Peter Koppes is an Australian born guitarist, singer, songwriter, keyboardist, bassist and producer, best known as a founding member of the internationally successful Australian band, The Church which first formed in 1980. He is a multi-talented instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica.
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 in to 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 extraordinaire 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, 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, he moved to Sydney to join a short lived band called Limazine before again teaming up to play music with Steve Kilbey who had recently moved too. Following an invitation to play a support from a manager/promoter friend, they formed The Church. Included was ex-Limazine drummer Nick Ward, aka Nigel Murray on drums, who interestingly was a less than favourite school colleague of Steve. Together they arranged and completed Steve's song ideas, and made a demo tape utilising studio time at a friends 4 Track studio to record backing tracks that would later be overdubbed at home using Steve and Nick's recorders.
At this time, Marty arrived in Australia. He attended a show with a friend of Peter's 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. Marty contributed to the demo, and with Peter spent a week arranging his parts for some live shows. At the same time Peter had garnered interest from publisher Chris Gilbey, of The Beatles publishing company Northern Songs who then witnessed the first and only rehearsal with Marty before the gigs, however 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. So Peter announced to Chris that the band couldn't continue and was disbanding. Chris said he would sign the band anyway, paying them a stipend, putting them in a rehearsal studio, recording an album, found them an agent, and then 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 jangled harmony guitar style which was originally instigated by Peter and sometimes mistakenly attributed solely to 12 string electric guitar.
READ MORE: www.peterkoppes.com
