NEW YORK (Isidore Official Website) - Two of alt-rock's most influential unsung heroes, The Church's Steve Kilbey and Remy Zero's Jeffrey Cain, have created a masterpiece on opposite sides of the world without stepping into a studio together. The result, Isidore in album title and band name, is a fascinating ten-song (eleven if you include the hidden track) excursion into the layered and textured minds of Kilbey and Cain. Isidore will be released October 12, 2004 in the U.S. on Brash Music.
As vocalist, songwriter and bassist of the seminal alt-guitar band, The Church, Kilbey traipsed through the last two and a half decades, releasing critically-acclaimed album after album. The band saw huge mainstream success with their 1988 breakthrough Starfish that spawned the hits "Reptile" and "Under a Milky Way." "Isidore started as a correspondence or a conversation between Steve and me," says Cain. A fan of Kilbey's, Cain was a successful musician in his own right. As guitarist for Remy Zero, Cain had seen his band through successes of critically-hailed records and even incidental acclaim through their song "Save Me" which is the theme song to the WB's No1 television show, "Smallville".
"While Steve was touring America with The Church, his guitarist Marty Willson-Piper passed him a copy of an instrumental I had written," Cain explains of the origins of Isidore. "The song was a 'thank you' for years of inspiration. I received a call from Steve that evening, saying that he had finished lyrics. We booked a studio before he left for the next show and cut the vocals to the song which turned out to be 'Transmigration'." With timing not ever being on their side, Cain was playing a Remy Zero gig while Kilbey was in the studio. By the time the show was over, Kilbey was on his way to his next Church show in San Francisco. What started out to be a single song turned into a full-fledged record with parcels of music being sent back and forth between Kilbey in Australia and Cain in Los Angeles. "We did however finally sit down at his home in Sydney and listen to the final mix," laughs Cain. "We had a smoke and a drink and stamped our approval."
Isidore is an exploration of textures, layers, and deeply personal ideas and melodies. Sounding at times like a combination of both The Church and Remy Zero, while simultaneously sounding like neither, the album flows from the rhythmic "Ghosting," to the meanderingly soothing "Transmigration," to the soaring, guitar-driven opening track "Musidora," without losing its continuity or rhythm.
"I hope that Isidore reminds people of the beauty that exists in this world. I hope Isidore is a door to all who have been left behind, and to those who remember the way," Cain concludes enigmatically, which is the beauty behind Isidore. Upfront and personal, yet gauzy and mysterious, Isidore is an enigma, one that Kilbey and Cain hope you can crack. "I hope you hear Isidore. I know your grandchildren will."
