Date: Tue, 14 Nov 95 23:24:47 PST
From: The Evolution Control Committee <
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Subject: LPD Interview, 10/27/95, Cleveland Ohio

Hi folks. I'm not a list member, and I'm afraid I won't be because I
get too much mail already, but feel free to reply to me directly with
any questions or anything. The following is a transcription of an
interview I conducted with Edward Ka-Spel when the Dots played in
Cleveland a few weeks ago.
The circumstances of the interview were rather a surprise -- I had
actually intended to interview a friend (not connected with the Dots) at
the show, and had asked the bouncers if it was alright if I brought a
tape recorder in. The query climbed its way up the chain of authority,
and got mangled on the way to where it became a query to interview the
Dots themselves. But Edward said Yes to it, so I suddenly had ten
minutes to think up what to ask a band I'd been listening to for the
last seven years or so!
In spite of my lack of any preparation, I think it went fairly well.
I tried to shy away from "where does your band name come from" questions
in favor of less surface oriented ones. Hopefully you'll also be pleased
with the results.

- Mark G., O.P.  [Original Prankster]

-=-=-=-=-

LEGENDARY PINK DOTS INTERVIEW
October 27, 1995 @ The Phantasy, Cleveland

ECC: This is really fairly surprising because I had really just
asked one of the bouncers... well, I wanted to interview somebody
else, a friend of mine here who I interviewed before but lost the
tape and I was simply asking if I could bring the tape recorder
in to interview him and they misunderstood and thought that I
wanted to interview you -- but I thought, well, why not? So...
they let me. And here I am! So I hope you don't mind the extra
interview...

KS:  No, not at all.

ECC: Great. It's really a great opportunity too, because I have
been listening to your music for a long time and while I hadn't
expected to [interview you], it's really a great pleasure to. I
hope you don't mind if this seems a bit off the top of my head,
but that's exactly what it is. The destination for this
interview: I do a lot of writing on the Internet, and I don't
know if you get to use it much at all...

KS: ...we're not on the Internet, not as a band. There's the
Cloud-Zero, but that's run by someone in Montreal -- er,
Ottowa...

ECC: Would you happen to know who? Is that Greg Clow...
[Sorry Alan; shoulda known better... Edward's
awe-striking aura, don'tcha know]

KS: Greg's very busy with it, but it's Alan Ezust who set it up.

ECC: I guess I should probably ask you -- both you and I will be
appearing on a compilation he's putting together, and he says
you're a bit delinquent in getting your submission to him!
[You're welcome, Greg.  :-)  ]

KS: Oh, yeah, well... that's the deal with... the general
turbulance in my life... 

ECC: I'm sure he would've hammered me if I hadn't asked you.
Alright, let's start a little ways back. I've got many things
you've been involved with, both on CD, record, and tape. Things
go way back, quite a ways back, even to a number of Staaltape
releases on cassette, things like that. Did you start out as a
tape trader? As one of the cassette culture?

KS: I've never really looked at it as cassette culture, really.
We made cassettes in the very early days because that's all we
could afford to do. I've always believed that it doesn't really
matter what the format is, that something appears... it's all
ultimately plastic. But it's the music that's on it... we
released, a few years ago now, Four Days... but I've really
nothing against it at all. Y'know, it's... just down to what we
have to say. How it comes out is irrelevent.

ECC: Has what you've had to say changed from those early days
until now?

KS: Probably -- because we all change.

ECC: How have you changed?

KS: Hopefully I've grown a bit. I couldn't say from the inside.

ECC: Do you have a particular idea or concept that you think was
best expressed through your music? One particular thing you've
been best able to express?

KS: Um...it changes. I always liked thinking that the most
extreme thing you could ever do is to paint your own soul, in
glorious detail, even if it embarasses you and makes you
extremely vulnerable. I suppose there are always things people
like to keep hidden. I don't particularly wish to hide
everything; I wish to try to reveal it... that's in the lyrics.

ECC: The lyrics have always normally seemed to deal in more of an
allegorical way of revealing yourself.

KS: They have their twists and turns.

ECC: Do you use other ways to reveal yourself as an artist? Do
you paint?

