Ian Haug of The Church On Their Latest Album
The Church’s most recent release, ‘Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars’, is yet another sonically-powerful and beautifully-led storytelling album. The Church consists of Steve Kilbey (vocals and bass), Ian Haug (guitar), Ashley Naylor (guitar), and Jeffrey Cain (drums). On their 27th studio album, “Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars” features 16 songs that weave their psych-rock sound with a dystopian storyline throughout the album. The Church begins their co-headline tour with The Afghan Whigs beginning June 18th.
We sat down with guitarist Ian Haug, who answered a few questions about The Church’s newest album.
Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
It is said that “Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars” is a companion album of sorts to your most recent album back in 2023. The album has this dystopian storyline. In your opinion, how does this release fit as a companion to the one prior?
Well, lyrically Steve was on that thread, and there were some characters that had popped up in The Hypnogogue, and he's carried some of the characters through to Eros Zeta. Eros Zeta is meant to be the band that was referred to in The Hypnogogue, so we sort of pretended we were that band, I guess. He got quite possessed by the whole idea. It's all inclusive really. I think that it was good to just imagine we were in a different scenario, and pretend to know what the music might sound like in 2054 for a moment. We won't know, I guess, until another 30 years if we were correct.
You've been with the band since 2013. Within the last 10 years, can you talk about the songwriting and recording process and how it is now compared to when you first joined?
It's different every time. There's always the element on all of the recordings that I've done where we just go in and just start playing. Before I joined, and for the God knows how many records that they'd done in this process, at least 10 I would've thought, where they don't go in with any material really. And so we continued that definitely on this one, where the whole premise is you don't bring songs in. It all happens in the studio. And I mean, everyone's probably got a few riffs sitting around or chord structures or whatever. But at the beginning of this one, it was specifically Steve who was like, “I don't want to hear any progressions that you might be bringing in.” It all just had to happen there and when we're sitting around. At the moment I’m in the studio now in Texas, and the engineers were chopping up a jam, which was, I think, a 17 minute jam. And we sort of choose sections out of it to try and make it in a digestible length. That becomes the basis of the song. And I mean, sometimes it's nice to leave a 20 minute jam somewhere, but it's just a bit more palatable for people to have shorter things. You end up getting feelings and go in general directions that you couldn't possibly plan if it just didn't happen spontaneously. That's the common thread I think since I've been in the band. And then some of the previous records people had taken in more complete songs. It comes down to whether or not Steve bonds with the song enough to want to put words and melody to it really, if they go through to the next stage. And I don't mean that in a gatekeeping sense, it's just got to be inspiring for him.
Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
I liked the juxtaposition of the album and the way that each of the songs wove together. Are some of the songs older or were they all new?
The Eros album, I think we were in there for four days. So four days and we ended up with like 30 pieces of music. Which then, as I said, it's the ones that Steve bonds with and pricks up his ears. I think because the band has been so prolific over the years, people kind of expect that now to continue. We've dug our own hole and we'll lay in it.
How do you mentally prepare to go into that kind of intense four-day stage?
Well, that last one we had a couple of days spare during a tour. We played a show in Brisbane (Australia), and then the next show was in Tasmania, which is about as far away as you can get from there in Australia. And so we just sort of hung out near Byron Bay and went to a pretty scenic area and we all just hung out. Everyone smoked a bit of weed, got in the mood. It was definitely not a struggle to be creative there at that one. It all came together.
The song “2054,” it seems like a declaration to the future. When it comes to this futuristic song, what is the message of the song?
Well, I mean they’re Steve's lyrics as you would've realized. So I don't really know what he means. Half the time he's channeling these words and you sort of realize afterward what it might be pertinent to. I mean, the future is both daunting and intriguing. That's the sort of vibe I get. It's not entirely pessimistic, but it's also obvious that things are happening now that you might want to be concerned about. But to me, I think that song sounds hopeful. There are a few references I guess to things that might make you not think that everything's going to be so rosy.
Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
"A Strange Past" is the longest song on the album, almost 10 minutes. Earlier in the interview you said that you took some songs and kind of cut them up.
That one's from a jam. It's quite a strange piece. I really enjoyed listening to that one. It's almost a struggle to remember what your part was in it because it's so in the moment. You don't really go back and listen to it, even after you've done it until it's out. That's very surreal, that song. I like it. That's a good trip, that one.
There are two songs on the album called "Last Melody" and "Music From The Ghost Hotel," and both of those are instrumental, rhythm jam songs and they seem to break up the album in a sense. What was the meaning of having these instrumental songs? Was it just these jams that you loved and wanted to keep in, or did it have a storyline in the album itself?
I think they found their way there. "Music From A Ghost Hotel" was recorded at a hotel somewhere when we were on tour in the States. There was a snow storm outside and the bus was parked outside. The hotel owners, for some weird reason, let us set up in their conference room and we just set up in there and had a jam. And that's where that came from. I think the feeling just fit. So that's an outlier, that one. And the “Last Melody,” I think that was from the main sessions. I think that not everything needs to have a beat necessarily, and it's a good break.
Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
Since you guys just go into the studio and create the album there, is there a special moment from recording this last one that really stood out to you?
Well, there's a couple actually. There's one on there called “The Weather.” I've got a baby boy called Baxter. Everyone started doing this chant, “Baby Baxter. Baby Baxter.” So at the very front of it you can actually hear that chant. He's immortalized in that, which is very cute. So I enjoyed that whole piece actually. It was sort of a different feel from a lot of stuff I've done. I really liked “Amanita,” which is essentially three jams that were brutally edited on the spot by the engineer. He just grabbed three bits of three jams and butted them all up against each other and that's what the song sort of became. That was really cool, realizing that we could be that ruthless to get rid of 25 minutes of music and just turn it into a more palatable length. He's like, “Oh, how's this then?” And we're like, “That's fucking great. Let's just go run with that.”
You have an upcoming tour with The Afghan Whigs. I'm interested in hearing about how this tour came about, especially the co-headline.
Well, we've done, God knows how many tours of the States in the last 10 years where sometimes there's a reason or a purpose to it, like an album or a single. Since Covid, I think we've done a few tours of the States. And so I think we were just looking for a different audience really as well. The Afghan Whigs, Steve's worked with Greg Dulli before and they did a few shows together so they know each other, they're aware of each other. But I think there's a bit of mutual admiration going on between the bands. It's just hard to get people out these days. So if we can make it more appealing to get people out so they can forget about the world for a moment. It's just going to be hard to choose a set because we're so used to playing two and a half hour sets. Both bands are going to be playing an hour-and-a-half set. So that's going to be interesting.
Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
Within the last ten years, what is one of the main differences regarding the band that you've noticed based on when you first started?
The lineup has changed a couple of times and this is not indicative because of any particular one person, but just the group of people that are in the band now. It's a very happy camp. So that's changed. It ebbed and flowed through moments of tension, which no one really enjoys. So at the moment, it's all good. Potentially, I think people have stopped concerning themselves about the fact that two of the original people aren't there anymore and they're sort of enjoying what we are doing. They're sort of like, “oh, they are pretty good at this new incarnation.” So maybe that's the main change. I mean, every album sounds different. I know everyone's a bit older, wiser. I'm not sure.
Are there any insights that you can give into what's coming?
We are going back to do a tour of Australia. And we are actually in the studio at the moment. So what happens to this music? We're not sure. There's a lot of it. We could make probably a quadruple album out of everything here that we've done. So I don’t know when, I don’t know how. Some of it sounds fantastic to me. So yeah, hopefully, we complete it before the world blows up.
Purchase tickets to The Church’s co-headline tour here. Follow The Church on Spotify, Instagram and their website.
