Credit: ChatGPT
You could have knocked down most fans of Australian ‘70s underground music with a feather in July when Lipstick Killers co-founders, guitarist Mark Taylor and singer Peter Tillman, stepped out of the shadows and released a rock opera.
To say the least, “The Shining Stone” - presaged by “The Lipstick Killers present” in the title - was a departure from the expected. Not glitter punk. Not acid punk, not garage rock. Instead, it was a massive sounding, full-blown orchestrated concept album, with full-blooded Three Tenor-style vocals and squalls of shiny, metallic guitars. All on CD and gorgeously packed with two glossy booklets of illustrtated narrative.
If you haven’t read our review we’ll put a spoiler out there right now: A.I. was heavily and uashamedly utilised in the making of “The Shining Stone”. Way to go to polarise opinions in these charged times. But there's lots more to discuss
Mark Taylor and Peter Tillman have a YouTube channel, The Bad Kynd, where they have been publishing images and garage punk songs - and a near-finished new Lipstick Killers album is in the wings.
The Barman invited The Lipstick Killers into the Bar and here’s the virtual e-mail exchange.
Peter Tillman gets up close and personal with the Lipstick Killers crowd. Steve Lorkin photo.
First things first, where did the idea of a full-blown rock opera come from?
We get together at least twice a week to develop songs and ideas. We used GPT Codex to create an online jukebox streaming our songs for own amusement. Then we created a full featured comic-generating program and used it to design and publish comics with Marshamallow Man, Pumkinhead, Celeryman and the Girl with the Samurai Sword.
We created the Bad Kynd to publish these comics and videos we created using primitive AI tools. We put them up on YouTube and a handful of people discovered and liked them. After about 10 YouTube videos, we started looking for a new challenge and we came up with an idea for an opera, as the most ridiculous and incongruous option we could think of.
It’s certainly a stylistic step away from your antecedents. What’s the reaction been and has Steve Vai asked for royalties yet?
The reaction to the finished opera has been overwhelmingly positive. Some actual reactions we noted here were “magnificent!”, “awesome!!!”, “incredible!”, “huge!”, “WOW!” and “the scope is phenomenal!”.
We’re not convinced the guitar style found on "The Shining Stone" resembles Steve Vai particularly. Twenty years ago, that style may have been unique, but these days any number of 12-year-old girls and boys on YouTube are able to play flashy, pompous, overblown guitar as good or even better than Steve Vai.
Is it a fair call to suggest there’s a little bit of perversity in taking such a musical U-turn? Just out of interest, what are you both listening to these days?
We probably need to define “perversity”, setting aside any sexual connotation. The online Cambridge Dictionary provides a definition: “the quality of being strange and not what most people would do or expect”. So yes, that’s a fair call and exactly what we set out to do.
- Mark’s listening preferences: The Shining Stone Opera, CD, the Lipstick Killers new LP, and 60s garage 45s.
- Pete’s listening preferences: The Shining Stone Opera, CD and the songs we made for the new Lipstick Killers LP and nothing else.
The digital music generator Suno gets a prominent credit on the album. What percentage is each of you and how much is AI? Talk a little about the process of turning garage punk songs into “Bat Out of Hell”.
We wrote and recorded all the original lyrics and music for "The Shining Stone" opera. We also wrote the story, created the characters, produced the images and designed the layout and all technical aspects of the music and package.
For the music production, Suno provided the orchestra, choir, rock band and singers. As anyone who has tried using Suno would know, the results obtained from the platform are underwhelming. at best, unless attention is paid to every aspect of the desired result. Our experience shows that the better the material provided during pre-production, the better the final result will be.
We don’t think “The Shining Stone” bears any resemblance to “Bat Out of Hell” (ED: My flippant comment in the review). “The Shining Stone” features three world-class opera singers, a first-class rock band of session musicians, a 30-piece choir and an 80 piece symphony orchestra with a virtuoso pianist. However, we can explain the process we used to turn our original garage songs into “The Shining Stone”.
The songs all started out as hard rock/garage songs intended for the Lipstick Killers over the last 40 years. After our initial experiments, we decided that cutting the songs into pieces helped prepare them for conversion into an opera. We needed to specify instrumentation for each song, for example whether solo violin or piano was to be involved, and whether each song was to be sung as tenor, baritone or soprano to ensure each character sings in their own register.
The shifting moods of each piece were carefully specified, and speeds often needed to be adjusted. If instrumental sections were required, they needed to be clearly specified. Some of the songs are designed for duets, and for these the character used to sing each line must be specified.