KS: Naw, I can't paint at all, really. I collage... and I write,
and do a little written word.

ECC: Do you send those to other publications?

KS: No, I usually just keep that all under the Pink Dots
umbrella.

ECC: How have you kept that division between your solo work and
the Pink Dots' work?

KS: Well, the Pink Dots is very much a band. It's not me, and a
few musicians surrounding me, it's a band where everybody has a
say and everybody speaks in a direction. It's a dynamic moving
collective, and I think that's very good. I do have a need in me
to do things very rigidly as well my way, and the only vehicle
for that is a solo career running parallel with the Pink Dots.
Shouldn't get in the way of the Pink Dots, the Pink Dots is still
more important I think. But it's a basic need in me.

ECC: You said the Pink Dots were more important. In what ways are
they more important than your solo stuff?

KS: Well... It's not such a one-dimensional view... there are
other views coming in, and sometimes I think strength can be seen
in numbers, numbers of ideas.

ECC: But you're implying that your own work is one-dimensional?

KS:  I think so, yeah...! I mean, maybe that's not the
right term, but it's very much a solo trip. I don't expect
everybody to connect with it, because it can be very self-
indulgent. But I need to do it.

ECC: To express your inner self?

KS: Sure. I need it.

ECC: Just so I can understand a little more: is the touring Pink
Dots the same as the "at-home" Pink Dots?

KS: Yes.

ECC: What are the current members.

KS: There's Neils on the saxaphones, flutes, instruments; Phil,
who was there from the beginning on keyboards; Martyn plays
guitars, drums; and Ryan on bass guitar and drums as well. They
switch bass... a bit of switching of instruments tends to go on
these days in the Pink Dots' life.

ECC: Have you had trouble translating your studio Pink Dots to
the travelling Pink Dots?

KS: I always feel a bit disappointed with the album after we play
live for a while, because live it tends to really spreads its
wings.

ECC: You feel there's more energy at a live show?

KS: We tend to be very live, yeah. Used to be the other way
'round, but it's very strong now.

ECC: Do you play at home very often, or do you usually just play
on tour?

KS: We play very rarely in Holland, in fact. It's not our best
country at all. Our best places tend to be... well, America goes
well... but um, odd countries, like the Czech Republic, and
Poland, and Russia... we do very well in these countries.

ECC: Why do you suppose that is?

KS: Um... I don't really know... I really don't know! It just
seems to strike a chord with people there.

ECC: Do you think what you do is very "European"?

KS: I don't think it can really be stamped with any particular
nationality at all. I wouldn't want it to be either.

ECC: You've had some difficulty, or at least I've heard stories
that you have, in getting into the US to play.

KS: That was only one year, actually. This is our fourth time.

ECC: When was the last time?

KS: Two years ago.

ECC: I didn't realize it was so recent.

KS: Yeah, we didn't play in Ohio at all.

ECC: I'm from Columbus, which is in the middle of Ohio, and just
about any tour skips Columbus in favor of Cleveland or
Cincinnati.

KS: I think I played in Columbus once... with Skinny Puppy...

ECC: Yes, I was at that show actually -- you opened solo for
that. It was a fun show!  Long time ago too... Well, let
me just close by asking you what's in future both for the Dots
and for you as a solo artist.

KS: Well, after we finish the tour we'll start a new recording...
yes... always hard to talk about the future...going to a few
exotic countries next year... going to Mexico this tour... go to
Russia for the first time next year... yeah, I mean, it'll just
keep winding it's unique little path.

ECC: What do you see more as the psychology, spiritual, or
expressional future of both projects?

KS: Well... they simply go the way they go. I wouldn't wish to
give it back. Every album is made in the particular mood within
the band, and it's very truthful that it doesn't pay any
attention to outside influences at all; what may be fashionable
or popular in the lands.

ECC: It continues on as a self-fulfilling system.

KS: Absolutely. That's the only way.

ECC: I have one last question. Why do you wear sunglasses all the
time?

KS: They're not sunglasses.

ECC: What are they?

KS: They're real glasses!

ECC: They're shaded.

KS: Um... I just like them that way! 


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