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 joined, but the singer left and they became Precious Little, with Steve on vocals. Soon after, he reverted to guitarist as they transmuted into Baby Grande, with the addition of guitarist Dave Scotland and friend Joe Lee on bass. This two-and-a-half-year collaboration eventuated in some recordings, but he left to go to college studying electronics and engineering. 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, he 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'.
There was still contact with Steve Kilbey, who asked Peter to play guitar on some songs for albums he was producing, Australian artists Margot Smith's 'Adored' and 'Lifetime', Stephen Cummings' 'Everything Breaks Your Heart', and Canadian Mae Moore's 'Full Circle'. 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).
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'. 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.
During this same period Peter's Immersion Music record label was set up in partnership with mentor Sebastian Chase of MGM Distribution, to represent his previous solo catalogue and new solo release 'Love Era/Irony'. Included, was an album by Margot Smith called 'Taste' which featured Peter, Steve Kilbey and Tim Powles.
The Church reinvigorated, has since released many more lauded albums including the 'A Box Of Bird's covers album, and 'After Everything Now This'. On the Parallel Universe album, Peter sang the psychedelic 'Reward', on ''Forget Yourself'' the sublime 'Appalatia', on Uninvited, Like the Clouds he sings the epic 'Never Before', and on Untitled #23 vinyl edition, the very memorable 'LLC ' (an anagram for Little Love Central). 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?'.
More recently he has developed a song writing relationship with fellow local/international singer/songwriter Michelle Bradford-Jones. They recently produced soundtrack material and anthem song 'Journey of Friends ' for a fund raising cancer benefit documentary commemorating the Smiling For Smiddy Foundation. Not announced officially until mid 2020 was Koppes' departure again from The Church in mid-2019, following cancellation of the rest of the year's touring due to Tim Powles' severe foot injury sustained on the last date of that USA tour.
Since then he has produced and played on songs by emerging young local female singer songwriter Mayah, whose 2019 debut single ''Endless Mistakes'' achieved almost 500,000 streams within a year, and a second single ''Butterflies (The Rush Inside)'', released in early 2020, achieved 40,000 streams in six months. Live streams of three performances were made together during the CoronaVirus-19 pandemic.
In July 2020, an EP released by Emma Tomlinson, also a Sunshine Coast singer-songwriter, featured Koppes on finger-style nylon guitar and Ebow electric guitar, for the highlight track ''Silver Lightning''. They have also appeared live together on occasions, such as Emma's sold-out show for Noosa Alive Festival in 2019.
In September 2020 following two singles and an EP, Koppes' recording ensemble Syncretism, with guitarist Dave Scotland released the 'Lone Drifters?' album. Scotland had been a fellow member of Baby Grande, the Canberra glam rock band founded in the 1970s with Steve Kilbey later of The Church. Dave Scotland had remained largely unknown except as a very celebrated guitarist by those who have heard his extraordinary style of playing, left-handed on a right-handed guitar. The modern-sounding album is a co-production of Scotland's songs and Koppes' lyrics, rich with guitars and effects.
In August 2022 an album of 56 short piano instrumentals with orchestral effects was released exemplifying revolutionary music theory relating to Modes and Scales associated with Augmented Chords and Diminished Chords as well as the previously unidentified seven note scale/mode for the Dominant7#9 chord also known as unofficially as the Hendrix Chord.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Koppes
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