play means we can have those 'jam' songs but we can also have some catchy shorter songs, meaning we can operate on a couple of different levels. There's another EP in the wings as well, called the Coffee Hounds EP, which has another four songs on it, including a cover of Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love. So it's a completely separate release. And what we're going to do is let the fans get their hands on the EP's and the new record at the shows while we're on tour as a bit of a bonus before they appear in the shops. The new album will be cheaper for the folks that care enough about us to come along."
The album was rehearsed and recorded in Sydney. Part of the efficiency Willson-Piper refers to is about keeping costs down but keeping the vibe up, with enough familiar people on hand to capture what the band strives for. "It's come out really well," he says. "It's a funny old record, there's that left-of-centre feel that The Church likes to have in its music but at the same time it's very melodic. I guess that's kind of a hard thing to do, be obscure and melodic.... but I think we've managed it. We recorded the material in Tim's (Powles) studio in Sydney - he has a little studio at the bottom of his house - and some of it was recorded in Surry Hills with Jordan Brebach, our sound engineer. He also mixed most of the album and did a lot of the overdubs. David Trump also did some work on it as well."

Reputed to be Steve Kilbey's vehicle for many years, The Church has evolved to encompass the abilities and preferences of all four members. Band dynamics being what they are , howerver, means the best intentions can often lead to frustaration. "Well, democracy can sometimes be bloody difficult," says Willson-Piper. "Everybody is trying to make the best decision for everyone else but sometimes one of us will think someone else is completely wrong about something. Welcome to band politics. We don't need a dictator, but not everyone is right 100% of the time, We had a lot of difficulty naming the album this time around and about the artwork; different camps, two people wanted one thing, the other two wanted something else. We had lots of great ideas and we just kept working on it until we found the idea everyone likes. But theree you have it; one new album, two new EP's, great artwork. Democracay won in the end."
The tour kicks off in Victoria and includes the Golden Plsins Festival. In news that will delight many older followers, The Church have dusted off the electric guitars and promise a show that showcases the new album but dives headlong into past glories. Says Willson-Piper, "Songs like Constant In Opal have appeared over the years in different ways. One tour we'll bring it out, another tour we might do Reptile, the next tour we'll play Unguarded Moment and Almost With You, some of the really early singles. One tour we even did Aura, but rmemeber we've had 29 years together and when you add up all the records there's a hell of a lot of tunes to choose from. We can miss out whole eras of our music, to be honest. But look, we have to come up with some kind of creative decision and then pepper it with new stuff."

As for the continuing urge to tour or lock themselves into a studio for eternity, Willson-Piper is philosophical. "I think that every process has its ups and downs," he says. "Getting into the studio and writing songs is an amazing thing, but sometimes it's bloody difficult to knock something into shape. By the same token, you can be playing live and hit that special note and it just drives you over the edge... but getting to the gig in the cart is like, forget about it. As you get older you learn to accept everything has its pros and cons and it's up to you whether to focus more on the positives or let the negatives bother you. A lot of people give up touring 'cause it's just too stressful. I think you need to find a balance that allows you to get the best out of the excitement. You know, I love going to any city to play a show, but I don't love being in a van with a bunch of guys at four o'clock in the morning.' Amen.