There quite are a few arrangement credits listed. Who were some of the people involved and how did they contribute?
All the names listed in the credits were employed by The Bad Kynd Media Group. However, this was a completely fictional organisation which has since been put into liquidation. “The Shining Stone” is the sole work of the two of us.
Peter Tillman Driving The Special Dead from centre stage. Steve Lorkin photo.
Pete, you’ve been living in Singapore working as a lawyer but I believe you’ve now relocated home to Sydney. At what point did what everyone presumes to have been a long-distance file sharing exercise become time spent in a studio, if that’s what occurred?
I returned to Sydney on 1 April 2024 after spending 16 years living in Singapore. We started working on the songs around February 2025. The reason there was a gap between my return to Sydney and working with Mark is because my family’s house in Glebe was still being renovated when we returned to Australia, so we spent some time in Tamworth digging the country and western vibe. There was no file sharing. It was all done face to face.
Mark, you’re regarded as one of the doyens of ‘60s punk singles collecting but these guitar sounds are fuzz bereft. Were you tempted to dig into your vault for another curve ball? Are there any Nuggets-style precedents you can cite that parallel with “The Shining Stone”?
I have a comprehensive 60’s garage 45 collection, but its contents are never used to draw inspiration for Lipstick Killers songs. Because I have played and enjoyed thousands of relatively obscure 60s garage songs, it would be surprising if there was no influence detected, but it’s never intentional. The Lipstick Killers’ sound draws on many influences from ‘60s garage, hard rock, glam, punk and almost any other high energy genre.
Some of the songs are old Lipstick Killers material but are there are also some Doctor Stone cuts. Talk about the origins of the material.
Apart from five Lipstick Killers songs, there are also two Doctor Stone numbers, “There’s No Way Out” and “Levitation Stone”. “Fall Like a Stone” and “Shining Stone” appeared on the “13c Each” double 45. All the others were put together as Lipstick Killers material over a long period but mainly in the last two years.
You spared no expense on the packaging. Are the rugged, stylised men on the inside cover (one with glasses, the other with a luxurious head of hair) any relation to people you know?
The three characters depicted on the inside cover of "The Shining Stone" package are entirely fictional, created as part of the synopsis, to represent the voices of the three opera singers.
How did the story of “The Shining Stone” come together and was any it inspired by anything you saw or experienced in the long-lost Sydney musical underground?
The story of "The Shining Stone" is also entirely fictional and inspired by the individual song lyrics. We had to choose our most dramatic songs and develop a story that used elements from each to provide an entertaining and thought-provoking result. It was obvious that it was going to be a dark, disturbing tale from the start, so we pushed hard in that direction, incorporating imagery from beat poetry whenever possible.
Let’s lay this one to bed because you know people are gonna ask: will the Lipstick Killers ever re-appear on a stage? What about The Bad Kynd?
As for playing live again either as the Lipstick Killers or the Bad Kynd, it isn’t possible as we have both been certified medically unfit. However, that is not to say that we wouldn’t appear on stage to be inducted into the Australian Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Mark Taylor with the Lipstick Killers. John Cobcroft image.
Peter Tillman with the Lipstick Killers. Steve Lorkin photo.
Some of the songs you’ve unleashed on YouTube as The Bad Kynd have record release written all over them. How much more material is there to come and will it be released the same way?
The Bad Kynd music videos were just our experiments. However, we have just completed our new album “Undeciphered Mystery” (working title). The album art is still to be finalised. There are also four limited edition 45s in production, limited to 25 copies each, with no possible repressing in the future.
We’re giving away 20 copies. To receive one of the 20 copies, send us a photo of yourself holding your copy of “The Shining Stone” Opera CD. The first 20 people to respond will receive one 45 delivered free of charge. Email your photo and mailing address
Poster supplied by Steve Lorkin.
And staying on the looking back theme, I’m told there’s at least an album’s worth of Doctor Stone material recorded and ready to release. What chance an album?
The rumoured Doctor Stone material was simply instrumental cover versions of Doctor Stone’s live set. Unfortunately, Doctor Stone did not supply vocals and the songs remain unfinished.
Since we’re in a bar, what are you both drinking?
Sparkling mineral water for Pete. Barium meal for Mark. Thank you Barman!
Buy "The Shining Stone" from Pink Flamingo Records
Buy Lipstick Killers albums on Grown Up Wrong
The Bad Kynd YouTube channel
