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The Church
The Church in 2015
Background information
Origin	Sydney, Australia
Genres	Alternative rock new wave[1] neo-psychedelia post-punk dream pop
Years active	1980–present
Labels	EMI Capitol Carrere Warner Bros. Mushroom Arista Festival Cooking Vinyl Thirsty Ear Liberation Unorthodox Second Motion
Spinoffs	The Refo:mation
Members	Steve Kilbey Tim Powles Ian Haug Jeffrey Cain Ashley Naylor
Past members	Peter Koppes Marty Willson-Piper Richard Ploog Jay Dee Daugherty Nick Ward
Website	thechurchband.net

The Church are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia."^[2] The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".^[3]

The founding members were Steve Kilbey on lead vocals and bass guitar, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and Nick Ward on drums. Ward played only on their debut album, and the band's drummer for the rest of the 1980s was Richard Ploog. Jay Dee Daugherty (ex-Patti Smith Group) played drums from 1990 to 1993, followed by "timEbandit" Tim Powles (ex-the Venetians), who remains with them to the present day. Koppes left the band from 1992 to 1997^[4] and again in 2020, with Willson-Piper departing in 2013. Ian Haug, formerly of Powderfinger, replaced Willson-Piper, with former touring multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain and Even guitarist Ashley Naylor joining after Koppes' later departure. Kilbey, Koppes, and Powles also recorded together as the Refo:mation in 1997.

The Church's debut album, Of Skins and Heart (1981), delivered their first radio hit, "The Unguarded Moment", and they were signed to major labels in Australia, Europe, and the United States. However, the U.S. label, dissatisfied with their second album, dropped the band without releasing it. This put a dent in their success in the U.S., but they returned to the charts in 1988 with the album Starfish and the U.S. Top 40 hit "Under the Milky Way". Subsequent mainstream success has proved elusive, but the band has sustained a large international cult following and earned consistent critical recognition for its later work, including being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in Sydney in 2010.

The Church continue to tour and record, releasing their twenty‑sixth studio album, The Hypnogogue, in February 2023, and their twenty‑seventh, Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, in March 2024.