Steve Kilbey Makes 'Garage Sutra' with GarageBand

Here’s a homemade demo album with a twist; one made entirely with GarageBand. Steve Kilbey of the Church is largely a self-taught artist. When it comes to singing, songwriting, home recording and painting, he preferred to teach himself the ins and outs of it all. Kilbey dove into the recording software GarageBand armed with only a laptop, a mic and a 12-string guitar. The songs on Garage Sutra appeared on Kilbey’s blog during the month of September of 2009 as a way of celebrating his 55th birthday. Now these songs are available on both CD and MP3 formats, though the former might be sold out for the moment. Fear not, Garage Sutra is available from Kilbey’s Bandcamp site.

There you will also find Vivid, a two-track 15-minute musical accompaniment to an art exhibit and his collaboration with Ricky Maymi of the Brian Jonestown Massacre; The Wilderness Years under the name of David Neil (a fictional rockstar = David Bowie + Neil Young). Subscribers of Mr. Kilbey’s online goods were already treated to free download codes of Vivid and Garage Sutra.

Sometimes it pays to obssess.