The Hypnogogue
ARTIST: The Church
RELEASE: 2023
INTERVIEWEE: Steve Kilbey
The Church began in Australia in 1980. They released their debut album the next year, launching a prolific career that continues to the present day. The group released The Hypnogogue in 2023. A futuristic, dreamlike science fiction story, The Hypnogogue brings together a unified narrative and the neo-psychedelic, progressive-tinged sonic textures that earned the group its dedicated following.
Leader, bassist and songwriter Steve Kilbey hadn't made a conscious decision that The Church would never make a concept album, he says. "It just somehow seemed off the menu." But he says that as he began writing songs for The Church's 26th album, "it eventually started to dawn on me, 'This is a fucking concept album!'" And thus bitten by the bug, Kilbey would soon venture even farther down the conceptual road.