Steve Kipner

At age 14, my first songwriting credit , “I’m Counting Up My Love” reached #20 in the Australian charts.

My first band; Steve & the Board. 

Here’s a YouTube Link to a few of our songs.

Around age 19 or 20, & with my Dads help, (Nat Kipner) I moved from Australia to England with Steve Groves as a Duo and recorded an Album ” Steve & Stevie” We went way over the top with an oversized 50 piece or so Orchestra that all but drowned out our Vocals and Acoustic Guitars …

Here’s a YouTube Link to some of the Steve and Stevie’s songs.

Then came 2 more Albums. Same Duo but under a different name"Tin Tin"

The first and self titled "Tin Tin" had an hit international hit single "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" The 2nd Album "Astral Taxi" 

How a track from my Duo “TinTin” ended up on multiple Beatles Bootleg Albums (YouTube)

Beatles Bootleg "Have u Heard the Word", Wikipedia 

By 1974, TinTin had disbanded, I got an offer to fly to L.A to audition for and eventually record in a trio “Friends”  on MGM Records.

followed by “Skyband” on RCA Records this time. Here’s a YouTube link to a Skyband recording “Bang! Ooh! Ya Got Me”

"Think Out Loud" Album on A&M records. A Duo with Peter Beckett and myself. We had a featured song in the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail that we Wrote, Performed and Produced- Here are YouTube links for “Original Sin” and “After All This Time”.

* Peter Beckett ( later known for writing & singing lead on a Billboard #1 hit “Baby Come Back” for his band PLAYER ) was also a member of “Skyband”

Then in 1979, My Solo Album. a total stiff, but it got some recognition predominately for featuring the who's who in the world of West Coast Music : Jay Graydon (also the Producer) David Foster, Michael Omartian, Bill Champlin, Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, Victor Feldman etc

At the same time i also started writing with Jay Graydon and David Foster on some of their projects. Had a big hit in Italy with Alan Sorrenti who Jay Graydon was also producing , got a Publishing Deal and started making a living having other people sing the songs.

Here’s a YouTube Link to the Full Album. and another video link from my Solo project “Love Is Its Own Reward”.

Most of the my songs up to this time were written for myself or my group to sing , but my Artist days were over and things were about to change. Living in California it became clear how musically narrow my approach had been. I became obsessed with Stevie Wonder, Santana and Aretha and so much amazing music i didn’t know i’d been missing . I was Pop all the way but i could at least try to incorporate some of the feelings and heart these records gave me, write from different perspectives. I began working with really talented co-writers who had skills I didn’t. We’d make the demo, hire great session singers, and submit to artists we’d find through our publisher’s “Who’s Looking” lists. Here’s an example; the original Demo of “Physical” with me singing

So being a songwriter and later co-producing my own songs evolved into a joint venture record label with Sony U.K. called Phonogenic. We signed ,co-wrote with , produced, A&R’d, and released #1 albums and singles with “The Script” and “Natasha Bedingfield” along with other Artists we loved and signed like Ross Copperman and Ben Adams.

Then later the Phonogenic partners and I assumed the role of running Epic Records U.K.. Truth was my heart wasn’t that interested in running a company, I just loved the making music part.

Recently some melodies or samples from my old records have been creeping into some contemporary artist’s hit songs. I’m a lucky guy.

For further information please check out my Wikipedia page.