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Live From The Current's Studio and Events

The Church perform in The Current studio

by Mark Wheat and The Church

March 06, 2015

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The Church - Delirious (live on 89.3 The Current)

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The Church - Laurel Canyon (live on 89.3 The Current)

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The Church - Toy Head (live on 89.3 The Current)

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Steve Kilbey, lead vocalist and bassist for The Church.
MPR Photo / Nate Ryan

Before their gig at the Cedar Cultural Center, The Church stopped by The Current studios for a jovial conversation with Mark Wheat and and to play songs from their twenty fourth album Further/Deeper.

Perhaps best known for their breakout hit "Under the Milky Way," The Church, have matured into Modern Rock statesmen. Or as multi-instrumental Peter Koppes jokes when describing their upcoming appearance at South by Southwest, "we were the resident granddads fifteen years ago, so now we're the Grand-Grand Dads."

The joking didn't stop there — Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes spoke with Mark Wheat about their grand ambitions for Further/Deeper. When asked if there was a plan or a mission statement for the album, Kilbey said "we just knew it had to be the best album in the world — ever made — in this universe or any other — for all time, going backward and forwards — we just knew it had to be the best thing ever, and it is."

"It had to be somewhere between the Dark Side of the Moon and Abbey Road. Dark Side of the Road?"

Further/Deeper was recorded just outside of Sydney, Botany to be exact. They chose the studio for its engineer and its analog mixing board, which helped coax the warm, organic and luxurious sound from the album.

The conversation turned to the lead track, "Vanishing Man," and the video that lead vocalist Steve Kilbey helped make by painting portraits of each of the band members:

Listen to the full interview for an outstanding session of three songs from the album, a series of zingers, and interesting local flourishes.

On playing in Minneapolis:

"Most of America didn't know anything about us, but there was a record shop in Minneapolis called Northern Lights. [Mark Wheat: It's no longer there, but it was on the corner of 7th and Hennepin ] And they said, 'look we've got a record signing for you' and we went 'oh no!' We'd done a couple and they were just like like Spinal Tap ... They opened the door and we went out there an there were 400 people jammed in the warehouse, which was probably more than we'd had at the actual gig!" "We were stars in Minneapolis, but we'd go somewhere else — Cleveland — and we weren't."

Koppes reminds us that the video for their song "Reptile" (from 1988's Starfish) was shot here in St. Paul, Minn.

On how to create a live set from a 24-album career

"We've got so many songs, so we start and all argue over what goes in — 'What about this? What about that?' — but at the end, we try to get a good cross section of our music, with big wallop of songs from the new album, which, as we know is the best album ever made."