Peter Koppes

The Church then recorded Gold Afternoon Fix, which featured Koppes's song "Transient". This soon became a fan favourite and a much loved inclusion in their live set. This was followed by the album ‘Priest=Aura'. Koppes has been a continuous (as well as founding) member of The Church except for the four-year period 1992-1996. Due to mounting frustrations with artistic constraints on his input, Peter again felt disconnected from the band. Koppes' decision to leave The Church reflected two main factors; the band earned zero dollars for the two-week tour of Australia after all expenses had been paid, and secondly, he continued to feel shut out of the creative process - a long-standing complaint that stretched back at least as far as the Seance (album) days, if not further. After recording the Priest=Aura album with the band, Koppes departed, leaving Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper the only remaining members. Temporary (drummer Jay Dee Daugherty lingered for a while but not for long. Kilbey and Willson-Piper recorded Sometime Anywhere as The Church even though they were at that time a duo.

In 2002, Peter released his 5th solo album 'Simple Intent'. He was involved in various stints including co-writing and recording the song "Moon Over Water" with Sydneysider New Folk artist David Lane in 2003, and as session guitarist on various tracks of Australian Hip Hop artist Figg Kidd's 2003 major label album, 'What Is Figg Kidd?'.

This reunification of sorts led to a suggestion that The Church reform for a tour to raise interest and funds for recording another album. This it did, producing Hologram of Baal released in 1998, marking Koppes' return to the Church fold.

Koppes returned to The Church as a guest player on the album Magician Among the Spirits in 1996. In 1997 Koppes participated in what would become a new incarnation of the Church - under the title of The Refo:mation, Koppes, Kilbey and new drummer Powles (who had debuted on Sometime Anywhere) recorded the album Pharmakoi/Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units.

Koppes collaborated on songwriting with singer Margot Smith, and played in her live band. (Steve Kilbey and Tim Powles also co-wrote, played and/or produced some of Smith's material on her first two albums Sleeping with the Lions (1993) and Taste (1998). [2] Smith died in 2011; her third album Inhumaninane was released posthumously.

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, and 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.

As well as his contributions to The Church, Koppes has also released several solo albums, and albums with his group The Well (1989-1995), which largely occupied his time on hiatus from The Church. The Well featured former Church drummer Richard Ploog on drums, Anthony Smith (inaugural keyboardist for Flowers/Icehouse) and Jim Leone of The Celibate Rifles on bass. The Well played live and recorded songs that were released as an EP called Iridescence and later the fan favourite solo album Water Rites.

In 1988, The Church had strong chart success in the USA and Australia with 'Under The Milky Way' and its corresponding album Starfish which included a song written earlier by Koppes called 'A New Season". Pressures and extended absences may have brought about the split in Koppes's marriage, a topic which features in some songs on his second album 'From The Well' recorded and released soon after. At the time, Steve also invited Koppes to write and record some songs for his double solo album Remindlessness and he contributed "Danielle" and "Soul Sample".

Thereafter Koppes continued with The Church to tour internationally, recording several more albums, though he recommenced writing and recording his own songs. His song 'As You Will' was included as a B/side and extra CD track for the band's Heyday album and some of the demos were released in 1987 as an EP called 'When Reason Forbids - A Requiem' and the album 'Manchild And Myth' on an independent Australian label. Later Rykodisc would combine them for release in the USA where the record attracted favourable notice in Billboard magazine's 'Recommended' section.

On his return in March 1980, Koppes came to Sydney and formed a three-piece band, Limazine, in Sydney with Nick Ward on drums and began performing. Supposedly, the name was chosen as it was unclaimed, but later allusions to spiritual interests by Kilbey hint that it was less coincidental and it has been stated in Robert Dean Lurie's book on Steve Kilbey that the name comes FROM a line in the David Bowie song "Moonage Daydream". Initially, only Koppes was a fully proficient musician, Kilbey was an erratic bass guitarist and Willson-Piper was searching for his guitar style. It was not long before Koppes again teamed 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 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 friend's 4 Track studio to record backing tracks that would later be overdubbed at home using Steve and Nick's recorders.

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 Koppes (born 21 November 1955) is a guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of Australian independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. He has also released various solo albums and various recordings with his group The Well (1989-1995.) Koppes lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he also produces albums and conducts seasonal 'song writing' and 'performance for demo recording' short courses at Nambour TAFE, as well as offering private tuition in guitar, drums and song writing. His daughters are Tatiana 'O' Koppes and Neige Koppes who have their own band, Rain Party [1] (formerly they played with The Kicks aka Bright Red).