Bragg-Worthy Bookings

Although he's recently released a much-acclaimed album, Detail Of Distance, it's the live arena where singer/songwriter Kim Churchill is truly making his mark. And it's a mark that is having profound repercussions for Churchill's status as a performer. After finishing a 26-date national headlining tour, Churchill just played Port Fairy Folk Festival and is backing this up with slots at Blue Mountains Music Festival and Bluesfest. After this, he is heading off on a multi-show tour of the US, having been hand picked as the support act of choice for the legendary Billy Bragg. In this scribe's opinion, this is the rough equivalent (in historical terms) of touring with Dylan in the '60s, which speaks stridently to the esteem with which Churchill is beginning to be held.

Even when discussing the aforementioned record, Churchill still brings it back to the live show, explaining that he sees the stage as a canvas on which to experiment with what will later become recorded work. “Every performance is an adventure, a journey. And you do, you sort of paint a new picture every evening. So, yeah, definitely with Detail Of Distance I was trying to capture that sonic artwork, and capture it in that spontaneous, vulnerable state where you don't really know what you're doing, your just kind of riding it – when you're just hanging on and seeing what happens.”

When asked how the Bragg tour came about, Churchill blames the booze and indicates that not shitting himself was a decidedly good deal. “Like a lot of things that happen in the music industry, it was a matter of a conveniently placed bottle of scotch. We just got talking and we got on really well and we were both playing the same stage so we got to see each other play. Perhaps I'm a bit young or something, but I didn't really know who he was. So, we had a great old time and I wasn't shaking at the knees and I think it all kind of helped. A couple of months later, he sent me an email and asked me if I wanted to come to America with him. To be with an artist like Billy Bragg, for pretty much a full two months, yeah, it's pretty exciting.”

So would Churchill approach a festival gig differently from a regular gig? “You know, I do do a fair bit of adjusting. I enjoy doing all kinds of shows. Normally I base a show not on whether or not it's a festival. It's more about the vibe and what the people are like. It's almost unconscious. I feel like the moments where I become really solid on stage are when I'm actually less attuned to what's going on around me and I kind of put up this front. I suppose I much prefer to create a soundtrack for an environment.”

Given the improvisational nature of his performance, one would assume then that the vexed question of describing his live show to someone who's never seen him before might present Churchill with some difficulty. Interestingly, it seems the opposite is true.

“It's very experimental,” he divulges. “It's… I don't know, it's very free to move in any direction. That's something where the inspiration has come from watching old footage of the way Led Zeppelin used to do their shows. The way they would just merge in any direction they wanted and use a lot of improvisation. So there's a lot of that I suppose. Look, in many ways I think it's a traditional singer/songwriter kind of show, but sonically on steroids.”

Kim Churchill will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 14 March - Beav's Bar, Geelong VIC
Friday 15 March - The Thornbury Theatre, Melboure VIC
Friday 15 March to Sunday 17 March - Blue Mountains Music Festival, Katoomba NSW
Sunday 31 March - Bluesfest, Byron Bay NSW