Peter Koppes

Peter Koppes (born 21 November 1955) is an Australian guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of the independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. He has also released various solo albums and various recordings with his group The Well (1989-1995). Koppes lives on the Australian Central Coast in NSW but sometimes spends time on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he sometimes produces albums and has previously conducted seasonal 'song writing' and 'performance for demo recording' short courses at Nambour TAFE, as well as offering private tuition in guitar, bass, drums and song writing. His daughters are Tatiana 'O' Koppes and Neige Koppes who had their own band, Rain Party (formerly they played with The Kicks a.k.a. Bright Red) but now have independent solo careers. Sometimes incorrectly thought to be of Greek ancestry, Koppes actually has a mixed European ancestry: "My father's ancestry is Dutch, and there's southern French and Portuguese possibly. And my mother's ancestry is northern German but she says there's a Danish ancestor. The problem is she's got brown eyes and my grandmother had brown eyes and that's just not a Teutonic thing . Once she said we might have Gypsy blood...I've come to think I've got that spirit." Koppes spent his teenage years in Canberra in the 1970s. In the early 1970s Canberra was in the midst of an upswing in the wake of Gough Whitlam's election. "I found Canberra an interesting place," Koppes remembers. "As I grew up I met some of the most interesting people. Canberra's got some pretty interesting attributes – it's got the highest rate of occultism, and the highest rate of adultery. It's a quiet place, but with a seedy underbelly. I definitely enjoyed the perspective I got while I was there – it gave me a blank canvass from which to work." Whilst growing up in Canberra in a musical family the sounds of the Hammond organ originally captivated him, and so began his journey as a musician. "I started playing drums with an interest in The Shadows, and then Jimi Hendrix's Mitch Mitchell really inspired me with his jazz style. I think Santana had the same effect and the guitar playing seeped into me as well, although, musically I think of Pink Floyd as my template for a band". Peter was 12 when he became the drummer at school in a rock band called Bacchus Marsh. He then learned guitar from the members of this early group. Later, with another band called Timelord he played guitar, rehearsing in a local church hall. Steve Kilbey, who would later become his colleague in The Church, had a glam rock band called Beyond Beavers that would play there too. An invitation came in 1974 to replace one of the two drummers with Steve's band after they witnessed a drum solo he played on his drummer's kit. Peter joined, but the singer left and they became Precious Little, with Steve on vocals. Soon after, he reverted to guitarist as they transmuted into Baby Grande, with the addition of guitarist Dave Scotland and friend Joe Lee on bass. This two and a half year collaboration eventuated in some recordings, but he left to go to college studying electronics and engineering. After 12 months he decided to sell up and go to England/Europe for a year with a guitar, whence he began writing folk songs. Significant time was spent in Stockholm, Berlin, and London as well as on a tug boat on the waterways of Holland. An Eastern musical influence that appeared on his 1992 album Water-Rites may have been as a result of 2 weeks spent in Morocco. On his return in March 1980, Koppes went to Sydney and formed a three-piece band, Limazine, in Sydney with Nick Ward (AKA Nigel Murray) on drums, and began performing. It was not long before Koppes again teamed up to play music with Steve Kilbey who had recently moved there too. Following an invitation to play a support from a manager/promoter friend, they formed The Church. Supposedly, the name was chosen as it was unclaimed, but later allusions to spiritual interests by Kilbey hint that it was less coincidental, and it has been stated in Robert Dean Lurie's book on Steve Kilbey that the name comes from a line in the David Bowie song "Moonage Daydream": 'The Church of Man, love, Is such a holy place to be'. At this time, Marty Willson-Piper (originally from Liverpool, United Kingdom) arrived in Australia. He attended a show with a friend of Koppes and was asked to join the band because he could play guitar, looked like he belonged in the band, and the music needed another player to develop it further. Initially, only Koppes was a fully proficient musician, Kilbey was an erratic bass guitarist and Willson-Piper was searching for his guitar style. Included in the original Church lineup was ex-Limazine drummer Nick Ward, who had been a school colleague of Steve's. Together they arranged and completed Kilbey's song ideas, and made a demo tape utilising studio time at a friend's 4 Track studio to record backing tracks that would later be overdubbed at home using Steve and Nick's recorders. Willson-Piper contributed to the demo, and with Koppes spent a week arranging his parts for some live shows. At the same time Koppes had garnered interest from publisher Chris Gilbey, of The Beatles' publishing company Northern Songs who then witnessed the first and only rehearsal with Willson-Piper before the gigs, however he missed the first show and the second was cancelled due to the band not wanting to risk being unable to pay for the PA and lights. Koppes then announced to Chris that the band couldn't continue and was disbanding. Gilbey said he would sign the band anyway, paying them a stipend, putting them in a rehearsal studio, recording an album. Gilbey found them an agent, leading to a record release with EMI. The Church achieved early chart success in Australia with songs such as 'The Unguarded Moment' and 'Almost With You' that were also released internationally. The band also gained recognition for its distinctive jangling harmony guitar style which was originally instigated by Koppes and sometimes mistakenly attributed solely to 12 string electric guitar. Soon after recording the second album The Blurred Crusade however, Koppes became disenchanted with several non-musical aspects of the band and intended to depart. He was convinced to return to participate in an Australian tour to promote the album which was then followed by a US visit with Kilbey to meet Capitol Records who were interested in signing the band. Thereafter Koppes continued with The Church to tour internationally, recording several more albums, though he recommenced writing and recording his own songs. His song 'As You Will' was included as a B/side and extra CD track for the band's Heyday album and some of the demos were released in 1987 as an EP called 'When Reason Forbids - A Requiem' and the album 'Manchild And Myth' on an independent Australian label, Session Records. Later Rykodisc would combine them for release in the USA where the record attracted favourable notice in Billboard magazine's 'Recommended' section. In 1988, The Church had strong chart success in the US and Australia with 'Under The Milky Way' and its corresponding album Starfish (album) which included a song written earlier by Koppes called 'A New Season". Pressures and extended absences may have brought about the split in Koppes's marriage, a topic which features in some songs on his second album 'From The Well' recorded and released soon after. At the time, Steve also invited Koppes to write and record some songs for his double solo album Remindlessness and he contributed "Danielle" and "Soul Sample". The Church then recorded Gold Afternoon Fix, which featured Koppes's song "Transient". This soon became a fan favourite and a much loved inclusion in their live set. This was followed by the album 'Priest=Aura'. Koppes had at that stage been a continuous (as well as founding)