How The Church’s Steve Kilbey really feels about Under the Milky Way
April 25 2025
The Church frontman Steve Kilbey had no idea he was sitting on an Australian classic when the band played Under the Milky Way for record executives for the first time.
“At the time we recorded it, no one thought that was the hit, but the guy, the big guy from the record company in America came in and said, ‘That’s the song I want’,” he said.
The 1988 single became a chart hit at home and abroad, peaking at number 24 on the United States Billboard Top 100.
From featuring in the soundtrack to the film Donnie Darko to being played at AFL Grand Finals it has since become an enduring cultural phenomenon.
Such was the popularity of the song that Kilbey grew tired of it for a while.
“At the time, it was such a big hoo-ha, and the next record, people were going, ‘Oh, we’ve got to write another song like that, but not like that.”
However, upon reflection, he has found peace with the song again and feels a lot of gratitude for its success.
“I’m glad it was the one [the big hit]… I’m glad it has so much ambiguity in it. It isn’t stuck in the time that it came out,” he said.
“I can stand on stage in 2025 and sing it and not feel silly. You know, Mick Jagger must feel silly singing Satisfaction in his 80s.
“If you’re gonna be stuck with one song, there could be a lot worse songs to be stuck with, that’s for sure.”
While Under the Milky Way was the song that catapulted the band to international fame, it was their 1981 single The Unguarded Moment from their debut album Of Skins and Heart that catapulted them to fame in Australia.
“We were on Countdown, and the next day, we were rock stars. We never looked back. It was that quick.
“We never went back to playing tiny venues to absolutely nobody, that one performance, that one song did it for us. So I’m really grateful.”
Under the Milky Way and The Unguarded Moment are just two of the 20 singles the band will play during its upcoming tour.
The Singles Tour: A Career Retrospective will see the band playing singles from throughout its career. Having produced 27 studio albums over 45 years, there is no shortage of material to choose from.
The band has evolved a lot over the years, from its new wave, indie rock beginnings to a sound that has increasingly embraced slower-tempo songs with lush, surreal soundscapes.
Kilbey, the band’s songwriter and sole constant member, said he strives to constantly take the music in new directions while continuing to produce songs that are unmistakably The Church.
“This is my paradox: that I want everything I do to sound like The Church… and yet at the same time, I want to improve upon that, push the envelope.
“Have a more ethereal Church, have a more jazzy Church, have a more complex Church, have a more mature Church, have a more literary Church.”
This desire to push the envelope and try new things saw the band venture into the new territory of the concept album for 2023’s The Hypnagogue and its 2024 companion album Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars.
The acclaimed pair of albums revolve around the story of a creatively frustrated rock star who utilises a technological device that transforms dreams into music.
With its themes of the consequences of using technology to inspire creativity, comparisons have been drawn to the rise of artificial intelligence but Kilbey said any parallels were purely coincidental.
He had not previously had any plans to make a concept album, but when the idea came to him, he felt it was something he had to pursue. He even wrote an accompanying novella.
While some music fans are turned off by the idea of concept albums, he said the project’s narrative was somewhat loose and the music can be enjoyed independently of it.
“One guy [fan] wrote, I don’t really like concept albums. I don’t really like this concept, but I like the music, so I’m just gonna enjoy the music.
“That’s all right with me as well.”
The Church is a Australian Rock band formed in Sydney in 1981 associated with Psychedelica and the paisley underground .
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